Caya Braswell has found her life turned upside down, not for the first time in her life. She managed to move on with life and start a teaching career after she was orphaned at a very young age when her parents were killed in an automobile accident. She has just established herself in the world when she becomes something she never expected. She meets a handsome young man who helps her traverse this new world in which she has been cast, all the while trying not to lose the essence of herself to that same world.

Rookie Ready to Learn titles help develop young children's language and early reading skills as they engage in topic-rich conversations. At the heart of each title is an engaging, informational story that is written in a friendly, easy-to-read format. At the end of each book are activity pages-especially designed to deepen children's developing skills through fun, engaging, and research-based activities. The All About Me! subset focuses on how a child sees himself relative to his contemporaries, community, and family, by focusing on development of self, including self awareness and relating to others. Sometimes, people are special because of what they do. This girl likes to play dress-up, read, and paint. How about you?

Celebrate diversity and natural Black hair with this bright, joyful level 1 Step Into Reading book that will have girls everywhere repeating the book's chorus: "I love being me!" Girls will love seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhyming, Step 1 reader about the joy of being a girl. Full of positive affirmations and bright scenes of girls enjoying their favorite activities, such as reading, soccer, cooking, swimming, and gardening, this easy reader promotes girls' self-esteem and smarts. Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. Look for all the books in the Happy Hair series: • Happy Hair • Cool Cuts • I'm Growing Great • Smart Sisters • I Am Born to Be Awesome! (Step Into Reading)

Three gifted poets team up with a collection of poems dealing with worries and anxieties and find ways to develop empathy and mindfulness. Read about the Land of Blue, where it's ok to feel sad, find ideas for what to do with worries, or how to slow down when your head is full of hurry. Give yourself time to chill out, find quiet voices in noisy places, and discover kindness in yourself and others. Then maybe your own special thought machine will tell you, "This is going well. You're doing great. You've got this!" And you have! This important and unique anthology of 45 poems by three leading poets, well known for their empathy and perception, speaks to the heart of what children think and care about, offering understanding, support, and encouragement.

A heartfelt, humorous story of a teen boy’s impulsive road trip after the shock of his lifetime—told entirely in lists! Darren hasn’t had an easy year. There was his parents’ divorce, which just so happened to come at the same time his older brother Nate left for college and his longtime best friend moved away. And of course there’s the whole not having a girlfriend thing. Then one Thursday morning Darren’s dad shows up at his house at 6 a.m. with a glazed chocolate doughnut and a revelation that turns Darren’s world inside out. In full freakout mode, Darren, in a totally un-Darren move, ditches school to go visit Nate. Barely twenty-four hours at Nate’s school makes everything much better or much worse—Darren has no idea. It might somehow be both. All he knows for sure is that in addition to trying to figure out why none of his family members are who they used to be, he’s now obsessed with a strangely amazing girl who showed up out of nowhere but then totally disappeared. Told entirely in lists, Todd Hasak-Lowy’s debut YA novel perfectly captures why having anything to do with anyone, including yourself, is: 1. painful 2. unavoidable 3. ridiculously complicated 4. possibly, hopefully the right thing after all.

A little girl makes a huge mess playing in the kitchen. Includes brief notes about how children explore their environment.

The adorable and spunky Ruby learns a new life lesson about sharing: "just for me" isn't nearly as much fun as "just for us!" When Ruby has something special, she likes to say "just for me!" That includes everything from her dolly to the colorful candy sprinkles she uses to decorate her cookies. But when a friend comes over for playtime, Ruby takes her mantra just one step too far, and a precious toy is broken. Just when it looks like playtime has been ruined, Ruby realizes that having a friend is much more fun than having everything to herself. "Sharing is caring" has never felt so spot-on as it does in Just For Me. With sparse text and bright, bold illustrations, this is the perfect story for parents to share with their little readers--and for readers to share with their friends!