JES's Shelf (Teens) Archives

October 12, 2015October 23, 2015

The Adventures of Tintin

By Herge

Years ago, before the movie came out, a loyal customer and homeschool writer, Ana Braga Henebry, suggested we carry these books. From the very first book we obtained to present day, our kids cannot put them down. Written in the 1940’s and translated into many languages around the world these will soon become family’s favorites too! Here is an excerpt from her article on Tintin:

“Although Tintin is not shown going to Mass or into a confessional, the author’s Catholic background is present in many ways. The universal values of Catholic life are clearly portrayed as right and moral and, in a famous sequence of The Broken Ear, the bad guys get sent to—well, you know where. Author Hergé started his career working for a Catholic newspaper in Brussels under a Jesuit priest. His first Tintin book—Tintin in the Land of the Soviets—was stridently anti-Communist and attempted to expose the Communist façade. While in both Tintin on Tibet and Flight 714 there is mention of telepathy, when faced with pagan rituals Tintin uses clever ways to survive, such as his knowledge of an incoming total solar eclipse in Prisoners of the Sun. The values throughout the books are the universal Catholic values of honesty, integrity and compassion.”

Our son Stephen (Age 13) recommends The Secret of the Unicorn first!

Titles
	The Secret of the Unicorn In this classic graphic novel Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market. Only it isn’t just any model ship-it’s the Unicorn, carved by one of Haddock’s ancestors, and it holds a clue to finding pirate treasure! (PB, 62pp.)
	The Crab with the Golden Claws *The classic graphic novel.* A can of crab meat turns out to be a small clue to a big mystery! Tintin meets Captain Haddock in his escape and his plan to track down the crooks takes him to an exotic desert city.
	Land of Black Gold *The classic graphic novel.* Car engines have started spontaneously exploding all over the country . . . someone’s been tampering with the oil! Tintin, with Thomson and Thompson at his side, sails on an oil tanker to the Middle East to track down the source of the faulty oil.
	Tintin in Tibet *The classic graphic novel.* One day Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Himalayas. When he discovers thathis friend, Chang, was on board, Tintin travels to the crash site in hopes of a rescue.
	Tintin in America The classic graphic novel. Tintin comes to the U.S.A. to clean up the mean streets of Chicago but ends up in the wild west! Will Tintin make it back home?
	Tintin In the Land of the Soviets Sent on assignment to the Soviet Union, Tintin boards a train. . . but after an explosion, Tintin is blamed for the bombing, and he must make his way to the Soviet Union by stealth. Once there, he uncovers some shocking Bolshevik secrets.

July 16, 2015October 12, 2015

Real Woman, Real Saints

By Gina Loehr

“Heaven’s doors are wide open and God is doing everything he can to make us all into saints.” —from Chapter Eight. We know a great book when our children show us one! Full of famous and not so famous woman saints, from every station of life, each with their own remarkable story. Sanctity will never fit into a formula, but the women in Real Women, Real Saints have one thing in common: their deep love for God and the determination to live life in harmony with his will. The brief biographies in this book will help you learn to abandon yourself to God, as these women did, and live a rich, full life in return. Chapters are divided by each of the virtues, faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance with fourteen examples of women saints who exemplify these virtues. Listed with each saint are their feast day, patronage and time period in which they lived.

July 16, 2015

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Austen is arguably the finest female novelist who ever lived and Pride and Prejudice is arguably the finest, and is certainly the most popular, of her novels. A classic of world literature, its profound Christian morality is all too often missed or willfully overlooked by today’s (post)modern critics. Yet Austen saw the follies and foibles of human nature, and the frictions and fidelities of family life, with an incisive eye that penetrates to the very heart of the human condition. This edition of Austen’s masterpiece includes an introduction by Professor Christopher Blum and several insightful critical essays by leading Austen scholars.

July 9, 2015July 16, 2015

Choosing Beauty: A 30-Day Spiritual Makeover for Women

By Gina Loehr

Gina Loehr does it again, I really enjoyed her insight into the lives of women saints in her book Real Women, Real Saints and learned much from their virtues….now Gina takes us on a real and practical retreat towards inner beauty…the kind that reflects the joy of our Faith. Mascara will help and eyeliner too, but the surest way to a beautiful you doesn’t require hours at the cosmetics counter. The best beauty routine starts within. Choosing Beauty guides you through a day-by-day inner makeover that will give you a glow that can only come through a life infused with the virtues. Learn how to step away from gossip, grow in courage, practice mercy and enter more fully into the qualities that will allow your inner light to shine. A great addition to Choosing Beauty is the inclusion of lively reflections on the virtues presented and questions for discussion. This is a good book to share with your teenage daughters, too!

