Great Family

Allie is super excited for the Twirltacular baton competition, until she finds out she has to go to Brittany Hauser’s birthday party instead. What’s a girl to do?

Tooly Zylberberg, the American owner of an isolated bookshop in the Welsh countryside, conducts a life full of reading, but with few human beings. Books are safer than people, who might ask awkward questions about her life. She prefers never to mention the strange events of her youth, which mystify and worry her still. Taken from home as a girl, Tooly found herself spirited away by a group of seductive outsiders, implicated in capers from Asia to Europe to the United States. But who were her abductors? Why did they take her? What did they really want?

Since 1066, when William the Conqueror took the throne, English and Scottish kings have sired at least 150 children out of wedlock. Many were acknowledged at court and founded dynasties of their own. Others were only acknowledged grudgingly or not at all. In the 20th century, this trend for royals to father illegitimate children continued, but the parentage, while highly probable, has not been officially recognized. This book is a genuinely fresh approach to British kings and queens, examining their lives and times through the unfamiliar perspective of their illegitimate children.

Sidney Poitier is one of the most revered actors in the history of Hollywood. He has overcome enormous obstacles in extraordinary times and is a role model for many Americans because of his convictions, bravery, and grace. Poitier reflects on his amazing life in Life Beyond Measure, offering inspirational advice and personal stories in the form of extended letters to his great-granddaughter.

Much to their surprise, the Peaches had a great summer running their food truck business selling their pies across the Mid-West, but they're happy to be back home in Duluth, Minnesota, where they can settle back into a routine just in time for the new school year. That is until Great Aunt Lucinda wants to gift them her historic mansion. But there are conditions: they're to turn it into a cozy bed-and-breakfast, something the Peach kids' mom always dreamed of before she passed away. And they only have until Thanksgiving to do the renovations and prove they can make the business work.

In the rich turbulence of English history, one day stands magnificently apart: June 15, 1215, the day of the signing of the Magna Charta. On this day, the first blow for English freedom was struck and forever affected the Western world. Here is the story of three true men, Stephen Langton, Williams Marshall, and Hubert de Burgh, whose heroic deeds are set against those of the ever deceitful and crafty King John.

The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins and the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a queen's lap - and later her bed.

Between them, the three men in the fearsome Pierrepoint dynasty executed over 800 people during a career spanning more than half a century. Henry, his brother Thomas, and his son Albert, dispatched some of the most infamous criminals of the 20th century, and in the process earned a public notoriety that followed them throughout their eventful lives.

Parenting can be hard work, and our lives continue to get busier and busier. Is it possible to lighten the load but still raise great kids? From his experiences as a dad and interacting with countless other parents, Jay Payleitner has gathered scores of secrets worth passing along - simple things moms and dads have learned over the years. Some of the ideas are old-school secrets passed from one generation to the next; others deal with issues that would have never crossed Grandma and Grandpa's minds.

Win over depression and anxiety.

Poppy's Place is up and running, but Isla is frustrated by the time it's taking to rehome the cats. Then, she has a purr-fect idea - they could host a cat adoption event on Valentine's Day, to match the perfect cat with the perfect owner. But just as the plans for the Great Cat-acular are coming together, disaster strikes - Poppy's Place is flooded! Can Isla come up with a plan to relocate their big event and save the day?

An endearing adventure of the Arnold Pent family who followed an unconventional path as what some have called "the first modern home school family". In the early 1950s, Arnold Pent, Jr., and his wife Persis took their eight children out of public schools and began a million mile journey throughout the US and Canada together. Along the way, they presented their gospel message in churches, schools, and wherever they had opportunity.

We need to undertake the important task of evaluating our relationships intelligently. We need to recognize the people with whom God has called us to walk in mutually beneficial relationships and to identify those who will derail our destinies or hinder His purposes for our lives. Van Moody saw this need every day of his pastoral life, but he could not find a concise, practical resource for people who need to become more relationally savvy. The People Factor is his solution, based on the most effective, trustworthy relationship book of all time: the Bible.

When an eight-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother take turns describing each other, it's no surprise that "The Pain" and "The Great One" are the nicknames that emerge. As this duo debates whom Mom and Dad love most, their competition becomes increasingly humorous - because when it comes to family affection, there's no such thing as win or lose.

America's leaders say the economy is strong and getting stronger. But the safety net that once protected us is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy while health coverage erodes, more and more economic risk is shifting from government and business onto the fragile shoulders of the American family. In The Great Risk Shift, Jacob S. Hacker lays bare this unsettling new economic climate, showing how it has come about, what it is doing to our families, and how we can fight back.

Three complete stories in one collection! Includes Monkey Trouble, The Zombie Project, and The Great Turkey Heist.

The Stoddard girls know no life but an itinerant one, trailing their father from town to town as he searches for work. And in every small town, their mother, Elizabeth, does her level best to make each sparse, temporary house they inhabit a home. But the fall of 1937 ushers in a year of devastating drought and dust storms, and the family's fortunes sink further when a questionable "accident" leaves Elizabeth and her girls alone to confront the cruelest hardships of these hardest of times.

From relics of Georgian empire-building and slave-trading, through Victorian London's barged-out refuse to 1980s fly-tipping and the pervasiveness of present-day plastics, Rag and Bone traces the story of our rubbish, and through it, our history of consumption.

With thoughtful commentary, observation, and advice, illustrated with engaging and memorable anecdotes that are the hallmarks of John Miller’s previous books, Parenting the QBQ Way provides all moms and dads with the means and inspiration to be more effective parents - as well as teach their children how to practice their own brand of personal accountability - to create a happy, healthy family for a lifetime.

Privilege, tragedy, and family secrets shape the lives of Alice and Juniper, two young women brought together on the cusp of adulthood. When Alice’s parents are tragically killed, she moves to Paris to live with her mother’s society sister. Despite the opulence of her new life, she prefers the bohemian friends of her late parents and parties in Montmartre. It is here she meets her passionate first love, the enigmatic artist Xavier.