Swish Slosh follows the onomatopoeic escapades of a young child and their dog as they delight in the tactile joy of getting messy. This toddler-friendly book is composed entirely of sounds and adults and children alike will delight in a sweet story that calls to be read aloud with joyful emphasis and humorous inflection. Woosh swoosh slosh splosh— readers will romp through a day at the beach, enjoy a sweet treat and noisily make their way through bedtime routine in this vibrant board book conceptualized and written by award-winning author Deborah Kerbel and illustrated by artist Jacqui Lee.
When an ad for a vacation cottage catches the eye of a man on the edge of burnout, he impulsively sets off to visit the property while his wife and daughters are away. When he arrives and is ushered through the gate, he finds something far different from the typical vacation retreat. In fact, it seems he may have found the back door to heaven. The proprietor and people from his past welcome him with food, rest, and conversation until what started out as a little escape from everyday life turns into an experience he will never forget. This imaginative novel explores the big questions we all have about what lies beyond this earthly life. Readers hungry for a taste of heaven will find in The Gate hope, encouragement, and pure joy.
Center of Gravity weaves a chilling tale, revealing the unfailing and dangerous truth that marriages—and the people inside them—are not always what they seem. Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train. Her whole life, Ava Carson has been sure of one thing: she doesn’t measure up to her mother’s expectations. So when Mitchell Carson sweeps into her life with his adorable son, the ready-made family seems like a dream come true. In the blink of an eye, she’s married, has a new baby, and life is wonderful. Or is it? When her picture-perfect marriage begins unraveling at the seams, Ava convinces herself she can fix it. It’s temporary. It’s the stress. It’s Mitchell’s tragic history of loss. If only Ava could believe her own excuses. Mitchell is no longer the charming, thoughtful man she married. He grows more controlling by the day, revealing a violent jealous streak. His behavior is recklessly erratic, and the unanswered questions about his past now hint at something far more sinister than Ava can stomach. Before she can fit the pieces together, Mitchell files for divorce and demands full custody of their boys. Fueled by fierce love for her children and aided by Graham Thomas, a new attorney in town, Ava takes matters into her own hands, digging deep into the past. But will finding the truth be enough to beat Mitchell at his own game? “A bold, poignant look into an imploding marriage . . . compelling, fierce, and ultimately hopeful”—Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Someone Else’s Love Story “A breathless, gut-wrenching, satisfying page turner about the real superheroes of the world who stand up to evil and won’t back down.”—Erin Healy, author of The Baker’s Wife
★“This beautiful dedication to these special animals brings the reality and the irreversible finality of extinction to the forefront and calls on readers to act now, before so many other animals become endlings. Highly recommended for all collections.”—Booklist, starred review The endlings: the last known survivors of a species. Something that you may not know: in each and every case of a disappearing species, extinction had a face. Over the past 500 years, thousands of species of plants and animals have become extinct. The Late, Great Endlings pays homage to some of the more well-known endlings of the past century with rhyming stanzas that accompany watercolor illustrations and factual descriptions of each animal, along with the circumstances that led to their species' extinction. Together, these portraits of animals, like the passenger pigeon, the Pinta Island tortoise and the Tasmanian tiger, are a poignant symbol of a world irreversibly altered by human development, habitat loss and climate change. Readers are invited to reflect on the interconnectedness of all life forms on our planet with an additional look at animals that are at risk of becoming extinct in our lifetime. Concluding on a hopeful note, the final page offers suggestions for what kids can do to change the course of this mass species extinction crisis.
Effie and her gifted friends—Raven, Maximillian, Lexy, and Wolf—embark on another adventure to save the world from the evil Diberi. The second book in the magical Worldquake series, that’s “tailor-made for Harry Potter’s fans” (Kirkus Reviews), will leave you utterly entranced. Effie Truelove has just been expelled from magic class and now she can’t even get back to the Otherworld—the place she most loves and where she feels she belongs. If she can find a copy of The Chosen Ones by Laurel Wilde to give her father then she might be able to fix everything. The only problem is that there are suddenly no copies of the book anywhere, because Albion Freake, the richest man in the world, is paying for them to be destroyed so that he can own the single-volume limited edition that publisher Skylurian Midzhar is making for him. Raven Wilde’s witch’s intuition tells her there’s something suspicious about Skykurian’s plan, but she’s not sure what it is. And Maximilian has somehow managed to go missing deep in Napoleonic Europe. Will the five friends from Dragon’s Green—Effie, Raven, Maximilian, Lexy, and Wolf—be able to combine their skills again to save the world from the Diberi? And can they get away from Terrence Deer-Hart, the children’s author who seems a bit too interested in Effie’s life?