Introduces readers to Ruth's day at a family reunion. Discusses the concept of family by showing Ruth with many family members, including her grandparents, her aunt, and her sisters. Additional features to aid comprehension include vivid photographs, Extended Learning activities, a phonetic glossary, and sources for further research.

A mischievous young vampire and penguin trade places for a day at the zoo.

The LYON LEGACY Family means everything…and family depends on love. Join Scott and Nicki as they uncover family secrets, betrayals and deceptions—and fall in love along the way—in this exciting conclusion to THE LYON LEGACY. "Family means everything." Scott Lyon's heard his aunt, Margaret Lyon, utter these words ever since he was a child. But now nobody knows where Margaret is and the family's falling apart. Then Nicolette Bechet—who has reason to hate the Lyons—unexpectedly offers her help. After the way his family treated Nicki, Scott can't believe her offer. He senses there's someone in her own family she's trying to protect. Her grandmother? Old Riva Maynard obviously knows more about the Lyons than she's willing to tell….

Mothering is messy. Our joy and hope in raising children doesn’t change the reality that being a mom can be frustrating, stressful, and tiring. But just as God is using us to shape our children, God is using our children and motherhood to shape us. In The Better Mom, author Ruth Schwenk, herself a mother of four children, encourages us with the good news that there is more to being a mom than the extremes of striving for perfection or simply embracing the mess. We don’t need to settle for surviving our kids’ childhood. We can grow through it. With refreshing and heartfelt honesty Ruth emboldens moms to: Find freedom and walk confidently in purpose Create a God-honoring home environment Overcome unhealthy and destructive emotions such as anger, anxiety, and more Avoid glorifying the mess of mom-ing or idolizing perfection Cultivate life-giving friendships At the heart of The Better Mom is the message that Jesus calls us to live not a weary life, but a worthy life. We don’t have to settle for either being apathetic or struggling to be perfect. Both visions of motherhood go too far. Ruth offers a better option. She says, “It’s okay to come as we are, but what we’re called to do and be is far too important to stay there! The way to becoming a better mom starts not with what we are doing, but with who God is inviting us to become."

In 1950, after her father passes away, Ruthie Stein knows she will continue to take care of their familys dairy farm, as she has always done, while also looking after her mother. But when her mother falls and breaks her hip less than two years later, Ruthie soon finds she cannot get by on her own. Her neighbors, the Packers, recommend that their cousin Ruth, who is single and unemployed, come and assist Ruthie with her mother in exchange for room, board, and a small amount of money. The two women soon become close friendsand then discover that their relationship goes even deeper than friendship, into an unexpected romantic love. Although they must be very careful while together in public, the two women blend their lives together over the course of the next decade and manage to find true happiness in one another. But when Ruthie suffers a bad fall, they must reevaluate how theyll proceed in their future. In this novel, set in rural Upstate New York in the 1950s and 1960s, two women meet, fall in love, and build a life together, in spite of the secrecy that society of the time requires.