We sat at the kitchen table, across from each other. In the same spots we sat for dinner up till a month ago. The shadows on the table looked like prison bars again. This time it was Star being caged. Star, who thought leaving made her free. That life would be all hunky-dory shampooing heads and sweeping floors while Mama got slapped around-far enough away so she wouldn't have to hear the screams. That's when I knew for sure-I couldn't leave Mama. And Star couldn't make me any more than I could make her stay. A painfully beautiful novel that exposes the haunting world of spousal abuse Blue's family is coming apart at the seams. After Pa drowned in the river, Mama up and married Jinx, whom Blue and Star know is big trouble. And now Star has run away, leaving Blue behind. It was hard enough to watch Mama get knocked around when Jinx was in one of his "moods," but now, with Star gone, Jinx has spun out of control. It's up to Blue to find Star and get help for Mama, to piece the family back together again. But Blue is running out of time. With biting realism and poignancy, this compelling young-adult novel explores Blue's struggle to protect her family and stand up against what she knows is wrong.

A blue jay building a nest outside his window prompts John Berendt to find his camera and record the familiar, yet always fascinating sequence of events that will unfold, from eggs being laid to chicks emerging and trying to fly. Children and adults alike will be astonished at the adventurous spirit of one particularly curious young blue jay as he ventures into the world. The author of the best-selling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil brings his narrative skill to this up-close and delightfully informal account of an event that recurs each spring.

The baby blue cat returns in his second illustrated book for young readers. Mama Cat has made a very special supper for her babies, but the baby blue cat is determined not to enjoy this delicious meal, and goes on saying no even when the other baby cats are tucked into bed.

Leaving the den as the weather warms, Baby Bear discovers blue birds, red strawberries, orange butterflies, and other colorful things in nature.

The good ol' days are over. It's official, it's the news! With my brand-new baby brother came the brand-new baby blues! When a new baby wears her old pajamas, sleeps in her old bed, and seems to get all her parents' attention, a girl's bound to sing the blues. Is there anything a baby brother can do to change her tune?

When two young boys, Buckshot and Pooty Barnhill, stumble upon the gruesome, headless corpse of a young white man in the woods of Nokomis, local Deputy Sheriff J. B. Coon, a farmer and part-time deputy, is summoned to investigate. Deputy Coon quickly targets a suspect in Manse Mobley, a mysterious old Negro moonshiner who rides a magnificent stallion and carries a shotgun. The bigger question, however, is why? Even as his boss pushes him to close the case "Unsolved," as just another shootout between two unimportant country hooligans fighting over a bottle of whiskey, J. B. suspects more. His curiosity and subsequent investigation lead him to one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the State of Alabama, Dr. John Blue and his beautiful wife, Marie. The Blues have secrets. Deep, dark secrets! As the Blues' secrets unfold, J. B. begins to wish he had listened to his boss and left that door closed, but once he has crossed the threshold of truth, there is no turning back. Other lives must now be destroyed. And J. B. Coon may be one of them.

An innocent trip to the flower garden soon turns perilous when a butterfly hunter invades the local forest and Baby Blue goes missing. With the difficult search ahead, Utterly Flutterly is afraid she will never see her sister again. Who will save the day?