When they arrived, they hugged and hugged from the kitchen to the front room. All summer they tended the garden and ate up all the strawberries and melons. They plucked banjos and strummed guitars. When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer.

    Using scraps cut from the family's old clothing, Tanya helps her grandmother and mother make a beautiful quilt that tells the story of her family's life.

    Little Critter holds his hand so his grandfather doesn't get lost, demonstrates how to go up and down the store's escalator, and even shows grandpa how to use chopsticks for the first time!

    in full color. "In this gentle, moving story, Elfie, a dachshund, and her special boy progress happily through life together. One morning Elfie does not wake up. The family grieves and buries her. The watercolor illustrations, tender and warm in color and mood, suit the simple text perfectly."--School Library Journal.

    In highly readable, first-person style, Mason’s writing stimulates readers’ thoughts and prayers and propels couples to deeper intimacy. “A marriage is not a joining of two worlds,” says the author, “but an abandoning of two worlds in order that one new one might be formed.” Rich chapters on “Otherness,” “Vows,” “Intimacy,” “Sex,” “Submission,” and an all-new chapter on “Oneness” lift readers to view the eternal, spiritual nature of this faith-filled, “impossible,” wild—yet wonderful—frontier. Story Behind the Book"Over the twenty years since its publication, many couples have told me that they’ve read my book aloud to each other. This always amazes me and gives me great joy. I’m also amazed that many single people have read it. Either way, my goal is for hearts to be warmed by the mystery of divine love. I want couples to enter into deeper intimacy by thinking together about the mystery of marriage—about how their love, besides being a gift of God, reflects the very love He has for Himself in the Trinity. For God is not a bachelor, and throughout the Bible marriage is a supreme picture of the nature of God’s love and of His kingdom. I want people who read my book to feel so soaked in these wonderful, divine mysteries that it deepens their reverence for marriage and inspires them to greater love."   -Mike Mason

    Now years later, another girl discovers the quilt and makes it her own, relying on its warmth to help her feel secure in a new home. "A quilt that provides warmth, fun and comfort to two different generations is the star of this rich picture book . . . dePaola provides a warm, dignified interpretation of Johnston's stroy."--Booklist, starred review. Full color.

    Edwin H. Friedman shows how the same understanding of family process that can aid clergy in their pastoral role also has important ramifications for negotiating congregational dynamics and functioning as an effective leader. Clergy from diverse denominations, as well as family therapists and counselors, have found that this book directly addresses the dilemmas and crises they encounter daily. It is widely used as a text in courses on pastoral care, leadership, and family systems.

    You want to see them growing up happy, healthy, self-reliant, and confident in themselves and their abilities. You’ve also probably wondered if you'll be able to give them all this. There's good news: you can. Wayne Dyer shares the wisdom and guidance that have already helped millions of readers take charge of their lives and shows how to make all your hopes for your children come true.Learn valuable advice including Dyer’s original seven simple secrets for building your child's self-esteem every day; how to give very young children all the love they need without spoiling them; how to encourage risk-taking without fear of failure; action strategies for dealing with both your own anger and your child's; the right way (and the wrong way) to improve your child's behavior; the secrets of raising kids relatively free of illness; techniques that encourage children to enjoy life, and much more.It's all here – straightforward, commonsense advice that no parent can afford to do without.

    Within its pages, you will discover the cause of emotionally impaired families. You will learn how unhealthy rules of behavior are passed down from parents to children, and the destructive effect this process has on our society. Using the latest family research and recovery material in this new edition, Bradshaw also explores the individual in both a family and societal setting. He shows you ways to escape the tyranny of family-reinforced behavior traps--from addiction and co-dependency to loss of will and denial--and demonstrates how to make conscious choices that will transform your life and the lives of your loved ones. He helps you heal yourself and then, using what you have learned helps you heal your family. Finally, Bradshaw extends this idea to our society: by returning yourself and your family to emotional health, you can heal the world in which you live. He helps you reenvision societal conflicts from the perspective of a global family, and shares with you the power of deep democracy: how the choices you make every day can affect--and improve--your world.

