Princess Rosie is woken in the night by a very strange noise. Just what could it be? Together with her best friend Ollie, she goes on a hunt round the royal castle to find out. It's going to be a very spooky night!

When children experience upheaval and trauma, adults often view them as either vulnerable and helpless or as resilient and able to easily “bounce back.” But the reality is far more complex for the children and youth whose lives are suddenly upended by disaster. How are children actually affected by catastrophic events and how do they cope with the damage and disruption? Children of Katrina offers one of the only long-term, multiyear studies of young people following disaster. Sociologists Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek spent seven years after Hurricane Katrina interviewing and observing several hundred children and their family members, friends, neighbors, teachers, and other caregivers. In this book, they focus intimately on seven children between the ages of three and eighteen, selected because they exemplify the varied experiences of the larger group. They find that children followed three different post-disaster trajectories—declining, finding equilibrium, and fluctuating—as they tried to regain stability. The children’s moving stories illuminate how a devastating disaster affects individual health and well-being, family situations, housing and neighborhood contexts, schooling, peer relationships, and extracurricular activities. This work also demonstrates how outcomes were often worse for children who were vulnerable and living in crisis before the storm. Fothergill and Peek clarify what kinds of assistance children need during emergency response and recovery periods, as well as the individual, familial, social, and structural factors that aid or hinder children in getting that support.

No mother is prepared for the moment when a child comes out to her as a person whose physical gender is out-of-keeping with his emotional and psychological gender-identity. In Michelle Alfano's intimate memoir, she recounts her experience as the mother of a transgender child. The central metaphor of The Unfinished Dollhouse tells the story: on Frankie's fourth birthday, her parents Michelle and Rob purchased a kit to create a beautiful dollhouse. Michelle imagined building the home, buying the tiny pieces of furniture and accessories to fill it and, more importantly, the times she and her daughter would spend constructing the perfect dollhouse - a fantasy of domestic and familial happiness. Frankie expressed no interest in such typically girlish pursuits because Frankie harboured a secret - a secret about gender. In the years to follow, Frankie's parents experienced an education in parenting a child transitioning from female to male - which pronouns to use, how to disclose the information to friends, family, school and how to deal with the reactions of all - some heartening, some surprising, some disappointing. There is no memoir like The Unfinished Dollhouse in the Canadian cultural landscape, a memoir by the mother of a transgender child.

Includes songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment.

If you know me, you know about my love of the critters that come visit me almost every day. Of course, I am closest to my sweet friend, “Little squirrel” that visits me every night at 5:00pm for his peanuts. The minute he hears me shake the peanut bag he knows it is “din din” time and all but trips over his own little paws to get to the tree where I place the peanuts on a concrete block that sits at the bottom of his tree! He loves watching me as much as I enjoy watching him! I also have 2 feral cats; a little gray kitten and a big ole’ long haired black cat with a white chest that looks very handsome and formal in his “tuxedo” when he comes to eat each day. He always looks like he is bored with life when he looks at me with his large deep set orange eyes. Little gray kitten just loves picking on him too! These two are so funny! They always keep me amused. Oh! I have the cutest bunny ever that hops through my side yard every day (especially when we plant our garden!). My bunny is so adorable! He looks just like a precious brown and white Easter Bunny! And I can’t forget my redheaded woodpecker. He is HUGE! He is either up in a tree pecking on the bark, or working on the tree stump in our side yard; helping us take it to the ground. He is a handy fellow to have around! With this being said, the sweet little characters in my book are written after real ones that visit me each day in my yard. They make my front porch my happy place! I hope you enjoy reading “OH My Little Squirrel” and following my Little squirrel’s adventures as much as I enjoyed writing about them!

THE STORY: Set just before the holidays, SEVEN IN ONE BLOW, OR THE BRAVE LITTLE KID tells the story of a child living in the city who kills seven flies with a single swat and makes a belt emblazoned with Seven in One Blow to commemorate the event