A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People Arnold Adoff Poetry Honor Award This lyrical middle-grade novel-in-verse celebrates the power of story and of finding one’s individual voice. Keet knows the only good thing about moving away from her Alabama home is that she'll live near her beloved grandfather. When Keet starts school, it's even worse than she expected, as the kids tease her about her southern accent. Now Keet, who can "talk the whiskers off a catfish," doesn't want to open her mouth. While fishing with her grandfather, she learns the art of listening and gradually, she makes her first new friend. But just as she's beginning to settle in, her grandfather has a stroke, and even though he's still nearby, he suddenly feels ever-so-far-away. Keet is determined to reel him back to her by telling him stories; in the process she finds her voice and her grandfather again. A Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices Selection

In a murky swamp on the east side of Flat Lake Sanctuary is a magical place located deep in a murky swamp in Louisiana. It is protected by woodland fairies, sylvan, werewolves and magical humans called guardians. Additionally, Sanctuary itself has its own immune defense against trespassers. But Sanctuary has no protection against the dark fey that have escaped from the netherworld prisons of Faerie. The demons and other dark fey have set their sights on the Sanctuary’s destruction. When Jean Lafitte Gateaux, the most powerful guardian to enter Sanctuary in 300 years, joins forces with the other protectors to defend Sanctuary, they go head-to-head with the dark fey and the menacing demon behind it all—Golva, the chaos demon. Blackwater Magic offers fantasy fans an epic collision between good and evil. As the protectors of Sanctuary race against the clock to prevent its destruction, readers are left with bated breath and the beating question: Will time be on their side?

Welcome back to Grace Valley, California, where the best things in life never change... Here in this peaceful community, folks look out for one another like family, though sometimes a little too well. In a town like this, it's hard to keep a secret--but Dr. June Hudson has managed to keep one heck of a humdinger.... Though visits from her secret lover, undercover DEA agent Jim Post, are as clandestine as they are passionate, somehow it fits with her demanding schedule as the town's doctor--a calling that requires an innate ability to exist on caffeine, sticky buns and nerves of steel. But how can a secret lover compete with a flesh-and-blood heartthrob from her past? June's old flame has just returned to town after twenty years--and he's divorced. June is seriously rattled. So when the town's most devoted wife takes buckshot to her husband and some human bones turn up in her aunt Myrna's backyard, she's almost happy for the distraction. Sooner or later, love will have its way in Grace Valley. It always does.

For two decades in Long Beach, California, August Hunter operates as one of the city's most powerful gang lords. But as his life alternates between the violence of the streets and the brutality of the California prison system, Hunter struggles in his heart and mind with the senselessness of the gang scene. Hunter finally surrenders to the greater forces that have been at work in his life, and he encounters the real "Lord of Long Beach." The book reads like a modern-day urban Exodus, from his bitter childhood in the housing projects of New Orleans, to his move with his mother to Long Beach and his rise through the youth gangs, to the pinnacle of his power in the adult gangs and the suffering of three prison terms, and finally to his emotional collapse and rebirth. Hunter's story is a valuable one-for young men and women at risk on the streets, for those in our prisons and jails who find little hope there, and for anyone seeking to make a stronger connection between their everyday life and their faith.

Dad takes an unplanned detour during a family vacation to Winnipeg. He is lured by the Canadian lakes he fished as a young boy with his stepfather Cal and Uncle Joe. The rediscovery renews a dogged pursuit of the rare and elusive, freshwater monster -- the muskie. With single-minded fixation, three generations of Hawkins men (and an assortment of neighborhood kids) escape from civilization to focus annual fishing adventures on capturing a world-record muskie. Motivated by the enthusiasm of his young sons Z and Buck, Hawkins embarks on fishing expeditions to Big Bluff, the special lake of his youth. Grandpa Cal is invited to join the party and remains the grumpy skeptic based on past fishing experiences: "You knuckleheads couldn’t land a big one if it jumped in your pants." But for Hawkins and eldest son Z, no storm is too fierce, no forest too mosquito infested, and no boat motor too undependable to derail their dream. Comical predicaments and sometimes dangerous circumstances pepper the long hours and special moments the men share fishing on the intricate system of beautiful lakes that connect to Big Bluff. Early morning trips to the camp outhouse and greasy, dirty-dish-producing breakfasts prepared by Grandpa Cal fuel many extended days on the sacred water. Beyond fantastic speculations of giant fish and murderers, descriptions of fishing reel the reader into the ebb and flow of each day’s adventures. Roscoe, the boisterous, quirky camp owner, and muskie mentor Jasper, are just two of the colorful characters who inhabit the wilderness setting where the Hawkins men establish their tradition. Through a dense haze of evening mosquitoes and whisky breath, Roscoe tantalizes the boys with tales of "ji-uhnd" muskies as big as his "laig." Roscoe reveals treasured “secrid” directions to a hidden muskie promise land that will require navigating cluttered creeks, pushing heavy boats over multiple beaver dams, and a boatless portage through the forest. Years pass and normal life ensnares each of the men. Hawkins sees his fragile marriage with wife Abbey erode, watches his boys grow into men, and witnesses the unforgiving aging process claim vitality from his mother, Cal, and Uncle Joe. A strong desire to fully understand the people closest to him gives rise to a personal philosophy for Hawkins that probes and questions normally accepted "truths." Respect grows for his strong-willed mother, and Hawkins learns to cherish every occasion spent with Cal, Uncle Joe, and the boys. His marriage eventually ends and forces a difficult transition to a new life away from Z and Buck. But Hawkins gratefully learns that setbacks are not permanent. He discovers love for a spirited woman who often challenges his "simple-minded" male values. Can she accept the baffling worldview of this family of fanatical fishing nuts?

Sometimes human communication falls short in conveying spiritual truth. God speaks through whatever means He chooses and often he chooses animals. Dogs teach unconditional love. The purr of a kitten can bring peace. Horses show us how to harness our strength with grace. Paws to Reflect offers gentle daily reflections for those who seek to grow spiritually by observing the animal kingdom and all the lessons it teaches.