Some time back, I visited a well-respected blog by a Catholic convert that I respect highly and consider spiritually mature. So I was shocked when I found myself disagreeing with just about everything I read on the recommended blog, about a mom and her desire to live a simple life, cleary an admirable goal. I was especially saddened by the blogger’s frustration at her husband for not agreeing to her more dramatic efforts.
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Family-Friendly Friday: Voyage of the Dawn Treader Trailer
I had a post about the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books all set to publish this morning (with an aside about why are movies rarely as good as the book version?), when I happened upon the first sneak peek trailer of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third of the Chronicles of Narnia brought to life.
Special Narnia Sneak Peek » Life » Lifestyle — SixSeeds.tv
I discovered the trailer at Melissa Wiley’s excellent blog, often a source for great family-friendly fiction. (She herself is author of the Martha and Charlotte books in the Little House series. )
Are you excited to see the newest Narnian adventure? Do you think it will be as good as the book?
I’m not hoping for that–nothing could really match any of the Narnia Chronicles–but I do hope it is better than Prince Caspian movie version, which strayed so far from the book as to be almost unrecognizable. We still enjoyed Prince Caspian at our house, and I consider it a “Narnian” movie, but was frustrated by how much is changed. I hope that don’t do that for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There’s so much good story there the filmmakers don’t need to change a thing. I admire greatly Michael Apted, director of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for his excellent Amazing Grace and the moving and groundbreaking “Up” series“Up” following the lives of a group of English people every seven years. So I have to confess I have pretty high hopes for this one.
Words Wednesday Poem: Mary’s Girlhood by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dwelt young in Nazareth of Galilee.
Unto God’s will she brought devout respect,
Profound simplicity of intellect,
And supreme patience. From her mother’s knee
Faithful and hopeful; wise in charity;
Strong in grave peace; in pity circumspect.
So held she through her girlhood; as it were
An angel-water’d lily, that near God
Grows and is quiet. Till, one dawn at home,
She woke in her white bed, and had no fear
At all,–yet wept till sunshine, and felt aw’d:
Because the fulness of the time was come.
“Meet a Reader” Feature: Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
This week’s Catholic Post Book Page features a new article series called, “Meet a Reader” Each month, we’ll highlight the reading of someone, almost always from within the Diocese of Peoria, who shares a love of books and reading.
Words Wednesday: Quote from "Till We Have Faces"
Teen Tuesday: A Good Resource for Tween and Teen Friendly Books
This week, I want to share a gem of a blog that I discovered recently that is a great source for books and authors for tweens.
Treasure Chest for Tweens is by a Catholic mom, a former middle school teacher, who reads and reviews a range of books, from specifically Catholic fiction to popular fiction.
What I really like about Treasure Chest for Tweens are the “safety flags,” 3 flags for “read with abandon,” (for the age group specified), down to the “Da Vinci pile, ” (cute) for books not worth picking up. She also points out books that are girl or boy friendly, and also books that are for older tweens or younger tweens.
Here is her review of The Penderwicks, long one of our family favorites.
For parents who don’t have time to read everything that their kids read (and isn’t that all of us? I’m sad to admit), and either want to encourage strong readers to read good healthy fiction, or encourage reluctant readers to discover great authors, Treasure Chest for Tweens is a great site.
I don’t always agree wholeheartedly with her reviews; I can think of a few authors she loves and I don’t, and even some content issues she doesn’t catch, but mostly they are literary quibbles than anything else. I appreciate this great site, and I hope you have a chance to visit the site and search for some good books there.
Do you have any favorite blogs or websites to discover new authors for your tweens or teens?