Family Storytelling

If you're young, old, or in the middle, get ready to laugh out loud with Erma Bombeck, America's funniest lady. This outrageously witty book proves that humor is the best way to keep on keel - even with a teenager in the house. You've finally figured out what makes your child tick, when one day you wake up to discover a teenager under your roof. Suddenly life is filled with a whole new set of worries.

For nearly four decades, David Sedaris has faithfully kept a diary in which he records his thoughts and observations on the odd and funny events he witnesses. Anyone who has attended a live Sedaris event knows that his diary readings are often among the most joyful parts of the evening. But never before have they been available in print. Now, in Theft by Finding, Sedaris brings us his favorite entries. From deeply poignant to laugh-out-loud funny, these selections reveal with new intimacy a man longtime fans only think they know.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Mystery Girl, The Mystery Cruise, and The Disappearing Friend Mystery. In The Mystery Girl, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are working in a general store to help out a friend of Aunt Jane’s. It seems to the children that the young girl who works in the store is behaving very strangely. She seems nervous and won’t answer any questions about her past. Then a strange man comes to the store asking about her. What secret is the mystery girl hiding?

This volume includes: The Animal Shelter Mystery, The Old Motel Mystery, and The Mystery of the Hidden Painting. In The Mystery of the Hidden Painting, the Aldens find a mysterious painting hidden in the attic. The children learn that it is a portrait of their grandmother, whom they never knew, wearing the necklace Grandfather gave her when they were married. The necklace disappeared on their first anniversary - and was never found. Can the Boxcar Children track down a necklace missing for so many years?

One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from. Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are orphans. Can they find a home where they can stay together as a family?

Three stories in one collection! This volume includes The Amusement Park Mystery, The Mystery of the Mixed-Up Zoo, and The Camp-Out Mystery. In The Mystery of the Mixed-Up Zoo, the zoo is wonderful - it has seals and giraffes and elephants and tigers, and Benny’s favorite, a little monkey named Amos. It also has a mystery. Someone is mixing up signs, switching off electricity, and endangering the animals’ lives. If the Boxcar Children want to save the animals, they’ll have to solve the mystery - and fast!

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes Mystery in the Sand, Mystery Behind the Wall, and Bus Station Mystery. In Mystery in the Sand, the Alden family is spending sunny days at the shore and summer nights in the mobile home right on the beach! One morning, Benny finds a gold necklace in the sand, and a search for its owner begins a trail of clues that leads to Tower House, the strange old mansion nearby. What will the Boxcar Children find there?

This volume includes: Benny Uncovers a Mystery, The Haunted Cabin Mystery, and The Deserted Library Mystery. In The Haunted Cabin Mystery, the Aldens are going with grandfather to visit his friend, old Cap Lambert, a retired riverboat pilot who lives in a cabin in the woods. To get there, the Boxcar Children take a wonderful trip down the Mississippi in a paddlewheel boat. But when they arrive at Cap Lambert’s cabin, they find some mysterious things are going on. Spooky phone calls, eerie flickering lights, strange dark figures. Is the cabin haunted?

An unnamed narrator abandons his unfinished thesis and returns to northern Alberta in search of what eludes him: the shape of the novel he yearns to write, an autobiography of his rural hometown, the answers to existential questions about family, love, and happiness.

Three complete stories in one collection! This volume includes The Mystery of the Secret Message, The Firehouse Mystery, and The Mystery in San Francisco.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Gymnastics Mystery, The Poison Frog Mystery, and The Mystery of the Empty Safe.

Before they were the Boxcar Children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden lived with their parents on Fair Meadow Farm. Although times are hard, the Aldens are happy - “the best family of all,” Mama likes to say. One day, a blizzard hits the countryside, and a traveling family needs shelter. The Aldens take them in, and the strangers soon become friends. But things never stay the same at the farm, and the spring and summer bring events that will forever change their lives.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Canoe Trip Mystery, The Mystery of the Hidden Beach, and The Mystery of the Missing Cat.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Mystery of the Lost Village, The Mystery of the Purple Pool, and The Ghost Ship Mystery.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Chocolate Sundae Mystery, The Mystery of the Hot Air Balloon, and The Mystery Bookstore.

From a distinctive, inimitable voice, a wickedly funny and fascinating romp through the strange and often contradictory history of Western parenting.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Great Bicycle Race Mystery, The Mystery of the Wild Ponies, and The Mystery in the Computer Game.

It’s hard being a person, especially in a family, and no one knows that better than stand-up comedian, family man, and Live from Here head writer and performer, Tom Papa. How do you deal with a life filled with a whole host of characters and their bizarre, inescapable behavior? Especially when you’re related to them? Tom Papa is here to help you make sense of it all. Your Dad Stole My Rake is a hilarious and warm audiobook that saws deep into every branch of the family tree and uncovers the most bizarre and surprisingly meaningful aspects of our lives.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes The Black Pearl Mystery, The Cereal Box Mystery, and The Panther Mystery.

Over the Hill and Up the Wall is an affectionate, funny look at the frictions of taking a more active role in our elders' lives. It's a nod to every child who has waited three hours for a parent to fasten their seatbelt, and every parent whose child assumes they can't count to twenty. And, if your parents are just hitting middle age, it may well be a warning of things to come!