Mature Teens

Brave New World

Author(s): 
Aldous Huxley
Free love, birth control, test tube baby factories, cloning, mutants, and sex, sex, sex. There are good reasons to have your mature students read this book, but you must do YOUR homework and read it first. Huxley, writing during the giddy early days of the eugenics movement, has written a remarkable novel. His story portrays that movement's ideas taken to their logical consequences. There is a complete disconnect between sex and procreation. Sex is STRICTLY for pleasure (not even for unity).

The Catholic Book of Character and Success

Book cover: The Catholic Book of Character and Success
Author(s): 
Edward Garesché, S.J.

Formerly titled How to Live Nobly and Well, this reprint of an older Catholic book helps young people focus on those things which bring happiness in this life and in the next. Each chapter focuses on virtues and character traits which encourage harmonious living and union with God or act in opposition to the live of Christ. The reader is brought to an understanding of how to control their imagination and actions by focusing on a higher good. The book instructs them as to how and when to accept criticism and what constitutes prudent behavior.

Citadel of God

Book cover: 'Citadel of God: A Novel about Saint Benedict'
Author(s): 
Louis de Wohl
Citadel of God is set in Italy of the early 6th century. The Roman Empire is decaying. An Ostrogoth king, Theodoric, is marching in triumph to occupy Italy. A young boy, ward of the respected Roman scholar Boethius, rushes in to stab the barbarian conquerer with a stylus in defense of Old Rome and is rescued from death by a young scholar from Nursia who is called Benedictus.

The Journal of Ben Uchida

Book cover: 'The Journal of Ben Uchida'
Author(s): 
Barry Denenberg
This is a fictitious diary of a 12 year old boy in a Japanese internment camp in California during World War II. (The diary covers the bombing of Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7 1941 thru parts of 1943). The diary is based on letters from Internment camp survivors and other actual events from the time period.

The story helps the reader to understand certain truths about the camps and the consequences of having such camps;

The Last Crusader: Isabella of Spain

Book cover: The Last Crusader: Isabella of Spain
Author(s): 
William Thomas Walsh

Queen Isabella (the Catholic) of Spain is one of the most influential and controversial women in history. She and her husband were responsible for supporting Columbus' voyages to the New World, the re-conquering of all of Spain from the Moors, the expulsion of the Jews, and the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition. Her daughter, Catherine of Aragon, was the unfortunate first wife of King Henry VIII of England (who founded the Anglican church because he didn't accept the Pope's refusal to grant him an annulment of his marriage to Catherine).

The Spear

Author(s): 
Louis de Wohl
A fast-paced fictionalized account of the centurion who thrust the spear into the side of Christ. The book was clearly written for adults, but might be suitable for older teens. There is a great deal of violence (as might be expected), an attempted suicide, and other content appropriate for those with some degree of maturity. The story is very Catholic and the author weaves many Catholic ideas and thought into the conversations of the characters as well as showing how much people of that time (particularly the Romans) were in need of the message of Christ.

Stars of Fortune

Book cover: Stars of Fortune
Author(s): 
Cynthia Harnett

This story is set in England in the mid 1500s and told from a Catholic perspective. As explained in the postscript, this book is the author's recreation of a legend surrounding the home belonging to the Washington family (who claims our first president as a descendant). According to the legend, Elizabeth I was once hidden in the house while fleeing pursuers. The story takes place during the tumultuous reign of Mary I (Mary Tudor, eldest offspring of Henry VIII) at which time the "old religion" has been reinstated.

The Song at the Scaffold

Book cover: 'The Song at the Scaffold'
Author(s): 
Gertrud Von Le Fort
This novelette, set at the time of the French Revolution, follows the lives of the nuns of the Carmelite convent at Compiegne during those troubled times, all the way to their martyrdom at the guillotine. Despite the rather short length, the novel is very deep and very moving. The author, rather than having the charcters preach to the reader, created a story which causes the reader to consider some very substantial spiritual issues - suffering, pride, fear, and how God works in our lives.

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