Book picks similar to
The Ring and the Window Seat by Amy Hest
picture-books
historical-fiction
historical-stories
inspirational-childrens
A Pair of Silver Wings
James Holland - 2006
And for over half a century he had, for the most part, managed to put the memories of those years out of his mind. But fifty years on, he is alone - a widower - with a strained relationship with his only son, and a career behind him that has brought him respect but little affection.In 1995, Britain is celebrating the anniversary of the end of the war, and Edward finds himself forced to confront the tragedy he suffered during those years. Embarking on a journey of self-discovery and personal redemption, Edward travels from England to Malta and then to Italy, and in doing so comes face-to-face with the idealistic young man he once was, and the devastated and traumatised 23-year-old he was to become.Following his experiences over the skies of England in 1941, through the dark days of the Siege of Malta, to the partisan struggle in Italy, A Pair of Silver Wings is a story of friendship, love and the terrible legacy of war, exploring universal themes of grief and redemption, and one man's quest to heal the scars of the past.
If You Give a Pig a Party
Laura Joffe Numeroff - 2000
When you give her the balloons, she'll want to decorate the house. When she's finished, she'll put on her favorite dress...Fans of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie will love this perfect addition to the series!The If You Give... series is a perennial favorite among children. With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, these books are perfect for beginning readers and story time. Sure to inspire giggles and requests to "read it again!"Other favorites in Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond's bestselling series include:If You Give a Cat a CupcakeIf You Give a Dog a DonutIf You Give a Moose a MuffinIf You Give a Mouse a CookieIf You Give a Pig a Pancake
Courage Of A Highlander (Lairds of Dunkeld Series) (A Medieval Scottish Romance Story)
Emilia Ferguson - 2018
Daughter of a duke, son of a baron, and a ruthless English knight… Lady Rubina Invermore has a luxury that not many girls enjoy in the Highlands, the opportunity to marry based on love instead of negotiation. However, she feels duty-bound to choose a marriage that will please her parents: one that will further their holdings and security in the face of a looming and bloody with England. Now her heart has betrayed her…and she’s in a bind.
A Brave Highlander
Sir Camden Invering is more confused than he’s ever felt after rescuing the beautiful Lady Rubina from her English captors. His heart is totally enraptured, and he thought that she felt the same. But her cold indifference has utterly confounded him. He begins to wonder if he’s totally misread her. When he is taken captive himself in retaliation for rescuing the damsel in distress, his fight is not for her love, but for his very life…
A Love That Can’t be Stopped
Soon Rubina must make the most challenging decision of her young life—she must choose between love and duty. Duty and romance beckon to her from different men…and the decision is solely hers. However, her handsome knight must once again be brave and survive the conflict that threatens to take the decision from them both…permanently.
Should Lady Rubina choose the marriage she’s always anticipated—her distant cousin Callum, who she does not love but her parents will approve without question? Or should she follow her heart—her beloved Sir Camden, who both infuriates and ignites her in ways she never dreamed a man could achieve…and in the most delicious ways…?
Up Against the Night
Justin Cartwright - 2015
His ancestor Piet Retief, leader of the South African Great Trek, was killed by Zulu king Dingane in the 1838 massacre, along with a hundred men, women, and children. Afrikaner legend paints Retief as a homegrown Moses, bringing his people to the Promised Land. But Frank believes something rotten lies at the core of this family myth.Frank spends his days in his London home with his new partner and her son and the products of his wealth. But the return of his daughter, Lucinda, from rehab in California brings him intense guilt: having sided with him during his divorce from her mother, she crumbled under the weight of the bitter separation. Lucinda has brought home with her a mysterious boy, and they will join the family trip to Frank's beach house in South Africa--not far from the site of the 1838 massacre. In the lulls of their idyllic days, Frank unravels what really happened on that fateful day, and how it may connect to the violence of the apartheid years, and the violence encroaching on them even now.Up Against the Night is an enthralling tale of personal conflict and intrigue, set against the backdrop of South Africa's tangled past and troubled present, and told with tremendous color and insight. Absolutely original and gripping, it is destined to be as influential as JM Coetzee's Disgrace.
