Catholic Mosaic, Living the Liturgical Year with Literature

We are near to printing this wonderful new resource. I will be posting little tidbits from it throughout the day today. The author, Cay Gibson, has written little study guides for 52 books for children that follow the liturgical year. Here is a little bit of the booklist. Those with cross emblems are included in the study.

FEBRUARY

First Confession
+ The Most Beautiful Thing in the World by Susan Brindle/ Ann Brindle/ Margaret Brindle

February 1
+ Brigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story by Bryce Milligan/ Helen Cann

February 10
+ The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica by Kathleen Norris/ Tomie dePaola

February 14
+ Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda
Love Is... by Wendy Anderson Halperin

MARCH

March 5
St. Ciaran, the Tale of a Saint of Ireland by Gary D. Schmidt/Todd Doney

March 17
+ Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola
St. Patrick by Ann Tompert/ Michael Garland

March 19 Feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of Mary
+ The Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi

Lenten Reading
The Story of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross for Children by Mary Joslin/ Gail Newey
+ Children's Stations of the Cross by Susan Brindle/ Joan Bell/ Miriam Lademan
+ The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

This book will be available May 19th. It will be unveiled at the Family Centered Life Conference in Lancaster, PA that weekend.

New Literature Guides

Hello Everyone,
Here are the titles we have done that will be posted to our website soon:

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
The Ides of April and Beyond the Desert Gate by Mary Ray
The White Isle by Caroline Dale Snedeker
Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

Here are some others that we are working on and should have finished by the end of May:

1. A series of books for grade K-2 set at the time of the early Church, including: Cleopatra by Diane Stanley, Mary the Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola, Pompeii . . . Buried Alive by Edith Kunhardt, St. Christopher by Tomie DePaola, and St. Valentine by Robert Sabuda. This series coordinates with RC History's Connecting with History, Volume 2. We will also be finishing up the Novel Inquiries volumes for 4-6 grade and 7-9 grade for this time period by the end of summer.

2. A series using suggested books in the MODG 7th grade and 8th grade programs. These are discussion guides only with a synopsis for the teacher, discussion questions, and a few writing prompts.

Please make suggestions for what book titles you would like to see. The MODG series came about because someone asked me!

And, of course, the biggest treat is Cay Gibson's book Catholic Mosaic, Living the Liturgical Year with Literature: An Illustrated Book Study for Children. This beautiful book will be out in May also. We will post tidbits from it as the time approaches.

Margot

Chesterton Today!!

Check out this new study guide for Chesterton's The Blue Cross. This story was the first of Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries. Nancy Carpentier Brown has written a wonderful guide to the story and we are privileged to publish it. While the story can be read by students as young as 6th or 7th grade, some of the study questions are more appropriate for high schoolers.

The entire text of the story is reprinted in the guide and features the original artwork of Sean Fitzpatrick.

We will also be publishing Nancy's guide to Chesterton's St. Francis and her adaptations of the Father Brown stories for young readers. Look for those titles this summer.

.

Newest Release Available Now!

City of the Golden House by Madeleine Polland is now available at our website!

This is a moving story of two boys at the time of the burning of Rome and the subsequent martyrdom of Peter. Mrs. Polland's beautiful prose takes you to the heart of the Christian underground of Nero's Rome.

We are so honored to be able to bring this book back in print. Here is how it came about. I was working with Sonya Romens to find literature for this time period and I was not able to find anything for the middle grades in print. I saw this book, however, during a book search and was intrigued by it. When I read it, I knew it was exactly what we were looking for, but we did not want to use an out-of-print book for the sake of the families that would need to search to find it. So . . . I wrote to Mrs. Polland and asked her permission to reprint it, knowing that it was a long shot. She and her daughter were very gracious and, viola!, 8 months later we have a new book to offer. The book was originally published as part of the Clarion imprint at Doubleday in the 60's.

The beautiful cover designed and illustrated by Ted Schluenderfritz is the crowning touch. The painted birds on the wall of the boy's room are an underlying thread through the story, and I was so pleased that Ted picked up on it.

We recently received permission to reprint another of the Clarion books, my personal favorite. More news about that to come in the next few months!

Welcome!

Welcome to our new Blog!
Please visit often to see our new products and find out what's up on the Hill. We are working on several new books which should be done before the next school year.