Welcome to the January 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!

My husband stumbled across a book I’d given him last year: Christmas Around the Fire: Stories, Essays, & Poems for the Season of Christ’s Birth by Ryan N. S. Topping. In fact, he read a selected story aloud to me—as it’s meant to be!—sitting alongside a cozy fireplace, and it was like something out of a storybook. There’s something about being read to, and, as an adult, I’ve experienced entirely too little of it. (I’m used to being the reader.) This book could help create some lovely family traditions.

I read fewer Christmas books than I’d have liked this year, but one of those I did complete was Mr. Nicholas: A Magical Christmas Tale by Christopher de Vinck. The “Christmas magic” accompanies Mr. Nicholas, as you might easily guess, but the story centers on a couple at the brink of divorce and their wonderfully simple son, who has Down syndrome. Mister Rogers Neighborhood serves as a touchstone in the story, which touched this fan of the show and western Pennsylvania native.

My daughter and I resumed listening to audiobooks together, something we haven’t really done since before the pandemic. We chose Pepper Basham’s The Mistletoe Countess, which I’ve seen so many glowing reviews for. We’re less than halfway through, but it’s easy to see why readers love this forthright, authentic, and bookish heroine. This young turn-of-the-century Virginian is paired with an English lord, and there’s a murder mystery to be solved at his beloved Havensbrook Hall.

Jennifer Rodewald has reached the last brother in her Murphy Brothers Stories with Brayden in After All. Having seen what the author has done in the other stories, aptly demonstrating the power of God to change hearts and lives, it’s not hard to accept what is a somewhat difficult story in which Brayden’s motivations and behavior sometimes made me cringe. Don’t worry, it turns out well! And, I think despite running out of brothers, there’s another connected book coming in 2022.

Let It Be Me is Becky Wade’s second book in her Misty River Romance series. Her stories are easy to sail through with smooth writing and witty banter. This book pairs a genius mathematician who discovers she was switched at birth and a closed-off pediatric heart surgeon (oh, the irony). There’s a mystery to solve regarding the circumstances of Leah, the mathematician’s, birth. I’m enjoying the story although I’m having trouble connecting with the main characters, something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced with a Becky Wade book.

My oldest son is home from college and is reading his way through his dad’s Star Wars books that he discovered in the attic over Thanksgiving break. He’s a fan of these now non-canon books and how they portray Luke Skywalker (as opposed to how the character is rendered in the final big screen trilogy). Both Heir to the Empire and Dark Force Rising are part of The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn.

We gave our teen daughter a beautiful hard cover edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë for Christmas. We recently watched a movie adaption, and she was primed and ready to read the classic. I purchased the book, and even I didn’t realize what a keepsake it would be. Not only does it include lovely illustrations by Marjolein Bastin, but it includes treasures like a copy of Bronte’s letter to her publisher, a postcard with period fashions, an advertisement akin to what Jane placed seeking a governess position, and more. I hope my daughter enjoys the Gothic romance of a courageous, principled orphan who finds love (and a wee bit of horror) at Thornfield Hall with Edward Rochester.

Having completed Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (again), my eighth grader also chose to begin Great Expectations. Thus far, she’s taken by the size of the volume and Dickens’s propensity for lengthy descriptions. I’ve not yet read this classic, which follows orphan Pip Pirrip’s life after he receives a mysterious inheritance.

My younger daughter received Coding Games in Scratch: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Games by Jon Woodcock from her older brother. She enjoys simple programming apps she uses in the STREAM lab at school, and he thought she’d take to more coding. It teaches problem solving and all that, but mostly, I think, it’s just fun. (And her brother, who’s doing college-level programming now, is happy to spur her interest in something he enjoys.)

This fourth grader has also been busy snatching paper from the printer to draw all sorts of shapes and characters, so we gave her How to Draw Cool Stuff: Holidays, Seasons and Events by Catherine V. Holmes. It seems easy to follow, and she’s been bringing me pages from her new sketchbook filled with Christmas trees, elves, and ornaments.

In school, her class completed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, which we’d read together last year. They’ve also continued to read from the I Survived Series, reading I Survived the Galveston Hurricane, 1900 by Lauren Tarshis. Eight-thousand people were killed in the Texas hurricane that took locals by surprise.

I recently edited a book in Theresa Linden’s Armor of God series, which my daughter loves. I need to get her her own copy of Boots of Peace, which follows George Pennington’s pursuit of a full set of armor. So far, he, his younger brother, and his friend Robyn have earned their Belt of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness. With each piece earned, they learn valuable lessons about life and virtue while discovering a little more about the mysterious knights’ table they’ve discovered in the woods. This series is perfect for children in the sacramental years who are either preparing for or have recently received First Penance and First Holy Communion.

