By Fr. DAVID QUINLAN N addition to the small shelf of books available to parents interested in sex educa tion at home is Towards Maturity (11s.), completing the Notre Dame booklets My Dear Daughter, comprising For Girls (Is. 9d.) and For Young Girls
(1s. 6d.) in their 5th edition. The new book gives clear ideas about the vocations offered to girls in the acceptance or surrender of married life.
Its four sections deal with sex (revision of knowledge, examination of modesty and purity, and self-control) and marriage (preparation, courtship and engagement, the wedding Rite and Nuptial Mass); then comes Matrimony (and divorce, separation, "mixed", the rightful use' of marriage); Virginity On Religion, the world, or a Secular Institute); andOur Lady (her marriage and virginal motherhood, privileges, and the offices she fulfills for souls).
With balanced outlook, sympathetic understanding of aspirations and anxieties, this thorough and splendid book gives unfailing help towards the maturity necessary for the choice and happy fulfilment of a way of life.
Positive outlook
THESE books are published by the Catholic Printing Co., Farnworth, Bolton, Lancs., and prices quoted are post free, as also is my Sea and Your Children (4s.), already familiar to Catholic Herald readers. That it has sold 17 copies daily since it appeared fifteen months ago is largely due to the support of Bishop Brunner, its original promoter, and Bishop Pearson, and of the Union of Catholic Mothers which is introducing it into every parish in the Salford diocese.
Parents will also find help in Sex and Innocence, by Jerome O'Shea, S.J. (Mercier Press, 2s.) and Accent on Purity by Joseph E. Haley, C.S.C. (Fides Publishers, 8s. 6d.) which outlines principles of sex education and goes on to "A Suggested Instruction on Purity", in which sex is explained as incidental to the practice of a virtue. The method is excellent and the outlook positive. The illustrations are fresh and simple, whereas those in Audrey Kelly's Life and Our Children are heavy and unsure in perspcotive (Burns Oates 35. 6d.) although the text, inclined to overstate occasionally, is sensible and likely to set parents thinking and discussing.
Home noises
ALONG-PLAYING American record now available here, Christopher Talks on Sex, is complete with background home noises and a hearty effort to be at ease. At a second hearing the considerable value of the record appears.
Among good, less expensive books are also Modern Youth and Chastity by Gerald Kelly, SJ. (Queen's Work, 3s. 6d.) which has sold widely; Through Parents to Christ, by Patrick Rorke, S.J. (Birchley Hall Press, 4s.), a brief, convincing statement of the duty of parents in this matter. As Archbishop Heenan comments in a foreword. sending children to a Catholic school is only the less important half of their education.
For deeper reading on a special problem we have The Only Child, by Charles Combaluzicr (Mercier Press, 5s.) and for parents who promote casual discussion and argument at home (an excellent means of indirect education) there is Canon F. H. Drinkwater's Talks to Teen-agers (Burns Oates, 75. 6d.). Ten good books for less than fifty shillings, and each worth twice the price. Make good use of this reader's market.