Family Culture

A boy and his elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village immediately after the Vietnam war.

In Karen Ball's Kaleidoscope Eyes, a woman "cursed" with a gift must join forces with a man hiding ulterior motives - or die. Born with synesthesia, Annie sees a pulsating World of color others can't perceive. This makes her a sought-after stained-glass artists and a key member of the K-9 Search and Rescue Team. But no one knows how well Annie hides her insecurities - until Jed comes along.

Eleven-year-old Jaden is adopted, and he knows he’s an "epic fail". That’s why his family is traveling to Kazakhstan to adopt a new baby - to replace him, he’s sure. And he gets it. He is incapable of stopping his stealing, hoarding, lighting fires, aggressive running, and obsession with electricity. He knows his parents love him, but he feels...nothing. But when they get to Kazakhstan, it turns out the infant they’ve travelled for has already been adopted, and literally within minutes are faced with having to choose from six other babies.

As their businesses begin and then mature, entrepreneurs face increasingly complex emotional challenges that they must navigate as they take their businesses from an idea to the maturation period of growth and expansion, to succession planning and divestiture, to the day they step aside. John Waldron has leveraged his own entrepreneurial experience and that of the hundreds of business owners he has counseled to build an essential framework that addresses the important balance between the tangible and intangible complexities of each stage of The Entrepreneurial Journey.

From guiding caregivers through how to define their own non-negotiable values, to navigating tricky conversations with their in-laws, Please Yell at My Kids provides listeners with the inspiration and practical tools to build a community of care in their own lives and reimagine parenthood in a joyful new way.

Make a lasting connection with your kid by learning how to effectively discuss life's most complicated topics. Tough Stuff Parenting will equip you to have thoughtful, age-appropriate conversations with your child. The biblically-based wisdom and practical tools you'll find inside will help you confidently engage your kid in meaningful dialogue. And when questions arise, your child will look to you first for answers instead of friends or the Internet.

With a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a "futureface" - an example of what the mixed-race future of America would look like. When Alex learns that her ancestry might be more mysterious than she believed, she becomes obsessed with learning everything there is to know about her ethnic and racial history. Through a blend of history, science, and sociology, Alex tries to solve the mysteries of her family and what it means to be American.

> Hideous Love is the fascinating story of gothic novelist Mary Shelley, who as a teen girl fled her restrictive home only to find herself in the shadow of a brilliant but moody boyfriend, famed poet Percy Shelley. It is the story of the mastermind behind one of the most iconic figures in all of literature: a monster constructed out of dead bodies and brought to life by the tragic Dr. Frankenstein. Mary wrote Frankenstein at the age of 19, but inspiration for the monster came from her life - the atmospheric European settings she visited, the dramas swirling around her, and the stimulating philosophical discussions with the greatest minds of the period.

In a small village called Yellow Stone, below the mountains of southeastern China, Sisi is a model sister, daughter, and student. She brews tea for her grandfather in the morning, leads recitations at school as class monitor, and helps care for her youngest brother, Da. But when students are selected during a school ceremony to join the prestigious Red Guard, Sisi is passed over. Worse, she is shamed for her family’s past - they are former landowners who have no place in the new Communist order.

Peoples are strange! The things they are doing and saying - sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads? And why so much saying, so much talking all the time day and night, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why so much? Why don't they be quiet? In the ancient stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember.

Returning to the beach cottage, a cottage named Scallop, where she has always celebrated her birthday is a special occasion for Alice Rice. Who will see the first dolphin this time? The first pelican? What will have changed? Stayed the same? And will this be the year she finally finds a junonia shell?

Vanessa, the daughter of Australian parents, grows up in Taiwan adopted by local farmers. The story follows her journey from 1978 to '89. She experiences a childhood surrounded by love, death, poverty, and beautiful nature. Vanessa discovers music to express her joy and grief. She puts her soul into the music notes, melting her listeners’ hearts. Music brings her into the larger world and on a journey to a surprise discovery. You will experience the Taiwanese culture in this heart-touching and uplifting story.

In 1677, 12-year-old Meg loves working with her widowed father in his London bookshop. When she grows up, she will inherit the shop. Then she will be independent and can choose her own husband. But her father remarries, and Meg’s plans are suddenly in ruins. Based on careful research, this novel offers a brilliantly detailed panorama of Restoration London and a view of women’s roles in that era.

Edgar Award-winning author Frances O'Roark Dowell is acclaimed for the rich characterizations in her poignant coming-of-age novels. Drawing on her experience as a colonel's daughter, Dowell delivers an evocative portrait of a 12-year-old girl whose view of life, war, and her dad - Fort Hood's base commander - changes as her corpsman brother sends home haunting images from Vietnam. An eloquent narration captures the emotional intensity of the novel's gripping prose.

Aufregung in der Savanne: Jemand spielt nachts gemeine Streiche. Und alle sind sich einig: Es war Pinsel, Tafitis bester Freund! Schließlich wurden eindeutig Pinselohren am Tatort gesichtet. Und die hat schließlich nur das Pinselohrschwein! Pinsel ist fassungslos. Niemals würde er so etwas tun! Tafiti glaubt seinem Freund. Doch ob sie auch die anderen überzeugen können? Am besten sie stellen eine Falle. Wer da wohl reintappt ... In Tafiti. Pinsel unter Verdacht sind Tafiti und Pinsel auf geheimer Mission.

It takes a starship to raise a child. Or a time machine. Or a tribe of elves. Fortunately, Geek Parenting offers all that and more, with thoughtful mini essays that reveal profound child-rearing advice (and mistakes) from the most beloved tales of geek culture. Nerds and norms alike can take counsel from some of the most iconic parent-child pairings found in pop culture: Aunt May and Peter Parker, Benjamin and Jake Sisko, Elrond and Arwen, even Cersei and Joffrey.

At the start of 1991, 11-year-old Ali Fadhil was consumed by his love for soccer, video games, and American television shows. Then, on January 17, Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, went to war with 34 nations led by the United States. Over the next 43 days, Ali and his family survived bombings, food shortages, and constant fear. Ali and his brothers played soccer on the abandoned streets of their Basra neighborhood, wondering when or if their medic father would return from the war front. Cinematic, accessible, and timely, this is the story of one ordinary kid's view of life during war.

Richard Peck is a master of stories about people in transition, but perhaps never before has he told a tale of such dramatic change as this one, set during the first year of the Civil War. The whole country is changing in 1861, even the folks from a muddy little Illinois settlement on the banks of the Mississippi. Here, 15-year-old Tilly Pruitt frets over the fact that her brother is dreaming of being a soldier and that her sister is prone to supernatural visions.

She's 17. She's been abused. She has a child. And she's HIV-positive. She is Ana, and this is her story. It begins the day she is born infected with HIV, transmitted from her young mother. Now she barely remembers her mama, who died when Ana was only three. From then on, Ana's childhood becomes a blur of faint memories and secrets: secrets about her illness and about the abuse she endures.

Christy waltzed with Doctor MacNeill in an enchanted moment. Suddenly the sharp sound of gunshots shattered the pleasant calm. Bob Allen and many of the residents of Cutter Gap are upset because a black family has moved into the Cove. When a hostile shooting and a series of threatening incidents befalls the Washingtons, Christy steps in to help. But it's a clue in the Washington's family Bible that may hold the real key to peace and acceptance.