    Set in the hills and hollows of western North Carolina in the years around World War II, it tells of ten-year-old Jess and his family -- father, mother, grandmother, foster brother, and an odd assortment of other relatives -- who usher Jess into the adult world, with all its attendant joys and sorrows, knowledge and mystery.Jess's father is feisty, restless, and fun-loving. His mother is straitlaced and serious but accepts with grace and good humor the antics of the men of the family, a trait she learned from her own mother. Johnson Gibbs is the orphaned teenager who comes to live with them on their mountain farm. Life on the laurel-covered mountain is isolated and at times difficult, but for Jess it is made rich and remarkable through his relationship with his father and, especially, Johnson Gibbs.Visiting the farm from time to time is a gallery of eccentric relatives who are surely among the most memorable creations in recent fiction. Uncle Luden is a womanizer who left the mountains years ago for a job in California that "paid actual cash money." Uncle Gurton has a spooky way of appearing and disappearing without ever seeming to enter or exit, but it is his flowing beard, which he has apparently never trimmed and which he keeps tucked inside his overalls, that is of most fascination to Jess.Uncle Zeno is a storyteller. With the words "That puts me in mind of..." everyone around knows that he is about to launch into another of his endless tales. Uncle Runkin, who always brings his handmade coffin to sleep in whenever he visits, spends his time carving intricate designs into the coffin and trying to find just the right epitaph for his tombstone. Aunt Samantha Barefoot stops by for a brief spell, too. A country singer and cousin to Jess's grandmother, she is a woman of uncensored speech (Jess learns a lot from her) and honest emotions. Chappell tells the story of all of these characters in a series of chapters that range from fantasy and near farce to pathos. As notable for its lyrical descriptions of the rural settings as for its finely honed vernacular dialogue, I Am One of You Forever shows us a world full of wit and wisdom and the sadness at the heart of things. As one would expect from a poet like Fred Chappell, every line offers its own pleasures and satisfactions.

    Now, the bestselling motivational author reveals his simple prescription for success with children, step by positive step.Drawing on the most comprehensive measurable results ever made available to an author – his "I CAN" course, taught in more than five thousand schools with more than three million participants – and his own successes and failures as a parent, Zig Ziglar offers sensible guidelines on:Praise and encouragement: Children can hardly have too much of the right kinds. Look for the good in your children and you will find it.Drugs: The latest statistics and a winning approach to teaching kids to say no, starting with cigarettes.Time: Quality time is not enough. Kids need a lot of time with parents (and virtually none with TV).Discipline: The loving parent will not shirk it.Sex and romance: Be frank, be firm, be realistic.And much more, in a book that is both refreshingly old-fashioned and startlingly new.Previous edition: 0-34541-022-x

    Marshall and Phyllis Klaus take parents and all those who care for new families into this freshly charted world, one they have been exploring for decades. The results of their fascinating research are illuminated by over 120 exquisite photographs, all of babies less than two weeks old. Your Amazing Newborn begins before birth with images of fetuses actually comforting themselves in the womb. We then see newborns less than one hour old crawling unassisted to the breast, recognizing the voices of their parents, and shutting our unwanted sights and sounds. Parents will learn how to discover an infant's clear preferences for certain shapes, smells, tastes, and tones of voice. They will be delighted by the ways babies seem to be able to ensure their own survival, and they will be amazed that within days after birth, newborns can engage in an intimate and reciprocal choreography, and nestle into a parent's embrace as though they had practiced for years. Your Amazing Newborn is a must for parents-to-be, grandparents, siblings, and caregivers; through its stunning photographs we see the first reach, the first mutual gaze-and most wonderful of all-the first spark of recognition that ignites a lifetime bond.

    Why do all couples have such a difficult time becoming-and remaining-close? Now, for everyone who has ever struggled with the pain of an unhappy relationship, psychotherapist Eileen McCann answers this age-old question in a book destined to become every lover's favorite bedside companion. McCann argues that the thorny path of love is nothing less than a highly choreographed dance that steps around issues of power, distance, and intimacy. With the help of Douglas Shannon's delightful and insightful drawings, McCann charts our unwitting steps in the dance of pursuit and avoidance and shows us how to transform it into one that returns joy and meaning to our lives. The Two-Step is a wise and witty guide to affairs of the heart that delights the eye as it instructs the mind. "I find this book to be a pictorial treasure of how we act, showing the games we play, while trying to hide what we want. Out of these pictures comes a clear realization of what we are doing. With that realization, we can laugh at ourselves and be inspired to make the changes we need to make." - Virginia M. Satir

