A "story of the multigenerational friendship between a vulnerable homeless youth who has experienced bullying and an independent woman who communes with the moon"--
Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Regional Fiction, Religious Fiction, and Best Cover Design Named by BuzzFeed as one of Winter 2021's Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books and Top 10 New Books To Add To Your Reading List! It’s hot, Texas, and the year 1977. Jimmy Carter is in office. The Walters are a good, churchgoing family who stand for holiness, purity, grace, and Christian love. Except when they don't. Family patriarch and fanatic preacher, Victor Black, knows many things for sure, including the fact that abortion is murder and should be punishable by death--a position he defends live in a televised debate. Black’s youngest granddaughter, Stephanie Walters, sits in the front row wearing her frilly Sunday dress, listening carefully to every word. But it doesn't take long for cracks to appear in the Walters upstanding family facade. Stephanie's mother, Lily, begins telling unsettling stories about having a baby who died, and her story keeps changing. It’s clear Lily has a secret--one that righteous Victor Black would kill her for if he knew. This family secret burns more than the lies . . . From the Moon I WatchedHer is a coming-of-age tale about the skeletons that lurk under church pews and the little girl who goes looking for and finds them. Amid the dark and quirky terrain of camp revivals, burning crosses, and public shunnings, one child from the Southern Churches of Christ cries out.
Even young children want answers to the hard questions about God and suffering. In The Moon Is Always Round, seminary professor and author Jonathan Gibson uses the vivid imagery of the moon to explain to children how God’s goodness is always present, even when it might appear to be obscured by upsetting or difficult circumstances. In this beautiful, full-color illustrated book, he allows readers to eavesdrop on the conversations he had with his young son in response to his sister’s death. Father and son share a simple liturgy together that reminds them that, just as the moon is always round despite its different phases, so also the goodness of God is always present throughout the different phases of life. A section in the back of the book offers further biblical help for parents and caregivers in explaining God’s goodness to children. Jonathan Gibson reminds children of all ages that God’s goodness is present in the most difficult of times, even if we can’t always see it.
May you, my baby, sleep softly at night, and when dawn lights the world, may you wake up to birdsong. Part poem, part lullaby, this gentle story celebrates a baby's wonder at our beautiful world. From Australia's favorite picture-book creator, Alison Lester, comes a timeless book to share and to treasure.
Ever wonder what animals do after dark? They dance the night away at a critter ball thrown for one and all! Children revel in a dreamy moonlit world where bobcats sing soulful songs, javelina click hooves on tortoise shell roofs and coatimundis drum right along at a critter ball thrown for one and all in Nancy L. Young's picture book, The Moon Saw It All. I wanted to create a magical world that stimulates children's senses and imaginations, says Young. And even though it is pure fantasy, it fills their heads with positive messages of friendship and an appreciation for nature. Even very young children can experience stress these days or become overstimulated by the days' activities, adds Linda F. Radke of Five Star Publications, Inc., who was a special education instructor before going into the publishing business. Reading The Moon Saw It All before bedtime or naps can have a calming effect, helping children relax and drift off into a safe slumber, filled with music, dance and a celebration of nature. Having relocated to Arizona from New Mexico as a child in 1950 and living most of her life in the Grand Canyon State, Young is what locals affectionately refer to as a semi-native Arizonan. She has called several Arizona cities and towns home including Tucson, Phoenix, the copper mining town of Hayden and Payson. She currently resides in Aravaipa Canyon next to Aravaipa Creek with her husband of 43 years. Although The Moon Saw It All is her first children's book, it's not the first time Young's work has been published. Her childhood poems, The Arizona Desert, It's Springtime in this Country and A lonely Shepherd's Tale were all printed in the Durango newspaper.
As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971, Al Worden flew on what is widely regarded as the greatest exploration mission that humans have ever attempted. He spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. During the return from the moon to earth he also conducted the first spacewalk in deep space, becoming the first human ever to see both the entire earth and moon simply by turning his head. The Apollo 15 flight capped an already-impressive career as an astronaut, including important work on the pioneering Apollo 9 and Apollo 12 missions, as well as the perilous flight of Apollo 13. Nine months after his return from the moon, Worden received a phone call telling him he was fired and ordering him out of his office by the end of the week. He refused to leave. What happened in those nine months, from being honored with parades and meetings with world leaders to being unceremoniously fired, has been a source of much speculation for four decades. Worden has never before told the full story around the dramatic events that shook NASA and ended his spaceflight career. Readers will learn them here for the first time, along with the exhilarating account of what it is like to journey to the moon and back. It's an unprecedentedly candid account of what it was like to be an Apollo astronaut, with all its glory but also its pitfalls.
An intimate, award winning story of immigrants and their families, the borders they cross, and the ties that bind us all together. Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna's name means "clear moon" in Spanish. But lately, her life has felt anything but clear. A letter has arrived from her grandparents in Mexico inviting her to stay with them for the summer. But Clara has never met her father's parents. All she knows is that he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager. When she arrives, she's stunned by how different her grandparents' life is from her own in the United States. They live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco. Their village of Yucuyoo holds other surprises, too—like the spirit waterfall, which is heard but never seen. And Pedro, a young goatherder who wants to help Clara find the waterfall. But as Clara discovers more about where she comes from, what will it mean for who she is now? What The Moon Saw is an enchanting story of family, home, and discovering your true self in the most unexpected place. "Filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. . . . a thrilling adventure . . ."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred "Readers . . . will find themselves swept up in this powerful, magical story, and they’ll feel, along with Clara, ‘the spiderweb’s threads, connecting me to people miles and years away’."—Booklist, Starred
Alfie lives off the coast of England. Merry lives in New York City. Until Merry and her mother set sail on the Lusitania for England, where Merry's father is recuperating from a war injury. People told them not to go, hearing rumors that the Lusitania might be carrying munitions. But they are desperate to be reunited with Merry's father. Alfie and his father find a lost girl in an abandoned house on a small island. The girl doesn't speak, except to say what sounds like "Lucy." Alfie's mother nurses her back to health. The others in the village suspect the unthinkable: Lucy is actually German-an enemy-because she's found with a blanket with a German tag. Told from Alfie and Merry's points of view, this exquisite novel tells of friends, enemies, and unexpected kindnesses.
"I've got you, and you've got me - so we'll be all right" . . . One day, adventurous Mouse sets off to find the moon with his Marvellous Moon Map, leaving his worried friend Bear behind. But as the Woods get darker, and the weather gets worse, Mouse soon realizes that he needs more than just the Moon Map to find his way . . . An emotional and atmospheric tale of true friendship, beautifully told by Teresa Heapy with stunning illustrations from Waterstones-Prizewinning David Litchfield