Charity updates us on how she spent her summer: Where she traveled with her family,  what work she's done for Well-Read Mom, and the two talks Charity presented at the national conference for the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Then, Charity shares some Big News that may impact Bright Wings: Children's Books.

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 do you do when your life comes crashing down around you? Join Charity and author Katherin Nolte, author of Back to Bright Before, as they dig into this and other  beautiful questions posed by Katherin's first novel. In this chiaroscuro book, sweetness and tradgedy contend in the life of one young family. Katherin also shares about how to write a book as a homeschooling mother. What is it like to craft a realistic-mystical story that shows that hope is stronger than despair? Discover a new favorite book for your 8-12 year old in Back to the Bright Before! Happy summer reading!

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!

Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, has sold more than 2.5 million copies. What's not to love in this landmark survival story? Charity shares our pleasure for all the good parts of Hatchet and asks us to take a closer look at some of the larger claims the book makes--especially to our boys--about identity, competency, hope, and survival.

Check out:
The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick

For Further Reading:
Torn Asunder: Children, the Myth of the Good Divorce, and the Recovery of Origins  edited by Margaret Harper McCarthy

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!

Everyone is happy to promote "girl power," and we did our own version of that theme in Episode 18: Stories for Strong Girls. But what about our boys? Is there something distinctive about being a boy? What is good about being a boy? Dr. William Hamant joins Charity to discuss what is positive and distinctive about masculinity.  He reflects upon what masculinity reveals about what it means to be human. Dr. Hamant supports his insights with literature and poetry and wise experience.

PRINTABLE LIST of Best Books for Boys

Poetry quoted by Dr. William Hamant:
"When Nature Wants a Man" by Angela Morgan
"Man in the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt OR a print-and-frame version!
"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

To learn more about what is happening to boys and men:

• Honestly podcast, "Why We Must Save Our Boys"
•  Youtube video, "Avoiding School Shootings and The Boy Crisis"
• Honestly podcast, "Why Men Seek Danger"

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!

Wildwood, the first in a trilogy by Colin Meloy, is praised by Trenton Lee Stewart. It is also 541 pages! Could this book be the start of the next greatest series for your child?! It is long and has sequels...could this be just the thing for my voracious readers? Listen and discover along with Charity what this book is like--do it's characters have any character? Do they discover where they're from? Where they are going? 

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!

 Can an author as prolific as Gordon Korman really generate books of value? After reading a dozen Gordon Korman books (sample size is 10% ladies and gentleman!) Charity delivers the answers and makes her recommendations.

Check out the recommended book list!

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!

Have you ever returned to a beloved children' book as an adult and found the content unnerving? Charity introduces the topic of cynicism as a perspective that shapes what we are able to see, a stance that conditions our vision, a judgement that conditions our choices. Charity introduces an excellent essay by Anna Kaladish Reynolds regarding cynicism, a critical reading of Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully. Reynold's essay proposes that the innocence available in picture books like Mirette On the High Wire may help us to learn a wisdom that is greater than any that cynicism can offer to us.

Read Innocence: A Perspective of Intelligent Reading on the Bright Wings' blog.

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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 a couple of the most satisfying stories you've heard in a while? Charity reviews Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley and Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin. If you enjoy fairy tales--or if you simply enjoy a story with both action and reflection--join Charity as she explores the value of these two novel-length retellings.

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy a book through them, you support Bright Wings at no additional cost to you. ;)

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 you know what discernment is? Can we examine what motivates our literary choices for our children? In this podcast Charity wonders what motivates our literary decision-making: Does a desire to protect motivate? Does fear of harm predominate in our decision-making? Is our end goal to equip our children? Are we convinced that the good is stronger and more pleasing than evil?

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!

Were you ever obsessed with WWII fiction and stories as a child? Do you have a child who is really into stories from this era? Why the fascination?! Is there something weird about this interest? Charity unpacks what is vital to understanding the value of books about World War II. Children appreciate this time because good and evil are clear and there are high stakes and choices to make. Children like this era because hard moral choices and suffering are contexualized by singular and personal characters. Best of all, literature set in this era often affirms that "a light has shown in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it." Charity affirms the unusually high quality of WWII literature as a genre and prizes it for its ability to allow children opportunities for self-reflection.

Enjoy this printable booklist! World War II: Best Picture Books and Novels

Check out this book review of  Hilda Van Stockum's The Borrowed House by Sara Masarik.

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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!