My third grader enjoyed Bots: The Most Annoying Robots in the Universe by Russ Bolts, in which some space robots are discovered. At least that’s what I absorbed from his brief description of this graphic novel about Joe and Rob, a couple of goofy robots who discover strange video cameras that fell from the sky.

All of the kids enjoyed Let’s Explore! Woodland Creatures by Claire Philip. It includes a series of woodland animals, how each is adapted to its habitat, finds food, is affected by the seasons, and more. The illustrations by Jean Claude are charming too.

Our son received The Night the Saints Saved Christmas by Gracie Jagla, and it’s such a sweet and beautiful tale of the saints in heaven working to deliver Christmas presents when St. Nick gets sick. The rhyme is fun to read, and we love picking out the saints, like St. John Paul II delivering presents on skis or Blessed Pier Giorgio scaling mountains to distribute gifts. This book would make a treasured part of a child’s Christmas library.

Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!

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Welcome to the December 2021 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!

Life has conspired to limit both my and my family’s reading time lately, but I still have some books to share! First, The Christmas Lights, a collective story written by six members of Catholic Teen Books, including myself, is now available as a 99-cent e-book. Following a prompt, each author contributed a segment to the story then passed it on to another author. Only the final author knew the ending until we read it aloud on the Reading With Your Kids Podcast. It was such fun! I re-read the story in preparation for publishing the e-book, and I could still hear each author’s voice in my head as I read it. Camilla and her family are on her way to visit her newly widowed grandfather for Christmas, but a hazardous snowstorm sends their vehicle into a ditch. Camilla must find help for her injured parents and little brother. Encouraged by a vision of her late grandmother, Camilla does find help—in the most unexpected ways. All profits from the e-book will be donated to Cross Catholic.

I’m about halfway through Ellen Gable’s soon-to-be-released Where Angels Pass, a story of a boy’s abuse by a priest and the ramifications for him and his future family loosely based on the author’s experience. I love that Ellen Gable deals frankly with the ways in which both the victim, Hank, and in particular his daughter, Evie, are harmed. The value of fiction shines in this story that allows the reader to understand how Hank’s trauma results in lifelong consequences.

Corinna Turner writes faster than I can read, I think, and her latest (coming soon!), A Saint in the Family, includes an addition to her I Am Margaret series. I’ve read the short stories and novellas contained in this edition separately, but I appreciated reading those that feature heroine Margo’s brother Kyle all in one place. Kyle is a hero in his own right in these side stories. I don’t know of any author writing as effectively about the day-to-day sacrifices that sanctify us as Corinna Turner.

My eighth-grade daughter finished Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson. I thought I’d entertain her by singing a poem to “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” but, even better, we discovered the poems, because of their meter, can also be sung to the Pokémon theme song. (I’ll spare you a link.) She’s not generally a big poetry fan, but she did enjoy these poems, which she read between her continuation of Edgar Allan Poe short stories from last month.

My fourth-grade daughter has picked up her older brother’s Jedi Academy series. She’s read the first three books in the series, written by Jeffrey Brown. (The subsequent books are written by a different author.) Star Wars Jedi Academy, which includes lots of illustrations among its chapters, is best described as Star Wars meets middle school.

I read Tomie dePaola’s David and Goliath aloud to my two youngest. The hardcover picture book has recently been published by Magnificat-Ignatius. The book sticks to the story in 2Samuel and goes a little deeper than the short, familiar retellings of David slaying the giant. (My daughter pointed out that she’d never heard the part about David beheading Goliath.) It makes clear the message that God is the one, true God, who comes to the aid of the small and lowly.

The Adventures of Loupio: Volume 6, The Quest by Jean-François Kieffer is part of a series of graphic novels from Magnificat-Ignatius that follow an orphan boy, Loupio, befriended by the wolf tamed by Saint Francis. In this volume, Loupio travels throughout Italy, dependent on Our Lady of Providence, braving cold, hunger, theft, and discouragement as he seeks a bell for Saint Francis. The illustrations are lively, and the text is simple enough for young readers (seven and up). A map in the back traces the path of Loupio’s adventure, and music and lyrics are provided for the melody Loupio sings trying to earn coins to purchase the bell. Books in this series would make a lovely gift.

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!

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Welcome to the October 2021 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!

We have a kiosk of Catholic books in the narthex of our church with rotating titles. My husband frequents it. A lot. Last month, he picked up Marching Orders: A Tactical Plan for Converting the World to Christ by Dan McGuire is a military-style guide to evangelization from Catholic Answers. The author mines his experience as a Marine officer and applies it to sharing the Gospel by planning, using the correct tools, overcoming obstacles, and more.