July 7, 2015July 16, 2015

Handbook of Prayers: Student Edition

Edited by James Socias

We have been searching for several years for a complete and handy prayer book for our older children. This book fit the bill, the wonderful devotional material contained in this brand new, pocket sized, student version of the well known Handbook of Prayers from the Midwest Theological Forum is perfect for your college or High school student. This book contains prayers and devotions on “How to be a Better Catholic”, including our call to holiness, a spiritual game plan, the Cardinal Virtues, the Capital Sins and opposed virtues; basic prayers including a Prayer Before the Day’s Work, a Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Brief Examination at Night; prayers to Prepare for Mass, and Prayers after Mass such as a Litany of Humility; Eucharistic Adoration prayers, such as Guides for Good Confessions; and devotions to the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ , the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Mother and so much more. It is an amazing bargain too at only $5….

July 7, 2015July 16, 2015

The Prove-it Series

By Amy Welborn

Finally! Finally! Finally! These books are excellent, but also fun, funny, and simply marvelous! So many apologetics books are simply too dense for those of us who are not experts. This series defends basic truths in a way that everyone can understand. These books are full of charming cartoons and quips such as “An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident.” It also contains more serious arguments, such as Isaac Newton’s statement that, “the existence of a Being endowed with intelligence and wisdom is a necessary inference from a study of celestial mechanics.” Each chapter dissects a separate argument against the Faith. Now teenagers and others can defend themselves with confidence – and a little humor, too!

June 26, 2015July 16, 2015

Red Falcons of Tremoine

by Hendry Peart

Set in 12^th century Medieval England, in the days of knights, Chivalry, Richard the Lionhearted, the Crusades, and treachery. Told through the eyes of the orphan boy Leo, a seemingly nobody. Entrusted and raised by the kindly Abbot who has protected the boy since he was a baby, Leo has learned the ways of life in a monastery. At fifteen he finally hears what he has been longing to know his whole life, his families lineage. Leo then finds himself dragged into his feuding families’ history played out with him at the center. Leo must rise from a child to manhood, and find a way to mend the wounds of his ancestors‘ past.

Click here for instant download: Red Falcons of Tremoine

June 26, 2015July 16, 2015

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

by Avi

“Asta’s son” is all he’s ever been called. The lack of name is appropriate, because he and his mother are but poor peasants in fourteenth-century medieval England. When his mother dies this thirteen-year-old boy, who thought he had little to lose, soon finds himself with even less—no home, family, or possessions. He is accused of a crime he did not commit and declared a “wolf’s head.” That means he may be killed on sight, by anyone. If he wishes to remain alive, he must flee his tiny village. All the boy takes with him is a newly revealed name—Crispin—and his mother’s cross of lead. His journey of escape takes him through the English countryside filled with new places, people, and above all, danger. Why are his enemies so determined to kill him? And will the answer show Crispin the truth of who he really is?

This book is a Newberry Medal winner!

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

The setting is the Colony of Connecticut in 1687 amid the political and religious conflicts of that day. When sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler unexpectedly arrives at her aunt and uncle’s doorstep, she is unprepared for the new world which awaits her. Raised by her grandfather in Barbados, she doesn’t understand the conflict between those loyal to the king and those who defend the Connecticut Charter. She is constantly astounding her aunt, uncle, and cousins with her dress, behavior, ideas and her ignorance of religious intolerance and the rigidity of the Puritan community. Feeling unwanted and alone Kit’s only comfort is her secret friendship with the widow, Hannah Tupper, who has been expelled from Massachusetts because she is a Quaker and suspected of being a witch. A fascinating tale that transports you to Puritan New England, rich in details and characterization. It weaves in the idea that worlds open up, even for the most unlikely, when they are taught to read.

June 27, 2014June 30, 2014

Taggerung – A Review

Taggerung is the 14th novel in the famous Redwall series written by Brian Jacques. Jacques outdoes himself in the stunning tale of a young otter who was kidnapped as a babe by a vermin clan to be their legendary warrior, the Taggerung. One day Tagg deserts the clan because of their cruelty and teams up with a feisty mouse, Nimbalo, to find his true home. Throughout their journey, Tagg and Nimbalo are faced with many dangers which test their bravery and courage. This is a tale of treachery and betrayal, but also of loyalty and adventure. This story is so enjoyable whether read alone or aloud.