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

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...

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...

Why do we read? Two views predominate! Some want children to read (classic works of) fiction because fiction is a useful tool. Fiction illustrates or instructs  children in the moral life. Others want children to read because reading is pleasurable--and they resist any attempts to make fiction serve a purpose because reading fiction is not about utility. Yet, there is a third way! Charity leads us to Aristotle, Jesus, and Aquinas, ...

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 Wi...

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...

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:...

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 h...

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? 

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 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 ...

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. Reyno...

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.

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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 I...

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 cho...

As part of an ongoing initiative Charity reviews books to save you time and teach you how to know a good book when you see it!
Charity reviews the Masterminds series by Gordon Korman. (Masterminds; Masterminds: Criminal Destiny; Masterminds: Payback)
She contrasts it to Keeper of the Lost Cities series and points out how keenly interesting (and desperately fun) it can be to allow a glaring ethical problem (cloning) drive ...

Join Charity's conversation with Jennifer Kehoe as they discuss children's book illustrations. Why is it important that illustrations are beautiful? What are some of the features that help us recognize whether something is beautiful or not? What are ingredients of artisianship that make for to great illustrations? When it comes to children's books Charity and Jennifer wonder if "ugly" has to equal "fun...

Today, I talk with transparency about the finances of Bright Wings: Children's Books. I love producing this podcast and I consider myself blessed to think and read and have the desire to share ideas about children's literature with you. Being able to do this is incredibly rich. But, ironically right now, Bright Wings is an expensive hobby of mine and operates in the red. I wonder if you could donate $5-$10 today? Or, perh...

Dr. Grace Hamman from Old Books With Grace joins Charity to take a closer look at the Middle Ages.  Charity asks Grace what made her fall in love with this era. Charity also asks, "Did women write/illustrate books? What were some of the achievements of the Medieval period? How hard did peasants work? How are hospitals an especially Medieval achievement? Were manners invented in the Middle Ages?" They talk about how to see...

Sam Smith, better known as S. D. Smith, the author of the beloved Green Ember Series tells us the Big News! He is collaborating with his son J.C Smith on a new series, beginning with Jack Zulu and the Waylander's Key. If you loved the strange mix of rabbits with swords, you will love the half-African, half-Appalachian Jack Zulu.

S.D. Smith and Charity converse about the great questions of Who am I?, Where Have I Come...

Have you ever wondered if fairy tales have a deeper meaning? Where in the world have they come from? From what countries? From what places in the human heart? Join the conversation with Dr. Marina Warner (author of Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale) and Charity Hill as they discuss these questions and also why fairy tales are, wonderfully, women's tales! Dr. Warner gives new insights regarding the tale "Donk...