★ "A quiet loveliness, sense of gratitude, and—yes—happiness emanate from this tender celebration of simple pleasures."--Publishers Weekly, starred review The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful board book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy. International speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote My Heart Fills with Happiness to support the wellness of Indigenous children and families, and to encourage young children to reflect on what makes them happy.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Lucy Rebecca Buck was the eighteen-year-old daughter of a prosperous planter living on her family's plantation in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. On Christmas Day of that year Buck began the diary that she would keep for the duration of the war, during which time troops were quartered in her home and battles were literally waged in her front yard. The extraordinary chronicle mirrors the experience of many women torn between loyalty to the Confederate cause and dissatisfaction with the unrealistic ideology of white southern womanhood. In the environment of war, these women could not feign weakness, could not shrink from public gaze, and could not assume the presence of protection that was supposedly their right. This radical disjuncture, coming as it did during a period of extreme deprivation and loss, caused Buck and other so-called southern belles to question the very ideology with which they had been raised, often between the pages of private diaries. In powerful, unsentimental language, Buck's diary reveals her anger and ambivalence about the challenges thrust upon her after upheaval of her self, her family, and the world as she knew it. This document provides an extraordinary glimpse into the "shadows on the heart" of both Lucy Buck and the American South.

This author appreciates writing poetry, novels, childrens stories; the performing arts; and music of many genres. She was raised on gospel and country music played on an old Victrola phonograph with a black-and-white dog staring into a gramophone on the inside of the cover. Today, this author has become enamored with and is fangirling over country a cappella music, which is relatively new. Curious about the behind the scenes activities of a successful bands life, living on the edge of temptations in todays media-frenzied world, she created a believable group running through life on unbelievable favor, spearheaded by love between a wealthy, incredibly intelligent and beautiful African-American ballerina and a super talented tenor from the deep South and their unique way of overcoming racial issues with love. Murder, sex, and drugs fuel the life and romance of these two extraordinary, opposite, characters living and excelling way above the normal expectations of life, hinting into the cosmic pluralism like no one has ever experienced before. This author spent thirty-five years in the busy, topsy-turvy support area of corporate America, starting with the FBI and ending in the legal field, before being forced to retire on disability. This is her first adult romance novel. She writes and has published poetry on poetry.com with two poems published in anthologies; she was the author and publisher of Newsletters for Boy Scout Troop and Pack 731, The Indian Creek District, and for newsletters, service bulletins, and memorial programs for two churches. The author is a widow who lives in Waldorf, Maryland, with her son, daughter-law, grandson, and grandpup, Toli.