Harriet Gets Carried Away
Jessie Sima - 2018
She wears them to the dentist, to the supermarket, and most importantly, to her super-special dress-up birthday party. Her dads have decorated everything for the party and Harriet has her most favorite costume all picked out for the big day. There’s just one thing missing—party hats!But when Harriet dons her special penguin errand-running costume and sets out to find the perfect ones, she finds something else instead—real penguins! Harriet gets carried away with the flock. She may look like a penguin, but she’s not so sure she belongs in the arctic. Can Harriet manage her way back to her dad's (and the party hats!) in time for her special day?
Out of the Woods: A True Story of an Unforgettable Event
Rebecca Bond - 2015
"Inspired by the author's grandfather's experiences living in a lodge in the woods, a story of how people and animals survive a forest fire in a small Canadian town"--
Why is My Hair Curly?
Lakshmi Iyer - 2020
How she wished her hair was straight and smooth like Amma’s and Appa’s and her brother Avnish’s. Their parents had adopted the two of them when she was three-and-a-half years old and Avnish a six-month-old baby. Avantika often wonders if their birth mother had curly hair.There are so many questions in her head, the school year has started with hair-raising troubles and Amma is busy at work. Avantika finds a confidante in the mysterious paati she meets in the park.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
Kawai Strong Washburn - 2020
When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods - a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family's legacy.When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawaii - with tragic consequences - they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020. Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by the New York Times (#30), the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Oprah Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, BBC Culture, Good Housekeeping, LitHub, Spectrum Culture, Third Place Books, and Powell's Books.
The Book of Summers
Emylia Hall - 2012
Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and mementos complied by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent in rural Hungary. It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries; her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hungarian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the year Beth turned sixteen.Since then, Beth hasn't allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.
Sweet Offerings
Chan Ling Yap - 2009
It is not just a fictional story of the events that ripped one family apart, but a taste of Malaysia's historical political and cultural changes during its transition from colonial rule to independence and beyond.
Haven Point
Virginia Hume - 2021
As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, a handsome Boston Brahmin whose family spends summers in an insular community on the rocky coast of Maine.1970: As the nation grapples with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Oliver and Maren are grappling with their fiercely independent seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie, who has fallen for a young man they don’t approve of. Before the summer is over a terrible tragedy will strike the Demarests––and in the aftermath, Annie vows never to return to Haven Point.2008: Annie’s daughter, Skye, has arrived in Maine to help scatter her mother’s ashes. Maren knows that her granddaughter inherited Annie’s view of Haven Point: despite the wild beauty and quaint customs, the regattas and clambakes and sing-alongs, she finds the place––and the people––snobbish and petty. But Maren also knows that Annie never told Skye the whole truth about what happened during that fateful summer.Over seven decades of a changing America, through wars and storms, betrayals and reconciliations, Virginia Hume's Haven Point explores what it means to belong to a place, and to a family, which holds as tightly to its traditions as it does its secrets.
The Babe & I
David A. Adler - 1999
But life isn't all bad. America still loves baseball, and Babe Ruth is the star of the game. And two boys are about to discover that with some creativity, hard work, and a little help from the Babe himself, they can do their part to help out their own team!
The Beach Trees
Karen White - 2011
At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.
Otto Grows Down
Michael B. Sussman - 2009
He wished his ruinous little sister was never born and it comes true when time starts going in reverse! If he doesn’t think of something fast, he’ll disappear entirely. Otto is a modern Benjamin Button who reminds us to love the ones we’re with.
Maine
J. Courtney Sullivan - 2011
Courtney Sullivan explored the complicated and contradictory landscape of female friendship. Now, in her highly anticipated second novel, Sullivan takes us into even richer territory, introducing four unforgettable women who have nothing in common but the fact that, like it or not, they’re family.For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.” At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface.As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other.