Saint of the Day edited by Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

Yes, I know it’s not a book that a tween is going to pick up and read cover-to-cover. It IS a book that should be picked up, daily when possible, and shared with tweens.

I had an old book that had a saint-of-the-day that we read each morning at breakfast. I liked its pictures, but I have to say that the writing was duller than a dictionary. Unless someone was getting eaten by a lion, the kids’ eyes were glazing over by the time I hit the end of the first sentence, “Today is the feast day of Saint….”

If I weren’t reading aloud, I might have gone back to sleep, too.

Then... Leonard Foley and Pat McCloskey blessed us with an updated version of Saints of the Day. Thank you. While exciting stories can't be woven in one page, the basics can be covered while keeping the language fresh. And this book accomplishes it. Even better, it shakes up the format by offering a quote of the day and a comment that is right at-level for a tween and parent to bite into. Should you so desire, a little discussion can ensue from this reading; all the necessary material is given to you.

I had to trade in the glossy pictures of the saints that graced my older book. But I got the better half of the deal. I’m after the words, and this one is well-written. My other book also ended with a short prayer. But we have our own daily morning prayer that we like to use. Now, we also add… St. (insert name of saint from book)… pray for us.

I wish my church could gift a copy of this to every Catholic family and that every family would try to read it frequently. There’s no better and accessible way to catechize and inspire a future generation.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1002685/Saint-Day-Revised-Sixth-Edition
The Catholic Review Program offers Catholic bloggers a chance to receive books in exchange for their frank opinion of the book being posted in a blog review.

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Do you have that book from childhood that made the Holocaust real to you? I've got snippets from Anne Frank seared in my brain that made Schindler's List redundant in terms of bringing the reality of the horror home. I can vividly recall the everdayness of Anne's plucking hair out of the sink after one of her fellow victim's-in-hiding left it there that just made her real to me, and then I felt the sorrow of her death. She was no longer a statistic.

I don't remember the whole story of Summer of My German Soldier, but I've never forgotten the desperation of the war victims who ate horse meat and felt sick to their stomachs while glad they had something to eat. No one has ever had to convince me of the wisdom of the Church in her strict guidelines for Just War after that. You don't welcome war once you see it through the eyes of those who live it.

The Book Thief is a perfect modern addition to this collection. This is a character you will never forget. She is real; she is us. This author writes in a lyrical style that you will either enjoy or tolerate. If it is the first, you will be hooked and not be able to forget the spunky little girl who loves books, lives through horrible times, loses, forges relationships, and endures.

Cautions: Written from the Point-of-View of Death and with quite a lyrical quality about it, this book can be a bit difficult for some tweens to comprehend. Know that you will encounter a lot of death. Characters you love die and not in ideal ways. There are swear words, and 4 uses of the Lord's name in vain (a particular sensitivity of mine). But there is nothing gratuitous about any of it. It is quite in keeping with the tragedy of war. While realistic, it is not gory. Life shines through even when loss is prevalant. Death is not triumphant but practical.

The narrator mentions Liesel is 13, flat-chested, "hasn't bled yet, and the young man from the basement (the Jew they were hiding) was now in her bed." The man was there only because he was sick. This description isn't out-of-keeping with way this author narrates. It is meant to strike a jarring note, even though it doesn't turn out to be lewd.

One book that Leisel reads has a short but descriptive reference to someone being knifed because the book is about a murderer... a bit much information.

The power of this book lies in the characters. The author creates a juxtaposition of the mix of ugliness and beauty; horror and hope; brokenness and survival; and the love and hate that comingle in the human story. One time that the author specifically brushes close to a personal theology is when the narrator, Death, talks about the silence of God in the midst of horror and war.

This stunning story necessitates that a thinking person grapple with this problem of evil. While I acknowledge God's voice can seem silent at times, I wouldn't leave the topic there. The problem of evil is quite important to discuss with your tween, especially after reading a novel like this.

In imitation of Zusak’s own writing style, let me illustrate his three brief and only glimpses of Catholicism:

***Three Images of Catholics***
*reference to a tired caricature:
the sadistic nun
*those damned people who say bad stuff
about suicide
*a priest in a book who doubts his faith
upon meeting an attractive woman

I find it desperately ironic that a man who poetically writes about the power of words and how Hitler wielded them against the Jews, leaves only slightly-tarnished images of Catholicism lingering in the aftermath of the story.

