Entertaining detective stories are a significant and oft-overlooked segment of children's literature. They are good for sparking the interest of reluctant readers, encouraging analytical thinking skills and good clean fun. Being a professed fan of Donald Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series since the age of eight, I was eager to read this title, just reprinted by Bethlehem Books. I wasn't disappointed.

"Retreats are time set aside for study, prayer, activities, and discussion about God and His Church. Children can benefit from retreats as much as adults. Jesus would occasionally leave His followers and retreat to the desert or a mountaintop. Even He felt the need to get away from the world for a while." (from the Introduction)

In their latest "Budget Book", Bethlehem Books gives us a double dose of adventure featuring Ensign Peter Byrd of the "Fighting 95th" Riflemen of the British army.... The Flying Ensign.

Jeanne Bendick's second title in Bethlehem Books' "Living History" series (after Archimedes and the Door of Science) brings to life the 2nd century (A.D.) Roman doctor whose work in learning to understand the human body became the standard authority on human physiology for over a thousand years. Although many of his theories were corrected through advancements in science since the middle ages, his story is interesting both for its own sake and for the light is sheds on Roman history and culture and the Hippocratic tradition of medicine.