Bright Wings: Children’s Books to Make the Heart Soar

Celebrating eighteen years of marriage! Enjoy this poem by Madeleine Delbrêl, French poet and social worker, about responding with love to the love of Christ the Bridegroom. We love this poem because it depicts the "spirit" of marriage, the gift and task that is marriage, that is the response to being "first loved" by Christ (cf. 1Jn 4:19).

You can read other beautiful things from Madeleine Delbrêl in The Dazzling Light of God OR  We, the Ordinary People of the Streets.

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Ready for more? Don't lose your nerve--keep reading the Aeneid with Charity! Take a closer look at Book 3 and Book 4. Let's wonder together: Why does Virgil have Aeneas sail around so much before meeting Dido? Before landing in Italy? Why is Aeneas lingering so long in Carthage? Is Aeneas a hero or an unfaithful lover? More than a year ago, Charity hoped to bring you along with her as she read and taught some of the great texts of the Western Tradition. Finally, you can. Read in community with Charity and discover what are some of the unique plot points, themes, characters, and quotations from Book 3 and Book 4 of Homer's Aeneid. 

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

More than a year ago, Charity hoped to bring you along with her as she read and taught some of the great texts of the Western Tradition. Finally, you can get excited about reading the Aeneid, together with Charity! Can it really be that hard to read and understand? (Trust us: If teenagers can do it, you can too!) Read in community with Charity and discover what are some of the unique plot points, themes, characters, and quotations from Book 1 and Book 2 of Homer's Aeneid. 

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Who doesn't love a conspiracy theory...or two?! Join Charity as she interviews Devin Rose, discussing Chasing the Seeds, the Fiefdom Chronicles, Book 1. Explore how Bitcoiners, anarcho-capitalists, preppers, libertarians, the Virgin Mary and the FBI can all be crucial plot elements in a single adventure! Discover in Chasing the Seeds a YA book that has all the roaring story you want and nothing toxic you don't need.

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

What if some of the best titles being published are not new, but OLD? Join Charity's conversation with Jill Morgan from Purple House Press. Charity shares her joy at discovering how a beloved childhood picture book is back in print! Jill shares stories from 20 years of rescuing books--stories about author relationships, the practicalities of bringing back favorites, and the community feeling built around the books we want appreciated for generations. 

Browse Purple House Press!  *Please, try to buy direct from them!

Books mentioned in this episode:

• The King With Six Friends by Jay Williams. aka Charity's favorite picture book
• Mr. Pine's Purple House by Leonard Kessler
• Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones
• The Arts Library (What I would do if I were still homeschooling!)
• Sabre Jet Ace by Charles Coomb
• The Living History Library, includes Jenny, John Bull, Alaska Bush Pilot
• The Nature Study Library, includes Buzztail and Leaper
• The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, aka the book selling for $1,000...
• MISTMANTLE by M.I. McAllister

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Vivian Dudro, senior editor at Ignatius Press, joins Charity to talk about Catholic book publishing. Vivian discusses publishing works that allow children and teens to connect their lives to the deepest truths of Christ's presence. How can "wholesome" literature depict the Real? Is it necessary for Christian books to be well-written, or is it enough for them to be church-y? Join Charity and Vivian as they explore these questions. Enjoy Vivian's recommendations on the books currently exciting interest at Ignatius Press, works that are "coming soon," and her treasure trove of unique classic book recommendations.

Vivian's Recommended Books:

• In The Shadow of Rome, series by Sophie de Mullenheim (includes The Phantom of the Colosseum)
• Sarah and Simon SEEK and FIND, series by Geert de Sutter. The Life of Jesus, Seek and Find
• Faelan and the Miracle Machines, series by Abigail Palmer
• The Adventures of Loupio by Jean-Francois Kieffer.
• How to Handle My Emotions, (Joy, Fear, Sadness, Anger), series by Gaelle Tertrais, Violaine Moulière, Ségolène De Noüel

• The Story of Rolf: A Viking Adventure by Allen French
• Heidi by Joanna Spyri
• The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
• The Little House on the Prairie, series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Books by Hilda Van Stockum

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

If you love historical fiction, Charity has found a rare gem for you! What was it like to live in a walled Medieval town? What was it like to live in the age of Gothic cathedral-building? How is family, work, worship, and community structured? What makes life meaningful and exciting? Meet Jean d'Orbais and his family whose life and work has been tied to the great cathedral of Reims for centuries!

To purchase The Boy Knight of Reims by Eloise Lownsbery, see the niche publisher Angelus Press.

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Do your kids read fantasy? What do you think of magic? Is magic good? Bad? Join Charity as she considers why fantasy is such an important category of fiction to read! Perhaps, like Aslan, fantasy is "not safe, but good."

Discover great fantasy books for your child: The Great Fantasy Book List (pdf)

Purchase The Great Fantasy Book List through Bright Wings' Bookshop

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Charity and her 11th grade students read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl along with Robert Spaemann's address "Education as an Introduction to Reality" as part of Texas Holocaust remembrance week. Charity shares a speech she gave to the high school, generated from reading these texts together.

Read Robert Spaemann's article "Education as an Introduction to Reality" You can print it as a pdf if you like. Underline and annotate it. ;)

Purchase a copy of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

We love the words truth, goodness, and beauty...but if someone asked us to explain what these are, maybe we'd be flummoxed? In this episode, Charity puts flesh into these concepts: Charity helps us see truth, identify beauty, and recognize goodness in children's books and gives us concrete examples of these concepts from books we know. After she walks us through her own book discernment process, Charity dispels two common myths that prevent us from being responsible literary guardians.

You can print this amazing LITERATURE DISCERNMENT WORKSHEET

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.

Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!