Ernest always does what his mother asks...and never has any fun. When a new boy moves in next door, Ernest's mother encourages her son to make friends. But the new neighbors seem a little bit...strange--monstrous, even. Obeying Ernest's new friend Vlapid's mother means Ernest must do things he'd never dare try at home. And it's fantastic! Veteran children's book author Florence Parry Heide and her daughter Roxanne Heide team up with Kyle M. Stone to create a gleefully subversive take on the traditional new neighbor story. Lots of energy and mayhem, and a cool gothic approach to the illustrations make this a great choice for Halloween and all year round.

Irreverent, thought-provoking, hilarious, and edgy: a collection of personal stories celebrating motherhood, featuring #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jenny Lawson and Jennifer Weiner, and many other notable writers. Listen to Your Mother is a fantastic awakening of why our mothers are important, taking readers on a journey through motherhood in all of its complexity, diversity, and humor. Based on the sensational national performance movement, Listen to Your Mother showcases the experiences of ordinary people of all racial, gender, and age backgrounds, from every corner of the country. This collection of essays celebrates and validates what it means to be a mother today, with honesty and candor that is arrestingly stimulating and refreshing. The stories are raw, honest, poignant, and sometimes raunchy, ranging from adoption, assimilation to emptying nests; first-time motherhood, foster-parenting, to infertility; single-parenting, LGBTQ parenting, to special-needs parenting; step-mothering; never mothering, to surrogacy; and mothering through illness to mothering through unsolicited advice. Honest, funny, and heart-wrenching, these personal stories are the collective voice of mothers among us. Whether you are one, have one, or know one, Listen to Your Mother is an emotional whirlwind that is guaranteed to entertain, amuse, and enlighten.

This heartwarming picture book reassures children that a parent’s love never lets go—based on the poignant lyrics of JJ Heller’s beloved lullaby “Hand to Hold.” “May the living light inside you be the compass as you go / May you always know you have my hand to hold.” With delightful illustrations and an engaging rhyme scheme, this book offers the promise of security and love every child’s heart longs to know. From skipping stones and counting stars to climbing trees and telling stories, every moment is wrapped snugly in the certain warmth of a parent’s presence and God’s blessing. With poignancy and joy, this bedtime read captures the unconditional love parents want their children to know but so often fail to express amid the chaos of daily life.

“An affectionate tribute to her tough, powerful Chinese mother.”—Kirkus Reviews “I devoured this book in one sitting...alternately cheering, laughing, cringing, and gasping in horror. Lui captures the complexity of a mother-daughter relationship that is both complicated and beautiful. Poignant with a bare honesty that may make you think (and rethink) your own relationships.” —Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened Meet Elaine Lui’s mother. She’s “a movie, an Amy Tan novel, and a sitcom all rolled into one.”* Or as her daughter sums it up: “She’s Chinese, she squawks like a chicken, she is totally nuts, and I am totally dependent on her.” With tales of brutal mah-jong competitions, all-cap texts (“YOUR BAD SKIN NEED SOUP”); public shaming, and pearls of occasionally-bizarre wisdom; Lui not only paints a portrait of a challenging, frustrating, fascinating woman that will make you laugh and cry—she eloquently describes exactly what it’s like to love someone who drives you crazy. “A remarkable memoir about Lui’s relationship with her Hong Kong-born mom, who makes Tiger Mothers look like pussycats.”—Tampa Bay Times *Lisa Gabriele, author and TV producer

“You will devour these beautifully written—and very important—tales of honesty, pain, and resilience” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls) from fifteen brilliant writers who explore how what we don’t talk about with our mothers affects us, for better or for worse. As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything. As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.” There’s relief in acknowledging how what we couldn’t say for so long is a way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves. Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.

This is not a book on just lecturing anybody, ____ it is just something that God said to write, and put together as he advised me to do. You will find some illustrations are not just our own experienced stories, but from others that willingly shared too, for the purpose of being able to point out viewpoints with good morals, or words to ponder on. Everyday, while I wrote, I had no clue where to begin, or where to actually stop. I learned it was best to flow along, by allowing God to show me suitable words to write, or when he reminded me of something that either happened year's prior, or something of recent that had been spoken to me by a family member or a friend. We can discuss the topic of "Traditionalism" later in class, when I will allow you to bring your own customs from ancestors to posterity by oral communication, while sharing with classmates your stories. We will also welcome your narrated tales by mail, to be used later on. Please send them to the Author, for sharing in the Cell Group. You should keep in mind, while reading the pages within this book, by trying to remember that, "Our self", is an individual person, and that each of us, have a unique part of the influence, which God hath created equally in us all. He hath given to you and I, the abilities to use our gifts and talents, to share love with someone else along the way. Come and experience with me today, as we give unto others, the joy of what the Lord hath yet in store for us to conquer.