FROM SARAH:

Elizabeth Ann must leave her home to move to rural Vermont and live with relatives. She needs a little extra care, though, so will anyone there understand her? If you're a homeschooling family, you'll especially love this one! (The characters are 👌🏼.)

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Thanks to her loving but over-protective guardian aunts, Betsy is a fearful, self-absorbed, nine-year-old hypochondriac. One of the most terrible items on her long list of fears is the horrid cousins her aunts never mention without shuddering. When her aunts are suddenly no longer able to care for her, Betsy is, incredibly, sent to live with those very relatives.

FROM SARAH:

Ten-year-old Naima excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy— or disguise herself as one. Excellent (and short!) for all ages.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Naima is a talented painter of traditional alpana patterns, which Bangladeshi women and girls paint on their houses for special celebrations. But Naima is not satisfied just painting alpana. She wants to help earn money for her family, like her best friend, Saleem, does for his family.

When Naima's rash effort to help puts her family deeper in debt, she draws on her resourceful nature and her talents to bravely save the day.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Summer has a magic all its own in Elizabeth Enright's beloved stories about two children and their discovery of a ghostly lakeside resort. These two modern classics are once again available in Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic editions, but now with handsome new cover art by Mary GrandPré to complement Beth and Joe Krush's original interior illustrations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Emily of Deep Valley is set in Betsy Ray's Deep Valley and tells the story of a young woman who longs to go off to college following her high school graduation, but whose family commitments demand she stay close to home. Resigning herself to a "lost winter," Emily nonetheless throws herself into a new program of study and a growing interest in the local Syrian immigrant community, and when she meets a handsome new teacher at the high school, gains more than she ever dreamed possible.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction.

FROM SARAH:

This debut novel from Amanda Dykes is a delight! Uplifting, historical, and dual timeline (I do love a dual timeline!). Hear me talk with Amanda about this novel, and our mutual love for Maine (without ever having been!) in Episode 133.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper: a rallying cry for hope, purpose . . . and rocks. Send me a rock for the person you lost, and I will build something life-giving. When the poem spreads farther than he ever intended, Robert Bliss's humble words change the tide of a nation. Boxes of rocks inundate the tiny, coastal Maine town, and he sets his calloused hands to work, but the building halts when tragedy strikes. Decades later, Annie Bliss is summoned back to Ansel-by-the-Sea when she learns her Great-Uncle Robert, the man who became her refuge during the hardest summer of her youth, is now the one in need of help. What she didn't anticipate was finding a wall of heavy boxes hiding in his home. Long-ago memories of stone ruins on a nearby island trigger her curiosity, igniting a fire in her anthropologist soul to uncover answers.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

A lyrical, captivating retelling of the Palm Sunday and Easter story from National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins, author of Rickshaw Girl, that is sure to become a beloved tradition for families of faith.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Angel Morgan needs help. Daddy is in jail, and Mama has abandoned her and her little brother, leaving them with their great-grandmother. Grandma is aged and poor, and doesn’t make any attempt to care for the children—that’s left up to Angel, even though she is not yet twelve. The only bright spot in Angel’s existence is the Star Man, a mysterious stranger who appears on clear nights and teaches her all about the stars and planets and constellations. “We’re made out of the same stuff as the stars,” he tells her.

FROM SARAH:

Hysterically funny and heartwarming, this story of friendship, loss, hope, and heart is one of the best books my family has ever read aloud. Especially wonderful for mixed age groups. Also fantastic on audio (Audible | LibroFM).

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Lena is Trille’s best friend, even if she is a girl. And there is never an ordinary day when you’ve got a best friend like Lena.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

Shanti trudges between her two worlds. She remembers her village and learns her new town. She watches Bollywood movies at home and Hollywood movies with her friends. She is Indian. She is also American. How should she define home?

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In this classic book, Madeleine L'Engle addresses the question, What does it mean to be a Christian artist? and What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L'Engle's beautiful and insightful essay, readers will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one's own art.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

A lyrical, captivating retelling of the biblical redemption story from National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins, sure to become a beloved tradition for families of faith.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

When relief workers bring used clothing to the refugee camp, everyone scrambles to grab whatever they can. Ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly, until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. But soon Lina and Feroza meet and decide that it is better to share the sandals than for each to wear only one.