Showing results by narrator "Holly Linneman" in All Categories

Briallen Hopper's Hard to Love honours the categories of loves and relationships beyond marriage, the ones that are often treated as invisible or seen as secondary - friendships, kinship with adult siblings, care teams that form in times of illness, or various alternative family formations. She also values difficult and amorphous loves like loving a challenging job or inanimate objects that can't love you back.

Angel, Coral, and Shelly are best friends . . . and mermaid kittens. They love swimming around their home of Kittentail Cove and doing projects together at sea school. This collection introduces the friends in four fin-tastic adventures!

As a Russian Jewish émigré to France, Vera's wealth cannot protect her or her four-year-old-daughter, Lucie, once the Nazis occupy the country. After receiving notice that all foreigners must report to an internment camp, Vera has just a few hours to make an impossible choice: Does she subject Lucie to the horrid conditions of the camp, or does she put her into hiding with her beloved and trusted governess, safe until Vera can retrieve her? Believing the war will end soon, Vera chooses to leave Lucie in safety.

There's a contest happening at Kittentail Cove Library! Only one lucky purrmaid will have their poster displayed in the brand new reading room, and Angel is excited to help count the votes! All the art is amazing...but Angel really wants her friend Coral to win. When she finds some ballots that weren’t counted, Angel isn’t sure what to do. Is the contest ruined? Or is there a surprise in store?

Mermicorns Sirena and Lily are best friends at Magic School. They love to find special places to pratice their magic so when Sirena finds a spot on the coral reef that's perfect for a club house, she can't wait to take Lily there. But she also wants to invite her kitten mermaid friends to the club...and that makes Lily jealous. Does Sirena have room for old friends and new friends in her clubhouse?

Growing up in an Italian American family in working-class Boston, Anna lives a simple but comfortable childhood—filled with homemade meals and front-porch gatherings in a close-knit neighborhood. She and her sisters are devoted to their mother, orbiting her like the sun, trying to keep up with her loving but mercurial nature. When their father gets a new job outside the city, the family is tossed unceremoniously into a middle-class suburban existence.

It's Angel's birthday and she can't wait to celebrate with her purrmaid and mermicorn best friends! But the girls don't seem very excited to celebrate with her. They keep sneaking off to be alone. Angry and hurt, Angel swims out in the ocean by herself and finds Minnie—a manatee who needs help! Can the girls all work together to save Minnie? Or are Angel's friends too busy with their secret plans?

After everything that went down at Steele House, Hendricks just wants her life to return to normal. Prom is coming up, and the school is in full preparation mode. Hendricks tries to pitch in, to mimic her best friend Portia's enthusiasm, but the events of the last few months still haunt her. Steele House. Raven. Eddie.

Ms. Harbor's classroom has a new pet. A sea horse! The students are excited to take care of the little guy during the week. And on weekends, someone gets to bring the sea horse home for a visit! Shelly is the first purrmaid to bring him home . . . and he gets lost! Shelly asks her friends to help her find him before they have to be back at school. Can the purrmaids find the little seahorse in time?

It's almost Fish-mas in Kittentail Cove and the purrmaids can't wait for Santa Paws to arrive! When Coral's younger brother, Shrimp asks her to mail his letter to Santa Paws, Coral is happy to help! But then the day gets busy and the post office closes early and...will Santa Paws still bring presents if he doesn't get Shrimp's letter? With some help from her friends, Coral will do whatever it takes to give Shrimp the Merriest Fish-mas ever!

It's a special day in Kittentail Cove! Purrmaids have a chance to sing in front of the whole town. Shelly can't wait to try out. Especially once she hears this year's surprise guest. The winning purrmaids get to sing with famous pop star Kelpy Sharkson! There's just one problem. Shelly thinks practice makes purr-fect, but her friends get tired of singing all day. Can the purrmaids find a way to work hard and have fun?

A new student is coming to visit Sea School! The purrmaids are excited to make a new friend. But they're even more excited when they find out the student is a grrr-maid—half puppy, half mermaid. It's paw-some to make new friends from other parts of the ocean. But will jealousy between the purrmaids ruin all the fun?

Coral, Shelly, and Angel are best friends. They love exploring their home in Kittentail Cove. On the first day of sea school, their teacher asks everyone to bring in something special to share with the class. Shelly and Angel can’t wait to visit Tortoiseshell Reef to find an extra-special treasure. But the reef is all the way on the edge of the cove and Coral is scared to swim that far away from home. Can this scaredy-cat learn to be brave?

Halloween is just around the corner, and with it comes the dreaded overnight class trip at a smelly farm. Fonda has ideas for a way cooler trip, but before she can say Catalina Island, other kids (including her best friend’s crush’s best friend!) come forward with class trip proposals of their own. There's only one solution: a petition competition, and whoever gets the most signatures wins. Fonda enlists her besties, Drew and Ruthie, to help, but are they ready to do whatever it takes to win?

Ms. Harbor has a fun new project for the purrmaids: a scavenger hunt! The purrmaids must search Kittentail Cove to find items around the ocean. Some are rare, like a special piece of coral. And some are too plentiful—like plastic human garbage. When Coral, Shelly, and Angel visit their mermicorn friend, Sirena, they discover that Sirena's younger brother is caught in plastic soda rings. It's up to the purrmaids to help their friend and clean up the ocean!

Coral, Angel, and Shelly can't wait to work on their school project about creatures in the ocean. There are so many animals to choose from! How do you pick just one? Then Angel remembers something she read about in a book—a mermicorn! It's perfect...but are mermicorns real? Angel thinks so! And a student at the Science Center just might help her prove it!

Fonda thought she was on the same page as her classmates, but after hearing their anonymous questions about kissing, it appears Fonda is not only behind on getting her period—she’s behind in everything!

In Kittentail Cove, Paw-loween is a super fun holiday! Shelly, Coral, and Angel can't wait to decorate jelly-o-lanterns, dress up in costumes, and go to the Paw-loween festival! But Coral is a little nervous about the Haunted House. Can this scaredy cat learn to be brave so she can see her purr-fect pumpkin on display in the house? Maybe with a little help from her friends!

Mermicorns Sirena and Lily are learning amazing magic at school. When they take a field trip to the library, they learn how to make things disappear! Sirena is excited to try some new spells. But turning invisible isn’t just fun...it’s dangerous! Especially when you don’t read all the rules first. Are the two friends ready for such powerful magic?

When a mermicorn's horn starts to sparkle, that means she's ready for Magic School! Sirena can't wait to learn how to do all kinds of magic around the ocean! But magic isn't as easy to learn as she'd hoped. And to make matters worse, her school partner, Lily is way better at magic than she is! It's not fair! Turns out, it's hard to do magic when you're jealous or angry. Can Sirena learn to be a good friend and master her first magic lesson?