Geraldine loves her baby blanket. Trouble is, she's no baby, and her blanket is old and tattered. "It looks silly," says her mother. "There's hardly any blanket left,"says her father. But geraldine refuses to part with her old friend. Will a new doll from Aunt Bessie at Christmas change her mind?

Geraldine loves her baby blanket. Trouble is, she's no baby, and her blanket is old and tattered. "It looks silly," says her mother. "There's hardly any blanket left,"says her father. But geraldine refuses to part with her old friend. Will a new doll from Aunt Bessie at Christmas change her mind?

Geraldine can't wait for the snow to come so that she can coast down the hill on her sled.

Blankets is the story of a young man coming of age and finding the confidence to express his creative voice. Craig Thompson's poignant graphic memoir plays out against the backdrop of a Midwestern winterscape: finely-hewn linework draws together a portrait of small town life, a rigorously fundamentalist Christian childhood, and a lonely, emotionally mixed-up adolescence. Under an engulfing blanket of snow, Craig and Raina fall in love at winter church camp, revealing to one another their struggles with faith and their dreams of escape. Over time though, their personal demons resurface and their relationship falls apart. It's a universal story, and Thompson's vibrant brushstrokes and unique page designs make the familiar heartbreaking all over again. This groundbreaking graphic novel, winner of two Eisner and three Harvey Awards, is an eloquent portrait of adolescent yearning; first love (and first heartache); faith in crisis; and the process of moving beyond all of that. Beautifully rendered in pen and ink, Thompson has created a love story that lasts.

Activities for 90 different children's books, covering time, art, cooking and snack time, creative dramatics, housekeeping and dress-up, music, movement, block building, science fun, nature study, library, mathematics (math fun).

With over 500 hand-picked titles, Healing Stories recommends carefully selected books essential for any adult looking to help children cope with their growing pains through reading. Featuring the long-established children's classics and the most recent library sensations, these hand-picked stories address kids' struggles - from the everyday to life-changing - while offering adults the information they need to make the right choices for their kids. Also includes useful tips to make reading fun and helpful for both adults and children.

Pride and Joy is a different kind of parenting book. In Pride and Joy, child psychologist Kenneth Barish brings together the best of recent advances in clinical and neuroscience research with the author's three decades of experience working with children and families. He shows how a deeper appreciation of our children's emotions offers parents a new understanding of their children's development and better solutions to the problems in their lives. Barish offers advice to parents on how we can restore more joyfulness and pride in our relationships with our children and how we can help children bounce back from disappointment and defeat. He shows how we can repair family relationships that have been damaged by frequent anger and resentment and how we can preserve our children's idealism and their concern for others--how we can raise children who feel good about themselves and also care about the needs and feelings of others. Barish also offers advice on how to solve problems of daily family life--establishing rules and limits, doing homework and going to sleep, winning and losing at games, our children's reluctance to talk to us, their tantrums and lack of motivation, and their addiction to television and video games. He presents down-to-earth recommendations for solving these common family problems--problems that too often erode the joyfulness of our children and our pleasure in being parents. Pride and Joy is both informative and highly practical, and a balanced answer to the extreme methods that too often dominate parenting debates. Few parenting books address the central issues of concern to today's parents while also offering parents as much day-to-day advice.