A Sheltered Life offers a fascinating look at one of the world's strangest and most wondrous animals--whose significance in modern science and culture cannot be underestimated. In an engaging blend of cultural and natural history, the book ranges from the earliest mention of the tortoises many millennia ago, to the wholesale plunder of their populations starting in the sixteenth century, to modern attempts to protect the tortoise and track down members of what were once believed to be extinct populations.

Susan J. Dunlap offers the theological fruits of time spent working as a chaplain with people without homes. After depicting the local history of her small southern city, she describes the prayer service she co-leads in a homeless shelter. Clients offer words of faith and encouragement that take the form of prayer, sayings, testimony, song, and short sermons. Dunlap describes both these forms of expression and their theological content. She asserts that these forms and beliefs are a means of survival and resistance in a hostile world. The ways they serve these purposes are further demonstrated in life stories told as testimonies, incorporating scripture, sayings, oral tradition, and popular culture. Dunlap concludes that white supremacy and neoliberalism have produced the problem of homelessness in America and are forms of idolatry. The faith and practices shared at the shelter are spiritual and theological resources for people in the grip of and seeking freedom from this idolatry. Claiming that only God can free us from bondage to idolatry and that to draw close to the poor is to draw close to God, Dunlap calls for proximity to people living without homes who are practicing their faith amid poverty.

This poignant and heartwarming story explores the many faces of sadness and addresses the importance of mental health in a child-friendly way. A small boy creates a shelter for his sadness so that he can visit it whenever he needs to, and the two of them can cry, talk, or just sit. The boy knows that one day his sadness may come out of the shelter, and together they will look out at the world and see how beautiful it is. In this timely consideration of emotional wellbeing, Anne Booth has created a beautiful depiction of allowing time and attention for difficult feelings. Stunningly atmospheric illustrations by David Litchfield personify sadness as a living being, allowing young readers to more easily connect with the story's themes of emotional literacy.

Draws a touching picture of children's incredible strength and clarity under very difficult circumstances.

This is the second print edition of the novel, "The Sheltered Life of Betsy Parker." I have added a new chapter "The Minister's Visit" in which Reverend Ben Herb comes to visit Betsy when she's 4 years old, and I've edited out some passages that I felt cluttered up the story. I have also reduced the cover size, and am charging $3.00 US less for the second print edition than the first one. In a town called Meriton, Carl and Megan Parker are blessed with a baby girl, whom they name Betsy. At first, Betsy seems just as ordinary as any other baby. However, much to the shock of Betsy's parents, and to the concern of society, while still in her infancy, Betsy develops a never-before-seen allergic condition, in which virtually nothing can touch her skin. These reactions cause Betsy to become very ill, and even threaten her life. Betsy Parker cannot even wear any clothes, and so her life unfolds, from infancy to adulthood, as a quest for understanding, compassion and acceptance from society, as well as to be recognized as a human being with rights. From birth onward, even before Betsy is old enough to understand that something is unusual about her, she lives her entire sheltered, naked life living all these virtues towards all others, including the others who do not treat Betsy this way in return.

Two friends who grew up together as part of an extreme doomsday-prepping religion are reunited twenty years later in a search for an abducted child.

A wise and compassionate guide to caring for a critically ill child.