    Rooted in an honest, harrowing, but ally ecstatic confrontation of the mother / daughter relationship in all its complexity and intimacy, it is at the same time an affirmation of continuity and identification."The Chuppah" comprises poems actually used in her wedding ceremony with Ira Wood. This section sings with powerfully female love poetry. There is also a sustained and direct use of her Jewish identity and faith in these poems, as there is in a number of other poems throughout the volume.Readers of Piercy's previous collections will not be surprised to encounter her mixture of the personal and the political, her love of animals and the Cape landscape. There are poems about doing housework, about accidents, about dreaming, about bag ladies, about luggage, about children's fears of nuclear holocaust; about tomcats, insects in the rafters, the influence of a name, appleblossoms and blackberries, pollution, and some of the ways women objectify one another. In "Does the light fail us, or do we fail the light?" Piercy writes with lacerating honesty about our relationships with the elderly and about hers with her father.Some of the most moving poems are domestic, as in the final sequence, "Six underrated pleasures," which finds in daily women's tasks both pleasure and mystery, affirmation of serf and connection with the mother.In all, My Mother's Body is one of Piercy's most powerful and balanced collections.

    

     After an afternoon ties her to her Highland love, Hector, Annie is desperate to finish her mission and rejoin him in the Cariboo. Through pitiful conditions along the way however, Annie is left to hand-rear a baby whose mother has died on board the ship... Determined to deliver the baby safely to his father, Annie continues her journey and ends up working for him, but it soon becomes clear that the father has fallen in love with Annie, urging her to stay. Dedicated to Hector, Annie fights the desire to stay in safety, and after a treacherous and dangerous journey, she is finally reunited with Hector, who soon strikes gold. Just as the two find a life of domestic harmony and contentment, Hector is taken by Indians, causing Annie’s heart to suffer a second blow... Through varying relationships with those she meets along the way, the novel follows Annie’s maturation into a wise adult in charge of her own fate. Jan Webster evokes emotion and empathy for the characters in this novel, whilst painting a vivid picture of the harsh but colourful lives of the Cariboo pioneers. A glimpse into the world post the Civil War. JAN WEBSTER was bom in 1924 in Blantyre, in the heart of the Lanarkshire coalfields. She was educated at St John’s Grammar School, Hamilton, and Hamilton Academy and sold her first short story when she was just seventeen.

    A seemingly simple automobile trip to Philadelphia is fraught with adventures for the Hoople family.

    A book which offers practical advice on the ethics and morality of dealing in business.

    

    First published ten years ago and now available with a new afterword by the author and her daughter, the diary of the author's first three years of motherhood, which charts her attempts to raise her daughter in a non-sexist way.

    Struggling to reconcile the desire to draw apart with God - to find her own spiritual "Walden" - with the demands to spend herself in the whirlwind of ministry to others, Jean set a major, year-long goal: "to simplify my life...to tame my schedule and to unclutter my environment."

    Who better to help the older-sibling-to-be than the friendliest man in the neighborhood? Mr. Rogers will help older siblings understand that they are not loved any less and to anticipate all the joy having a younger sibling can bring.

    Straightforward, no-nonsense poetry about being Black, female and gay.

    This is a reissue of the classic story about a mousy accountant's first trip to the seaside with his ex-pirate mother.

    Castle works as an atomic scientist, Mr. Castle takes care of the house and children so efficiently that he soon finds himself with nothing to do until the backyard plum tree gives him an idea.

    Both entertaining and instructive, this book is the ideal way to introduce all those involved in family treatment to this essential assessment tool.

    With the help of a terminally ill friend, eleventh-grade Jamie begins to question the values of some of his fellow students who seem to specialize in ridicule.

    McDowell explores the values and qualities that will help the reader, whether single or married, be the right person for someone else.

    While trying to go to sleep, a little boy is convinced that there are monsters in and around his room.

    

    As Amy and her family get ready to settle down for the night, the cat gets ready to explore and sees many things.

    Intended for those moms whose hearts have been broken by their children, this book helps readers to learn to trust God for victory over depression and despair.

    There are critical stages of mothering, and returning to a job must be very carefully timed, he explains. . . . This is a valuable book, made so by its realistic, intelligent approach."--Publishers Weekly"Three actual families . . . are followed from pregnancy through toddlerhood. The Snows are a young professional couple, she a lawyer and he an accountant, having their first child. The Thompsons are a single (by choice) mother, a sculptor and teacher, and her baby girl. The third family, the McNamaras, is a working class couple. . . . Brazelton examines these three families' decisions and dilemmas, such as when to return to work, choosing day care, dealing with special problems such as feeding, nursing, sleeping, toilet training, illness, etc. His voice is compassionate as he empathizes with the hard choices these people must make, and his advice is practical."--Bestsellers