Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Trumpeter of Krakow

by Eric P. Kelly. The Trumpeter of Krakow is a GREAT book which takes place in Poland during the 15th Century. If anyone out there is at all like me, you'll want to read this book over and over again.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Texas Panhandle Series

by Loula Grace Erdman is an excellent series! Each book focuses mainly on one of the three Pierce girls during their 15th year of life.

The three books are:
  1. The Wind Blows Free
  2. The Wide Horizon
  3. The Good Land
I really enjoy reading all of these books over, and over, and over again.

The Mystery of the Angry Idol

by Phyllis A. Whitney is a good book which takes plce in Mystic Connecticut. It's about a girl named Janice Pendelton who thinks that visiting her grandmother in a town by the sea will probably be very boring and dull. It CERTAINLY isn't!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Something for Joey

by Richard E. Peck is a really good book. I have read it quite a few times since I first read it and I never cease to enjoy it! It is a heartwarming story about the Cappelletti family in Pennsylvania from 1970 or 71, to 1973.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

I, Juan de Pareja

by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino is a good book about a slave in Europe, who works for an painter, Diego Velazquez. The story is told through Juan's eyes. From when he was a boy to when he was a man, this is a GREAT book, both to read aloud, and to read to yourself.

As I said in a previous post about this book, I would recommend I, Juan de Pareja for grades 4 and up.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Men of Iron

by Howard Pyle. This is a very exciting book which takes place in France. You will enjoy reading about Myles Falworth as he strives to become a knight and avenge his father (the blind lord), an unjustly outlawed knight.

The Singing Tree

by Kate Seredy is the sequel to The Good Master. While I don't like it as much as The Good Master, it is still a good book. It takes place during WWI, and continues to follow Kate and Jancsi's life as they grow up together on the Hungarian plains.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

That Girl of Pierre's

by Robert Davis is a great book for girls to read. I got it for my birthday, and have read it a few times since then. That Girl of Pierre's takes place in France, shortly after World War II, and is a book that you'll want to read over and over.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Black Arrow

by Robert Louis Stevenson is a GREAT book!
The main characters are:
Richard Shelton
Sir Daniel Brackley
Joanna Sedley
Sir Richard of Gloucester (Richard Crookback)
Sir Oliver Oates
Apparently, R.L. Stevenson had a good sense of humor; for while the book is rather violent in some places, it is very funny in others. At the end of the book Dick (and the reader,) have learned a few lessons.
It would make a REALLY GOOD read-aloud. My family and I listened to the seven (7) CD set in the car, and we all enjoyed every bit of it.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Florence Nightangale's Nuns

by Emmeline Garnet is a really good book. Although we often read about Florence Nightangale, we rarely read about the nuns and nurses who helped her.



P.S. There is a poem in Book of Americans, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Saint Elizabeth's Three Crowns

by Blanche Jennings Thompson is a really good book. It is so good, that I chose to do a book report on it in 5th grade.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Saint Margaret Mary

by Mary Fabyan Windeatt is a really good biography about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque; the Visitation nun who saw and heard Our Lord many times. Even when she wasn't believed by many, she did not get upset that she wasn't believed. (She was dissapointed though.) St. Margaret can teach us many virtues, especially the three following: faith, patience, and humility. This book would make a great read-aloud for a Catholic family.

Monday, April 20, 2009

"Mary Fabyan Windeatt Books"

These are books about saints. They would make great read-alouds for the Catholic family. Although I don't enjoy them as much as the Vision books, they are still great books.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Innocence of Father Brown

by G. K. Chesterton. The Innocence of Father Brown is a mystery book, (as are the other "Father Brown" books,) and I cannot decide whether I like this or the "Sherlock Holmes" books better. Father Brown is definitely funnier. No priest but he would throw soup at the wall of a restaurant, switch labels on the fruit at the grocery store, and break a restaurant window, so that he would be followed and a criminal, (disguised as a priest, and accompanying him,) would be caught.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Escape from Warsaw

by Ian Serraillier is one of the best books I have ever read that takes place during WWII.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare is a good book. If you don't like witches, this book is not about a bad witch, (or a good witch for that matter). In fact, it isn't about a real witch at all. The "witch" was called a witch by the Puritans living in Wethersfield, Connecticut because the woman, (whose name is Hanna Tupper,) was a Quaker. I probably wouldn't have read this book if I was not in a Literary Club.