Rhonda Ortiz’s debut novel, historical fiction set in colonial America, is a romance populated by rogues, spies, gossipy hens, and crusty sailors.  In Pieces, with its polyglot sailor who has a passion for theology, Josiah, and a strong, sensible, creative heroine in Molly, is a great start to a series I’m certain I’m going to love. Strong characters, solid writing, and attention to historical detail make for an excellent novel.

I enjoyed the second installment in Georgiana Daniels’ KC Crum Mystery series even more than the first. Crumb and Punishment picks up where the first book left off in Beaver Bluff, with KC and her mostly elderly pals stumbling across dead bodies. Their stealth investigation will take them to bingo, of all places, but even that can’t keep Office Hamson from discovering their involvement.

I read an advance copy of one of the stories in the yet-to-be-released 99-cent bundle Dangerous Pursuits: 15 Stories from Today’s Most Popular Mystery and Suspense Authors. Sleep Deprived by Therese Heckenkamp is ultimately a story about reconciliation between a grief-stricken husband and wife. The plot centers around a kidnapped infant and whether Mae, sleep-deprived and depressed, is the perpetrator. I’m looking forward to reading the entire collection.

The Party Planning Committee by Amy Matayo was just plain fun. And while it seems like an easy, superficial read (nothing wrong with that sometimes), there’s more beneath the surface, revealed when reality-TV life is scrapped in favor of real life. Charlotte and Lance are adorable, and like all Amy Matayo’s characters, their charm, biting wit and laser-sharp interior thoughts make them super fun to read about.

Susan Peek, who specializes in adventurous stories about little-known saints, recently released Saint Cloud of Gaul, The Prince Who Traded Kingdoms. This short novel has plenty of excitement, a lot of jeopardy, and a wee bit of romance. Cloud’s escape from his murderous uncles will keep your turning pages.

Speaking of saints, Corinna Turner’s Old Men Don’t Walk to Egypt is the second in her Friends in High Places series and demonstrates how relevant the virtues of St. Joseph are to modern youth. The author deftly tackles a pervasive issue among teens, sexting, in the most inoffensive way, focusing on virtue and modesty. Readers will recognize characters from the first book in the saint series.

In his first semester at college, my oldest son has been reading several short stories. One is Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville. I read this one in college as well, and my only memory is that I preferred it to Melville’s longer work, Moby Dick, which I intensely disliked. Other stories he’s reading are The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet and The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

My eighth-grade student is reading The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare with her class. The novel, set in colonial Maine, is a Newbery Honor book. Thirteen-year-old Matthew is left to guard his family’s cabin in the wilderness and meets a Native boy, Attean, who teaches him about his culture. 

My daughter also read The Fire of Eden by Antony Kolenc, which I covered here in August, and moved on to White Fang by Jack London, a book her older brother loved. (I’ve now been doing An Open Book long enough that we’re going to be cycling through books older siblings have read!) If you’re not familiar with the classic book or movie adaptions, White Fang is the story of a wild wolfdog. Fun fact: It was first serialized in a magazine.

I started reading Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes aloud to the kids. I learned of this award-winner in An Open Book post by Read-At-Home Mom.  The story centers around the Pye family, headed by Mr. Pye, a “famous bird man.” We’re only a couple of chapters in, as the children, Jerry and Rachel, contemplate buying a pup, Ginger. Somewhere along the way, beloved Ginger is stolen, and I’m looking forward to seeing what ensues.

My younger daughter’s fourth-grade class will be reading a lot of books in the I Survived series this year, and they began with I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis. The story, set at the Jersey shore, features a 10-year-old, Chet, and his friends, that dramatize the real-life event. Let me just say that I’m glad they are reading this in September and not in the spring, in advance of everyone’s beach vacations.

Contributing to our apparent dog theme this month, my fourth grader is also reading a Magic Treehouse book, Balto of the Blue Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne. Some of my kids have enjoyed these books more than others. My oldest read dozens of books in the fun but educational series built on the premise of time-traveling siblings that get a lesson in a variety of historic events and cultures. This one takes them to 1925 Alaska, where they meet the Siberian husky charged with the final leg of the journey to get the diphtheria serum to Nome in time.

My youngest, a third grader, recently read Stuart Little by E.B. White. My husband, in particular, has a fondness for the little mouse adopted into the Little family. We recently re-watched the movie adaption starring Geena David and Michael J. Fox, and I was reminded what a lovely little story it is.

All three of the kids in the house have been spotted reading or re-reading various books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The latest to come home is The Getaway, the twelfth book in the popular illustrated series. I read the first several books before my oldest started reading them and thought that author Jeff Kinney had a keen, if a bit cynical, insight into childhood and family life. I’m not sure if the series has sustained its magic, but my kids, at least, seem to think so.

