I have written this book not only for myself but also for older children and other adults having experienced the same grief in their early life. There are psychological studies that allow for the fact, that older children beginning around the age of eleven, grieve more like adults then children ten years of age or younger. So when I started exploring some of my early memories, the adult in me began to change grief into substantial belief in my self. And so this book was born

When Maggie’s treasure collection grows too big to manage, she finds a creative solution. Maggie finds treasure wherever she goes. Whether it’s a button, a feather or a shiny stone, she picks it up and takes it home. At first the neighbors and city workers are grateful to Maggie for cleaning up; the mayor even gives her an award. But over time Maggie’s collection grows bigger and bigger, until it spills out of her house and garden in an unsightly mess. Her parents tell her “Enough treasure!” and eventually even Maggie realizes that something must be done. Finally, inspired by a bird outside her window, she finds a way to share her treasure that enchants and transforms the entire neighborhood. Jon-Erik Lappano and Kellen Hatanaka, winners of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Tokyo Digs a Garden, have created a stunning picture book about a child who turns her passion for collecting into a pleasure for her community. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

In this exuberant celebration of the world's museums, great and small, revered writers like Ann Patchett, Julian Barnes, Ali Smith, and more tell us about their favorite museums, including the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York, the Mus'e Rodin in Paris, and the Prado in Madrid. These essays, collected from the pages of The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine, reveal the special hold that some museums have over us all. Acclaimed novelist William Boyd visits the Leopold Museum in Vienna -- a shrine to his favorite artist, Egon Schiele, whom Boyd first discovered on a postcard as a University student. In front of her favorite Rodins, Allison Pearson recalls a traumatic episode she suffered at the hands of a schoolteacher following a trip to the Mus'e in Paris. Neil Gaiman admires the fantastic world depicted in British outsider artist Richard Dadd's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke," a tiny painting that also decorated the foldout cover of a Queen album, housed in the Victorian room of Tate Britain's Pre-Raphaelite collection. Ann Patchett fondly revisits Harvard University's Museum of Natural History -- which she discovered at 19, while in the throes of summer romance with a biology student named Jack. Treasure Palaces is a treasure trove of wonders, a tribute to the diversity and power of the museums, the safe-keepers of our world's most extraordinary artifacts, and an intimate look into the deeply personal reveries we fall into when before great art.

My primary reason for recording the events of these youthful years is for the pure and simple enjoyment of my children and grandchildren. My two incredible daughters, Chrissy and Jenny, and my wonderful wife, Connie, have been lovingly prompting me for years to do this. So here you have it. Not all of it, but some of it. Growing up in Carroll, Iowa, in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s was so exciting and so much fun that words cannot capture the reality of it all. My brother Snap and I were Mark Twains Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn with one major difference. We actually did all this stuff and somehow lived to tell about it. Each chapter is written according to my recollections. There was no collaboration with Snap or any other characters in this book. Some of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals and their families. I have written as if I were telling the story at that age and corresponding state of mind. Its not intended to be perfect prose. Far from it! Its an effort to take you on a fun-filled journey back to a time and times that should not pass with my passing. The chapters of this book are not in chronological order. So kick back and read them at any time and in any order that piques your interest. All of these events truly happened. I know because I was there. And I wrote the book. I am John W. Bruner.

Shattered by the loss of her parents, Linda Freeman struggled each day to be there for her teenage brother, Jason. When she opens a gift shop in her hometown of Aurora, Illinois, she never expected to feel a deep longing for her landlord, Roger Page of the Westgate Mansion. He represents not only money, but power and authority. Having seen her own father control her mother's life made Linda vow to never to let any man control her own. Their affair would shake both their lives and would challenge everything they believed in about loving each other. Could she put the bitter feelings of the past behind her? Could she give him her heart so that he could love and treasure it always? Treasure My Heart will leave you touched and you'll never forget the passion and challenge of the love that is captured and treasured.