A young girl in the Philippines uses music to connect with her grandmother as her memory fades in this warm and moving picture book perfect for fans of Pixar’s Coco. There is always singing in Lola’s house. Sammy Davis Jr. in the morning, Dean Martin in the afternoon, and all throughout the evening, old Tagalog love songs from Nora Aunor, Basil Valdez, and more. Lola always says: “If you want to hold on, you gotta sing your songs.” Her granddaughter tucks these sounds and Lola’s wisdom deep within her heart. And when Lola starts slipping into silence and stillness, she helps Lola hold on, piece by piece, with the joy and music that Lola taught her.

An honest romance and an empowering book about bullying --from the author of the City Love trilogy Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.

Set in rural South Carolina and urban North Carolina, in the novel Holding On: A Parable of Faith and Strength, we watch Sister Fullmore emerge through a very untypical childhood to become a very untypical woman. The book begins on her first day of school, where we see hints of the smart, sassy young woman she becomes. From a father who drinks his family into a life of poverty, to brothers who leave her to fend for herself, Sister's expectations for the male population are pretty low. Somehow, it seems the men in her life live "down" to those expectations. Her Grandma Hester tells her, "Pick your man, don't let a man pick you. That way you know what you're getting." Her mother's advises, "Don't fall in love with a man just because of his looks unless he has enough money to buy you a house." In all her sixteen years of living, Sister hasn't met one man who tempted her to forget that advice. Then she meets a fine piece of chocolate manhood named Joe Ervin Evans... A liquor house wasn't a place where a man figured on meeting the woman of his dreams, and finding a wife was the last thing on Joe's mind that night. Until he meets Sister, his smile has never failed to make a woman's heart melt. Undaunted by her seeming lack of interest in him, he sets out to convince this pretty little woman that she is going to be his.

Harvard-trained psychologist and Psychology Today parenting expert Carl Pickhardt gives parents an eye-opening look at what to expect on rocky road of middle school and high school, revealing the Four Freedoms that every child must master to become a healthy adult--and how parents can adapt, encourage, and grow themselves during these tumultuous times. Parenting a teenager is not for the faint of heart. It is during these roller-coaster years that frustrated parents find themselves at their wits' end, barely even recognizing their offspring as they move through the teen years. Carl Pickhardt, Harvard-trained psychologist and the voice of reason behind Psychology Today's advice column, "Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence," shares critical insights and practical tools that parents need to know as their children move through the teen years toward independence and adulthood. There's a reason the road is rocky--it's supposed to be. Children must pass through "four unfolding freedoms" in order to become competent, independent, and confident adults. How easily parents can navigate these twists and turns with less hand-holding, angst, and hitting the brakes directly correlates to how successful their children will be. The four unfolding freedoms are these: 1) freedom from rejection of childhood, around the late elementary school years, when they want to stop acting and being treated as children anymore. 2) freedom of association with peers, around the middle school years, when they want to form a second family of friends. 3) freedom for older experimentation, around the high school years, when they want to try more grown-up activities. 4) freedom to claim emancipation, around the college age years, when they decide to become their own ruling authority. With each successive push for freedom, both parents and teens need to learn how to do less holding on to each other while doing more letting go. Dr. Carl Pickhardt will show them the way with compassion, experience, and time-tested guidance.

Holding On reveals the results of an unprecedented ten-year study of justice-involved families, rendering visible the lives of a group of American families whose experiences are too often lost in large-scale demographic research. Using new data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering—a groundbreaking study of almost two thousand families, incorporating a series of couples-based surveys and qualitative interviews over the course of three years—Holding On sheds rich new light on the parenting and intimate relationships of justice-involved men, challenging long-standing boundaries between research on incarceration and on the well-being of low-income families. Boldly proposing that the failure to recognize the centrality of incarcerated men’s roles as fathers and partners has helped to justify a system that removes them from their families and hides that system’s costs to parents, partners, and children, Holding On considers how research that breaks the false dichotomy between offender and parent, inmate and partner, and victim and perpetrator might help to inform a next generation of public policies that truly support vulnerable families.

April had the perfect family, children that loved her and a husband that adored her. Happy and grateful for the life they built together, one bad decision turns her world upside down. Just when she thinks things can't get any worse, she receives a letter that threatens to change life as she knows it, once again. Follow this incredible mother through her raw experiences with trauma. Admire the way she copes with her pain. Laugh with her humor and cry with her sorrow. This powerful story will surely tug at your heartstrings.

Framing her own story of staggering loss and soaring hope with the biblical story of Job, Nancy Guthrie takes her fellow sufferers by the hand and guides them on a pathway through pain—straight to the heart of God. Holding on to Hope offers an uplifting perspective, not only for those experiencing monumental loss, but for anyone going through difficulty and failure. Includes a study section for readers who want to dig deeper into what the Bible says about dealing with suffering and grief. Additional sections include a Foreword by Anne Graham Lotz and a Resource section linking Scriptures with each chapter's lesson. Endorsements: “Only God could orchestrate such events. And only God could give the Guthrie family the faith and courage to live them. May he use this story to strengthen us all.”—Max Lucado “Nancy Guthrie's faith shines through some of the darkest clouds of human pain. This book and her story will touch your emotions and inspire your mind in an unforgettable way. Seldom will you read anything with such candor and insight, probing one of life's toughest questions: How can grief be a friend along life's journey?” —Ravi Zacharias “Holding on to Hope reads easy, runs deep, and enriches the heart! If you are stymied about God's goodness amidst life's heartaches, then this book's for you.”—Joni Eareckson Tada