Dearest Infant Jesus, with all my heart I cling to You.

Prayer of Thanksgiving for Graces Received from the Infant of Prague

Oh generous Infant Jesus, I prostrate myself before Your miraculous image and give my thanks to You for all the graces that I have received. I shall always prasie Your infinite mercy, and I confess that You are my God, my Helper, and my Protector. From here onward I shall place my trust in You and publically proclaim Your kingship and generosity; then everybody shall realize Your great love and the miracles that You have shown through this image. They shall honor and worship Your Infancy full of grace, in increasing numbers, and their hearts will remain in never-ending gratitude toward Your holy Infancy, which be hailed and praised in eternity. Amen

Catholic Mosaic Available May 19

Hillside is proud to announce the publication of

Catholic Mosaic

Living the Liturgical Year with Literature,
An illustrated book study for
Catholic children

by Cay Gibson

The book includes study guides for 52 children’s picture books and is organized by themes in the liturgical year.

But it’s much more than that . . . this book is a treasure that you can mine for years, a mosaic of great ideas and activities to make the year of the Church come alive for your children.

Here is a sample from February, the feast of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica represented by the book The Holy Twins. (There are 52 guides like this in the book!)

The Holy Twins

Written by Kathleen Norris/ illustrated by Tomie dePaola

Feast Days: February 10 and 11

Vocabulary

inseparable opportunities official jealous nobles

squabbled competition hermit regulation exasperated

ancient rival abbot refuge intertwined

harmony factions reputation peasants brethren

Discussion Questions

1. Find the town of Nursia in northern Italy and label it on your map.

2. What day of the year is the feast day of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica?

3. Why did others try to poison St. Benedict?

4. Where did St. Scholastica learn all the things her brother had learned from his travels? Why did she find this amusing?

5. Go back to the front of the book where the author and illustrator have their dedications. On the right hand side of the spread is a circular symbol with the initials “C. S. P.” and “B.” in it. Look at the bottom of the dedications on the lefthand side to find out what the letters stand for. What does the circular symbol stand for?

Copywork

One must listen to others with the ‘ear of the heart.
—Scholastica’s advice to her brother in
The Holy Twins by Kathleen Norris

Parent’s Help Page
The Holy Twins

Observation

1. Look for pictures of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica on each page of the book. Illustrator Tomie dePaola took special care to draw these two saints on each page.

2. Make a list of religious images found in book.

Discussion Answers

1. Help child locate Nursia, Italy, on globe or map and then label it on a world map.
2. St. Scholastica’s feast day is on February 10.
   St. Benedict’s feast day is on February 11.
3. They were jealous of St. Benedict and wanted to get rid of him.
4. “. . . she had learned by trial and error in her own monastery.” She found this amusing because as she says, “Isn’t it funny, Brother, that you had to travel all over Italy to learn some of the things I discovered by staying in one place!”
5. The letters “C. S. P.” and “B.” stand for Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti, or Cross of the Holy Father Benedict. The symbol is the Cross of St. Benedict.

Enrichment Activities

1. Trace the Cross of St. Benedict on a blank sheet of paper. Then color it so that it looks like the one in the book. Place this is your Liturgical Year Notebook.


2. Build a simple “ladder” using popsicle sticks. Make sure there are 12 rungs on your ladder. Glue your ladder on a sheet of construction paper, and write “St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility” at the top of the page. Then, with a pen or marker, label each rung:




1. Practice Fear and Remembrance of God
2. Follow the Example of the Savior
3. Obey to God and His Church
4. Be Patient and Endure
5. Confess One’s Sins
6. Be Content
7. Consider Yourself Lower Than Others
8. Follow the Example of the Saints
9. Restrain Your Tongue
10. Be Serious-Minded
11. Use Few and Gentle Words
12. Practice Humility of the Heart
    

Copyright 2006 Hillside Education Catholic Mosaic

Thanks to all those who placed pre-orders for this title! The first half will ship May 18 and the rest on May 19. The pre-order period is now closed.

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.