My Top 10 Historical Novels for Young Catholics

Seven of my top 10. The others are in the house somewhere...

Having homeschooled our six children for going on twenty years now, I'm starting to feel like a veteran history teacher. While my older kids had to suffer a bit through dad's patchwork curriculum, my middles and youngers have had the benefit of Phillip Campbell's outstanding Story of Civilization series, which is the perfect baseline, big-picture history curriculum for Catholic kids. 

But as homeschoolers, we don't just follow a curriculum without enhancing it. There are some aspects of history that I like to cover on a much more granular level, and for that, we use a method that combines history and literature — a technique that others including Maureen Wittmann of Homeschool Connections have called "reading your way through history."

There are many advantages to this technique, not the least of which is that it really brings history to life for the student. History becomes less about places and dates, and more about real people, their thoughts, hopes, conflicts and reconciliations. To paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, it also makes history into the highest and noblest thing it can be: a good story. This exact principle is what led me to write my Belisarius books in the first place because there were practically no good historical novels about the fascinating Justinianic period suitable for younger readers.

Following is a list of the ten books that I have used most frequently with my own kids to get them interested in particular historical eras. I have also recommended them to many parents over the years, particularly those with children who are particularly voracious readers. Since I have reviewed many of these books in the past, I am including snippets from those reviews and links in case you want to read more.

Number 10: The Red Keep by Allen French

Reading age: 10+

Historical Period: 12th century Burgundy

I have recommended this novel dozens of times, and many parents have come back to me saying that it immediately became their child's favorite book. The Red Keep is a story of the petty nobility of 12th century Burgundy that effortlessly places young readers in Medieval Europe. The stronghold of a barony, the Red Keep is raided by the neighboring Sauval family. The Baron is put to the sword. Only his daughter, Anne, is rescued by the noble Baron Roger and his men. In the aftermath of the attack, the damaged keep is left abandoned—the bone of contention around which the story revolves. More.

Number 9: The Cottage at Bantry Bay by Hilda Van Stockum

Reading age: 7+

Historical Setting: mid-20th century Ireland

This is a story about a simple family just scraping by in 1930s Ireland. The events that happen to them are not the stuff of epic adventure. Instead, they are charming little anecdotes that tie together and lead to a satisfying ending. The story focuses on the O'Sullivan children: Michael (about 11), Brigid (about 10) and the twins Liam and Francie (6). The characters themselves drive the story and the reader can't help but get attached to them. Van Stockum does a wonderful job bringing them to life and is so successful that the reader is left a little bit disappointed that they are not real people. This is a great one for reading aloud. More.

Number 8: Wounds of Love by Phillip Campbell

Reading level: 9+

Historical Period: 20th century Italy

This is the newest book on the list and it also deals with more recent history, Padre Pio having won his victory over death in 1968. Wounds of Love is a fantastic book and I heartily recommend it to readers of all ages. For additional proof of how the story draws you in, I gave the novel to my 17-year old son to read, and he polished it off in about a week. What's more, he immediately moved on to a more in-depth biography of Padre Pio that we have on our bookshelves. I'd say that counts as a "mission accomplished!" More.

Number 7: The Joyful Beggar by Louis de Wohl

Reading level: 12+

Historical Period: 12th century Italy

Louis de Wohl is a wonderful, if underappreciated, Catholic novelist of the mid-20th century. Of all his works (many of which have been beautifully republished by Ignatius Press), this one is my favorite. The Joyful Beggar is much more than simply a novel about St. Francis of Assisi. It is a history lesson on the religious and political turmoil into which the great saint was born and which he, in a very significant and unexpected way, influenced and turned to the good. With great flair, de Wohl brings the historical figures to life: the put-upon yet good-hearted Pope Innocent III, the tyrannical excommunicant Otto IV, the intelligent but worldly Frederick II and his Islamic reflection, Sultan Al-Kamil. More.

Number 6: Masaru by Michael T. Cibenko

Reading level: 12+

Historical Period: 17th century Japan

If there's one thing I love, it's historical novels set in obscure time periods. Masaru fits perfectly into that category. Written by New Jersey author Michael T. Cibenko, Masaru tells the story of young Shiro Nakagawa, a convert to Catholicism fighting a desperate battle to maintain the Faith during the aggressively anti-Catholic Tokugawa Shogunate. If you have a teen who's into anime or Japanese language and culture more generally, this fast-moving novel will be a hit. More. 

Number 5: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Reading level: 12+

Historical Period: 14th century France

Published in 1896, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc is a beautifully written homage to a uniquely Catholic heroine written in the irreproducible style of Mark Twain. Though an implacable foe of Catholicism earlier in his life, Twain handles his subject in this novel with a delicacy bordering on reverence. The work is an eloquent retelling of Joan's history, from her humble upbringing in Domrémy, to her glorious exploits on the field of battle, to the grotesque and awful mockery of a trial which condemned her as a heretic. More.