See: Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Suicide: as contrary to love of God and self: 2281
Factors that can diminish responsibility: 2282
Eternal salvation: 2283

Providence and the Scandal of Evil: 309; 306; 307; 308

SAFETY RATING: 2 Flags

Historical Fiction; World War II

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The Flower Man by Mark Ludy

“My Grandpa always said, ‘Everyone’s got a story… you jus’ gotta find out what it is.’”

… and that’s the only text you’ll get from this wordless picture book, but it’s certainly not the end of the story.

We (my 2 tweens and I plus the 8 yr. old) thoroughly enjoyed this artistic treasure. It is to Where’s Waldo what Danielle Steele is to Shakespeare (maybe that's a little hyperbolic).

The book begins with a picture of an old man and his dog walking home. The pages are dark with a purple sunset since it is night. The old man and dog have light around them, but you have to search the recesses of the book to discover the other stories buried within. Certain sections draw the eye as they are lit more brightly, but while they tell the main story, the dimly-lit sections hold characters stories of their own.

As the pages progress and thus the sun comes up, the book gets brighter and brighter at the same time Max shares the garden and flowers he planted in the midst of a gray, dingy town. The visual feast and the search for the story and subtexts gets more complex… then we fade back into twilight by the final pages and cheerful, somewhat surprising ending.

The humble character, Max, who started us on the journey deserves a huge hat-tip.

… but not as huge as the impressive author/illustrator who created this picture book.

Enjoy(and may all your libraries carry it).

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags

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A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories and Poems edited by James Charlton

This is my Red Rider BB Gun/Tickle-Me-Elmo of the book world. You have to have it.

If it doesn’t spark the Christmas Spirit, you’ll need a visit from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

I received it last year, and it sparked a spirited response indeed. The green one from the pit of you-know-where. I tell you I would have mowed down Santa himself to get my hands on this book. Thankfully, Grandma saw fit to bestow this upon me, so I did not have to resort to bribery or theft .

This book holds far too much temptation for a literature-lover. It begins, appropriately, with Saint Matthew’s rendition of the Christmas story. Next, is the infamous editorial from the New York Sun in 1897 addressed to Virginia and entitled, Is There a Santa Claus?

It only gets better. It’s jam-packed with poems, excerpts, and essays from authors renowned around the world and authors anonymous. Leo Tolstoy (Where Love Is, There God is Also), Robert Frost, (Christmas Trees), F. Van Wyck Mason, (Valley Forge 24 December 1777), Lucretia P. Hale (The Peterkins’ Christmas Tree), Laura Ingalls Wilder (Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus), and John Milton (The Peaceful Night).

And, if that sampling wasn’t enough of a delight; I’ve been to Amazon. These out-of-print books start at 1 penny. Yeah. Keep your Wii, Game Boy, and Play Station; all I want for Christmas is A Christmas Treasury. FOR A PENNY! There’s a cultural commentary for you...

A Caution: Agatha Christie's story, The Water Bus, is a great story for adults with a Christie-type twist at the end. But it includes a reference to a girl who is sick in the hospital after procuring an abortion. That was too-much-information for my young audience, so I censored that portion as I read it aloud. (

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags + A Caution

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The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going

Found you a little gem for the Treasure Chest…

This sweet story is about the liberation-from-fear of Gabriel King, a nervous fifth-grader, who is determined not to enter the 6th grade. While his list of fears is extensive:

Spiders
Rope-swings
Basements
Girls
etc...

… nothing compares to his fear of the sixth-grade bullies.

Enter Frita. His best friend. His determined companion dedicated to liberating him from his fears.

They tackle them, one-by-one, by creating a list of everything they are afraid of and crossing off the items that they face together.

Thus, Frita helps him track down and adopt spiders as pets. She helps him swing off the rope swing into the pond, and she helps him face down her big-and-intimidating brother, Terrance.

And yet… yet… Frita, with her much-smaller list-of-items-she-fears, has some that put Gabes’ fears into perspective.

Frita is black, and Gabriel is white, and even in 1976, that can pit you against some scary prejudice.

This story is about overcoming racial prejudice, and while it brushes against the insidious evil of racism, and alludes accurately to violence and hate, it does it without overwhelming the young reader.