Saint Joseph, Watch Over My Family by Sabine du Mesnil is a beautiful board book from Magnificat US and Ignatius Press that I hope my children will turn to again and again. It introduces children to St. Joseph using scripture, shares the many and varied circumstances in which to call on St. Joseph, and includes prayers and miraculous tales. The prayers and recommendations for going to St. Joseph are beautiful and perfect for fostering devotion to this eminent saint.

Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to the September 2021 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!

While on our long car ride from Pennsylvania to Maine and back, we listened to an audiobook I’d mentioned here in July of last year: Dooku: Jedi Lost. The whole family enjoyed this lively Star Wars audio drama. I love a well-done audiobook, but an audio play, with actors voicing each character, is something else altogether. If you have a favorite audio production, please share it in the comments. I’d love to find some more to enjoy.

While traveling, my husband often picks up local lore books. In Maine, he grabbed Haunted Lighthouses: Phantom Keepers, Ghost Shipwrecks, and Sinister Calls from the Deep by Ray Jones. Four Maine lighthouses are included in the book, which promises “spine-chilling tales.” His favorite part of these types of books is not so much the spooky stuff, but the history that the stories necessarily entail.

Heaven’s Hunter by Marie C. Keiser is an action/adventure space saga with a bit of military detective procedural thrown in. Add to that the faith element that Major Randall Yung uncovers as he seeks to avenge the death of his only friend, and it becomes a story of self-discovery, moral complexity, and integrity. I think science fiction fans will enjoy Heaven’s Hunter and the way the Catholic faith is incorporated into the story.

I can always count on Karen Witemeyer for a well-written historical Christian romance. I needed an enjoyable distraction, and The Heart’s Charge, the second in the Hanger’s Horsemen series, fit the bill. There are two romances for the price of one and a mystery to be solved—who’s snatching orphaned children from town and what for?

Jennifer Rodewald is nearing the end of her Murphy Brothers Stories that I’ve enjoyed so much. Who You Are is a bit lighter than some others and concerns the second youngest brother, Brandon, who’s entered a trial engagement with a virtual stranger, Megan. Megan is spoiled and immature, and her parents invite family friend Brandon to teach her a little about hard work, integrity, and the kind of man she should be seeking.

Amy Cattapan (A.J. Cattapan) has just released her first nonfiction book, Sweet Jesus, Is It June Yet? 10 Ways the Gospels Can Help You Combat Teacher Burnout and Rediscover Your Passion for Teaching. In it, the author shares her own successes and failures inside and outside of the classroom as she relates lessons gleaned from the greatest teacher of all time, Jesus. This book makes a great teacher gift.

My college-bound son has been reading Assasin’s Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden. The book, based on the video game, begins in 1735 London and tells the backstory of the assassin Connor’s father and how he is drawn into the ongoing battle between the Assassins and the Templars. It’s a companion to the games, more or less. I’ve not played any of the games, but I’ve been impressed by the painstaking attention to historical detail in them.

My eighth-grade daughter discovered a Newbery Honor Book set in Maine amongst the stacks of books at our parish’s festival flea market. She read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt while we were in New England and really enjoyed it. Set in early 20^th century Phippsburg, Maine, it is told from the point of view of Turner, who becomes friends with spunky Lizzie. Lizzie introduces him to the wonders of the rocky coast of Maine as they work to prevent the island from becoming merely a lucrative tourist destination. I want to read this one too.

I read the youngest kids, now third- and fourth-graders, a couple of books by Robert McCloskey both set in Maine. The first was the ever-popular Blueberries for Sal (a Caldecott Honor Book), in which Sal and Sal’s mom and a bear and its cub get all mixed up while picking fresh blueberries on the mountainside. It’s such a simple story, but the illustrations are wonderful, and the kids love it.

The second book was on the shelf in the 1860s farmhouse where we stayed in rural Maine. It’s a lesser-known book of McCloskey’s, I think—One Morning in Maine. In this book, we see an older Sal, who’s got a loose tooth, set off across the bay with her father to go to town. It’s a lovely picture of coastal Maine life.

My kids are big fans of The Berenstain Bears books, especially the older ones, and we discovered a Berenstain Bears chapter book on Kindle Unlimited. The Berenstain Bears: The Trouble with Tryouts by Stan and Jan Berenstain follows poor Sister Bear as she is denied a spot on the soccer team but offered a spot as team manager. 

My husband picked up a copy of A Squirrel’s Tale of a Crow’s Feat by Michae Rothan at a recent Catholic men’s retreat. Father Rothan, who baptized our oldest son, was the retreat master and has written several books, including this one for kids. It’s an illustrated morality tale about the discord between the squirrels and the crows and the common enemy they unite to resist. Father Rothan has an unusual experience, related at the end, of raising some abandoned baby squirrels.

What are you reading? Share it at An Open Book and find new book recommendations too! #openbook Share on X

Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!