Night manager at the swanky Madison hotel Skeeter Bronson is about to begin fighting for his job when he gets roped in to baby-sit his niece and nephew. He figured it should be a walk in the park, but when his bedtime stories start coming true he doesn't know if it's a blessing or a curse! Soon rainbow gumballs start falling from the sky...and that's not even the strangest thing that happens!
Life is easy for Skeeter Bronson. But when his bedtime stories start coming true, things start to get more than a bit strange. This 8x8 is a partial retelling that features full-color photos throughout. /DIVDIV
After he finishes his bedtime story, can Trevor find a way to keep the magic alive? This 8x8 is a partial retelling that features full-color photos throughout. /DIVDIV
Heartfelt, fast-paced, and utterly absorbing, The Gilded Girl is Alyssa Colman’s sparkling debut novel about determination, spirit, and the magic of friendship. Any child can spark magic, but only the elite are allowed to kindle it. Those denied access to the secrets of the kindling ritual will see their magic snuffed out before their thirteenth birthday. Miss Posterity’s Academy for Practical Magic is the best kindling school in New York City—and wealthy twelve-year-old Emma Harris is accustomed to the best. But when her father dies, leaving her penniless, Emma is reduced to working off her debts to Miss Posterity alongside Izzy, a daring servant girl who refuses to let her magic be snuffed out, even if society dictates she must. Emma and Izzy reluctantly form a pact: If Izzy teaches Emma how to survive as a servant, Emma will reveal to Izzy what she knows about magic. Along the way, they encounter quizzes that literally pop, shy libraries, and talking cats (that is, house dragons). But when another student’s kindling goes horribly wrong, revealing the fiery dangers of magic, Emma and Izzy must set aside their differences or risk their magic being snuffed out forever.
My books are a collection of Christian short stories with moral messages; they are designed for husbands to read to wives and vice versa at bedtime and for children to read to parents or relatives who are in nursing homes, hospices, hospitals, and assisted-living centers. Many are based on true stories that occurred in Toccoa, Georgia.
The award-winning author’s “gorgeously-crafted second collection of stories” explores moments of profound loss, discovery, and transition (Charlotte Observer). The stories in this volume explore the myriad ways people lose, find, and hold on to one another. When all else fails her characters—science, religion, family, self—the powerful act of storytelling keeps their broken lives together. Each story in this rewarding and multifaceted collection introduces people who yearn for better lives and find themselves entangled in the hopes and dreams that heal and bind us all. The title story—chosen by John Updike for The Best American Short Stories of the Century anthology—follows two generations of a family driven by the “patient and brutal need that people called hope.” In “The Jap Room,” winner of the 2008 Goodheart Prize, a woman tries to help her WWII veteran husband finally come home. “Rowing to Darien” introduces a famous English actress as she rows away from her husband’s rice plantation. In “Hush” a gravely ill man encounters himself in the darkness of Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. These and other stories deftly broach universal themes of love, loss, and the redemptive power of storytelling. Foreword by the Flannery O’Connor Prize–winning author Mary Hood
When Una Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written In to the land of Story—a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale characters. But not everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In—and fast—before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story's shadowy past. She quickly realizes that she is tied to the world in ways she never could have imagined—and it might be up to her to save it.
When everyone has settled down for the night, the horses at The Equestrian Therapy Center talk with each other about their day, the people they’ve helped, the challenges they’ve confronted, and the fun they’ve had. BEDTIME STORIES FROM THE BARN are based on actual experiences. Since they are “straight from the horses’ mouths”, the author has taken liberty to embellish the facts. The stories are to be read nightly by a parent, caretaker, or loved one to children ages six to twelve. Each story has a psychological lesson based on Biblical principles. Each story is designed to teach coping strategies, to provide insights into emotional and spiritual safety and security, and to promote sweet dreams for all attentive ears.