Balanced against the jerk who calls Frita a racial slur, is Gabriel's white family who stands up for her, not for politically-correct brownie points but just because she’s Frita… and ugly prejudice has no place in their community of people.

Gabe gains a new perspective by the end of the story. (you have to read to find out how). And… he realizes that love (the agape-sort here), perfectly casts out fear. Frita actually needs him. And with parents who love like his do, he finds the strength to be like them and rise to the occasion….

In addition to fine-story-telling, there’s a bit of modern history lessons. There was a succinct synopsis of the Watergate affair. The author is an unabashed fan of Jimmy Carter, and the example given for supporting him is a fine one. Instead of focusing on political issues, the reason Gabriel's father gave for voting for Carter was the latter's integrity in refusing to give into pressure to not do business with blacks when he owned businesses in Georgia. (Kudos to Jimmy.)

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags

See: Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Discrimination Based on Race: 1935

Historical Fiction: 1970's; America; Jimmy Carter; Nixon

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Is That a Dead Dog in Your Locker? by Todd Strasser

Thankfully, this was a quick read. I am not the target audience for this humorous book, so maybe my lack of amusement should not be taken as a deterrent.

The target audience of young tweens (esp. boys) must exist in enough numbers to justify another book by this author. (Oh well, I’ve never understood pink flamingos either.)

The Tardy boys (who never do homework) are your goofy group in this story. They are helping a friend of theirs who has to bring her neighbor’s old dog to school and hide him in her locker. They have to keep taking the dog out for bathroom breaks. This is complicated by the fact that he has stinky breath that permeates the whole hallway.

The humor is largely dependent on hyperbolic characters like the assistant principal who wears gloves and a mask due to his fear of germs. You’ll find the obligatory bully, the hippie-peace-child, and references to toe cheese. I found the lack of bathroom humor a plus. And underwear was mentioned as part of a joke-that-underwear-would-not-be-mentioned.

Not for the sophisticated but goofy and safe for the young tweens.

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags

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The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman

Once upon a time, a Catholic mom finally got around to reading a book by Regina Doman.

For no good reason, she started in the back and discovered the author was inspired by Dietrich von Hildebrand.…

Who could resist? This is a philosopher wise enough to note: “that if beauty and goodness are separated, then a curious disembodiment of the culture takes place. Goodness becomes abstract and merely moral, perhaps even boring; and beauty appears to be mere sensual glamour, a distraction, and perhaps even evil. For of course, goodness and beauty are in their essences the same thing.”

Pondering this, Regina creates a modern story from the old-fairy tale: The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

There are actually 12 girls involved in this story (think “Brady Bunch”). These girls find a secret stairway that leads out of their bedroom. Their dissatisfaction with their distant and busy father, combined with their upbringing in their Christian Church that has a strict Puritanesque philosophy toward temporal beauty, tempts the older girls to explore a night-life outside their home. They meet boys from their church who ferry them on boats to an island where they also meet a rich boy (and friends) whose hearts are not as handsome as their faces.

I wasn’t surprised at all to find a solidly good story with realistic Christian characters. I was surprised by the story in ways that… well, surprised me:

~ a main male character who reflected the self-sacrificial love of Christ.

~ a positive reflection of Protestants and Catholics with a refreshingly genuine Catholic character.

~ the presentation of Eastern medicine/martial arts blending with Western in a way that does not assume an unnecessary dichotomy.

~ a presentation of truth about the feminine and masculine woven in a way that’s bound to make certain modern feminists yearn for what they do not yet understand that they have missed.

This book is for older tweens or teens. My slight caution is a warning so parents note that the book deals (respectfully and well) with serious themes about mortal sin, its consequences, and playing with danger. So while the girls mainly play around the edges of danger with a mention of smoking/drinking and a flat-out refusal of drugs (marijuana), it culminates in an intense scene where one character and his friends who have embraced the dark side, make an (ultimately unsuccessful) sexual attack on the oldest girl.

She is rescued by a prince-of-a-guy and we leave the story to conclude Hopefully Ever After…

SAFETY RATING: 2 Vatican Flags

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Midnight Dancers - A Fairy Tale Retold.

The Catholic Review Program offers Catholic bloggers a chance to receive books in exchange for their opinion of the book being posted in a blog review.

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