Grace Lafferty, an eighteen-year-old wing-walker, thrills crowds with barrel rolls and loop-the-loops in hopes of making enough money to get to the 1922 World Aviation Expo.

"These essays on a woman's wild ride through life give us Marion's bracing tonic–of–truth voice in splendid form—her voice that is always brilliantly funny, intelligent, brave, haunting, and full of surprises, revelations, and wise, wild connections. At this point, I don't think I could live without it. If you don't know her yet, your life is about to get better." —Naomi Shihab Nye Whether she is writing about the vagaries of family vacations on land and sea, about getting her tubes tied and the importance of a woman's right to choose, or her battles with her rebel pyromaniac teenage son, Marion Winik is searingly honest and unfailingly witty in the face of adversity. In this collection of essays, a treat for dedicated fans and new readers alike, Winik explores domesticity, midlife, and aging. A brand new final section brings Above Us Only Sky—originally published in 2005—up to date with essays from her award–winning column in the Baltimore Fishbowl, taking us through experiences with blended families, adult children, and empty nest.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER A classic YA novel about a teenage girl searching for a sense of home and family that celebrates the true spirit of independence on the American frontier. For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim. Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove. Her quest to make a home is championed by new neighbors Perilee Mueller, her German husband, and their children. For the first time in her life, Hattie feels part of a family, finding the strength to stand up against Traft Martin’s schemes to buy her out and against increasing pressure to be a “loyal” American at a time when anything—or anyone—German is suspect. Despite daily trials, Hattie continues to work her uncle’s claim until an unforeseen tragedy causes her to search her soul for the real meaning of home. This young pioneer's story is lovingly stitched together from Kirby Larson’s own family history and the sights, sounds, and scents of homesteading life.

~ She thought she'd lost everything ~ Instead she found what she needed most. ~Illinois ~ 1854Becky Hollister wants nothing more than to live out her days on the prairie, building a life for herself alongside her future husband. But when a tornado rips through her parents' farm, killing her mother and sister, she must leave the only home she's ever known and the man she's begun to love to accompany her injured father to St. Louis. Catapulted into a world of unknowns, Becky struggles to make sense of the path the Lord has placed her on and finds solace in corresponding with Matthew Brody, the handsome pastor back home. But when word comes that he is all but engaged to someone else, she must call upon her faith to decipher her future.