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 ..read more

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 essay ..read more

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 Cha ..read more

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, to understand what integrated virtue is. We'll see HOW fiction works in the life of Ignatius of Loyola. And we'll dive into some aesthetics with Charity as she ..read more

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. ;) Connect with Charity on Instagram for more quick book recommendations. Enjoy essays on the Bright ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 Ange ..read more

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?  ..read more

 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 ..read more