Number 4: Angels in Iron by Nichlas C. Prata

Reading level: 14+

Historical Period: 16th century Malta

Of course, Angels in Iron had to be included on this list. This is another book that I have recommended hundreds of times over the years, and so many times, parents have come back saying, "My son loved it. Do you have anything else like this book?" Granted, this is very much a boy book—not to say that girls haven't appreciated it as well, but the vast majority of readers who have appreciated this book have been of the young male variety. I often tell parents, "If this book had been out when I was a teen, it would have been my favorite book." It really is just that good. When the novel was first presented to me in manuscript form, I read the whole thing in one night. I tend to put this one at a 14+ reading level simply because the battle scenes are rather graphic. More.

Number 3: Citadel of God by Louis de Wohl 

Reading level: 14+

Historical Period: 6th century Italy

Here is another wonderful old novel by Louis de Wohl. Originally published in 1959, the work is a gripping journey through the history of the early 6th century AD, bringing alive many of the celebrated names of that epoch. The book is sub-titled A Novel of Saint Benedict, so it is not surprising that passages in the novel are based directly on the ancient biography of Saint Benedict as contained in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. Given that my own Belisarius books are set in the same era, I have always appreciated this novel as one of the few that cover the period with such historical detail and story-telling skill. More.  

Number 2: Crusader King by Susan Peek

Reading level: 12+

Historical Period: 12th century Kingdom of Jerusalem

Crusader King tells one of the great tales of history—the immediate prequel to the fall of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Peek's rendition of Baldwin IV is both a tragic and uplifting tale. Stricken with leprosy as a boy, young Baldwin must somehow defend his tottering kingdom. Susan Peek's excellent novel tells how the sickly Baldwin managed to safeguard the kingdom for 11 years, despite scheming nobles angling for his crown, and the omnipresent threat of Saladin and his Islamic hordes. More. 

Number 1: Centurion's Daughter by Justin Swanton

Reading level: 12+

Historical Period: late 5th century France

France used to be known as "the eldest daughter of the Church," so it is perhaps appropriate that this novel about the earliest years of the Frankish kingdom was the favorite of my own eldest daughter for some time. Thanks to her endorsement, I have recommended the novel dozens of times. Centurion's Daughter is one of those rare pieces of historical fiction that successfully shines a light on a very obscure corner, allowing the extant (though scanty) history to speak for itself while providing a completely plausible literary framework. The book is an excellent story told in wonderful flowing prose, and includes about a dozen well-executed illustrations that ornament the text nicely. More.

Of course, a list of 10 barely scratches the surface of the books we've used to "read our way through history." There are so many other excellent novels for young Catholics out there. You won't find them in secular bookstores however. 

All these books and many others besides may be found here, at the Young Catholic's Bookshelf sponsored by Arx Publishing.

The Leper-King of Jerusalem Rides Again. A review of Susan Peek's Crusader King

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This is a review I wrote many years ago (and never posted here) for a book that has stood the test of time: Crusader King: A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades by Susan Peek.

Peek's rendition of the story of the leper king of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV, is at the same time a tragic and uplifting tale. Young Baldwin was stricken with leprosy as a boy and ascended the throne of the tottering Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at age 13. Despite scheming nobles angling for his crown even among his own family, and the omnipresent threat of Saladin and his Islamic hordes, the sickly Baldwin managed to hold his throne and safeguard his kingdom for nearly 11 years. 

Crusader King tells one of the great tales of history, and one feels genuine empathy for Baldwin as he struggles to do what he believes God has called him to do. Though his faithless nobles undercut him at every turn, Baldwin is supported by several very loyal Templars, one of whom, Theo, is his boyhood friend. Theo's loyalty and self-sacrificing excellence is really the heart of the book. While everyone else around Baldwin grasps at power, Theo refuses it at every turn, deciding instead to stick by his dying friend, no matter what the cost. Baldwin himself is presented as a devout, strong, and decidedly Catholic hero, suffering his dreadful crosses with courage and trust in God. As a Catholic myself, I found this to be a particular strength of the book.

Crusader King is an easy and quick read. The prose is rather light, even when dealing with difficult subjects—like Baldwin's progressing leprous disfigurement. Peek does use some modern colloquialisms, but mainly in an attempt to portray the informal banter between friends, or the cutting sarcasm among estranged family members. As such, it was wholly appropriate. I found this book to be an engrossing read and it made me seek out the historical accounts to get the actual story. If this was Ms. Peek's intention, she succeeded brilliantly. 

If you enjoy this type of book, or this particular time period in history, I encourage you to seek out Crown of the World: Book 1: Knight of the Temple by Nathan Sadasivan. This historical novel covers the time period immediately before the accession of Baldwin IV and the two books complement each other nicely.

Banned (Catholic) Books Week

Banned Book Week was last week. Did you miss it? 

For anyone who took it seriously, let me just say this: Banned Book Week is a complete fraud.

The books highlighted during Banned Book Week are the opposite of banned. If you look at any list of so-called banned books, you'll see titles that have been continuously promoted world-wide and most have sold millions of copies. They're not banned. They're everywhere. 

And given the cultural climate, you already know what kinds of books these are. Most are books that in any other era would have been correctly classified as obscenity. Worse, many of them are books specifically designed to introduce young children to deviant sex acts. 

The promotion of these so-called banned books is said to be a freedom of expression issue. It is, therefore, the ultimate irony that many of the libraries, bookstores, schools and cultural entities promoting Banned Book Week on social media last week summarily shut down their comments section. Why? Because many of people commenting have gotten wise to the fraud. They rightly point out that parents demanding that books promoted to their children be age-appropriate are not calling for book bans. But this reaction to Banned Book Week is, apparently, banned.

Let's look at some numbers, shall we? Let's see how the supposedly banned books are doing as compared to, say, popular Catholic books for the same age-range which are theoretically not banned. Catholics are, by the way, the largest religious group in the US in terms of sheer numbers, so one would think that books for and by Catholics would be well-represented in our libraries.

Get a copy here.

First, let's compare two books for children. On the one side, we'll start with Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman. This is a beautiful little book about an unborn baby and his guardian angel first published by Sophia Institute Press in 2004. The book follows the baby during his development in the womb until after his birth, and is engagingly illustrated by Ben Hatke. With a very pro-life message, Angel in the Waters has sold well over 100,000 copies since release and may be found in the collections of almost every big family. 

Checking WorldCat, which is a catalog of books in public and academic libraries, we can see that Angel in the Waters may be found in 96 libraries. Not bad, right? 

Now, let's look at another book for children: I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings. This is a book for children published in 2014 about one of the culture's pathologies-du-jour: transgenderism. Of course, it is heralded as a banned book. It has, in fact, been banned so successfully that WorldCat shows this book in 1,726 libraries — That's 18 times as many libraries as Angel in the Waters.

Get a copy here.

Moving on to the young adult category, we'll start with Angels in Iron by Nicholas Prata. An intense historical novel for teens and young adults chronicling the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, Angels in Iron is Arx Publishing's bestseller, with over 10,000 copies sold. Since publication in 2005, it has received rave reviews in Catholic media which has lauded the novel as an exciting adventure that should be read by all Catholic youth. The book been included in several bookseller and homeschool curriculum provider catalogs. 

Despite the book's enduring popularity among the nation's largest religious group, Angels in Iron has found its way into only 33 libraries nationwide.

Let's compare this to the #1 "banned" book—Gender Queer by Mia Kobabe. Published in 2019 for the teen/young adult market, this book is a memoir in graphic (and I do mean graphic) novel form about a poor confused soul who uses made-up pronouns. The book's promo text boasts that it includes explorations of "bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction." You'll be surprised (or not) to find out that this profound work of literary genius, though "banned", is available in 2,259 libraries, or 68 times as many as Angels in Iron.

Finally, let's compare two books for teen and young adult readers that have been published for a long time. 

Get a copy here.

On the one hand, we have The Joyful Beggar, one of the best-known works by prolific novelist Louis de Wohl. Originally published in 1958, The Joyful Beggar tells the parallel stories of Francesco Bernadone—the man who would become Saint Francis of Assisi—and the fictional knight errant, Roger of Vandria. This brilliant historical novel would be turned into a motion picture in 1961 and the edition by Ignatius Press remains popular with Catholic audiences to this day. I reviewed it a few years back—it's a personal favorite. It's the kind of book that should be required reading in every Catholic school. The Joyful Beggar is found in 309 libraries according to WorldCat.

Let's compare this with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison which is #6 on the "banned" book list compiled by the "Unite Against Banned Books" website. If one reads the summary of this novel, originally published in 1970, it sounds like a fairly typical exploration of racism in America. What few of the summaries reveal is that the book contains ugly and graphic depictions of sex, including a horrifying scene where a very young girl is raped. This book showed up in my house when I was a kid, and I read it as a teen, having no idea of what was in it. To this day, I wish I hadn't. And yet, amazingly, this book is regularly assigned as required reading for high school students. The Bluest Eye is found in 6,015 libraries or 19 times as many as The Joyful Beggar. 

So in case it's not abundantly clear at this point, none of the books on the banned books lists are actually banned. In fact, a strong case could be made that books with sexually explicit content—especially deviant sexual content aimed at children, teens, and young adults—are favored in libraries and are generally ubiquitous.

At the same time, excellent works of literature which promote themes of heroism, saintliness, the sacredness of human life, moral courage, and the glorification of Almighty God are much more rarely found. Dare I say that such books are largely banned from our nation's libraries?

I leave it for the reader to ponder how this situation has come to pass, what effect it is having on children and young people, and what should be done about it.