Illustrator Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen and wife Robbyn team up again for another wildlife tale drawn from their encounters with the animal kingdom. Told in journal form and rendered in beautifully detailed artwork, the van Frankenhuyzens give a "day in the life" view as the fox Samantha begins her journey from injured kit to independent adult living on her own.Always respecting the boundaries between the wild and the human ways of life and based on years of work as licensed wildlife rehabilitators, Gijsbert and Robbyn recommend readers "do not try this at home." Saving Samantha is Gijsbert's fourteenth book with Sleeping Bear Press. He has also illustrated the best-selling The Legend of Sleeping Bear, The Legend of Leelanau, and most recently The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell. He and Robbyn live with their daughters in Bath, Michigan, on a 40-acre farm.

Samantha Parkington is being raised by her wealthy grandmother in 1904. She befriends a servant girl named Nellie, who moves in next door. The girls become fast friends, though their lives are very different. American Girls Collection/Samantha #1.

Thirteen-year-old Samantha Crow is living near a small village not far from Yorktown, Va. in 1781, when her father and brother join the Virginia militia. Begrudgingly, she stays behind to help her mother run a small farm and care for her younger siblings. One day her life changes in an instant. She is in her tree house, day dreaming, during a rare free moment. Then she heard it, the sound of a gun shot, causing her to bolt upright to a sitting position. She listened, seemingly without breathing, as horses' hooves came to a stop. She heard a second shot, followed by one set of horse hooves galloping away. Samantha's heart was pounding as silence stretched into minutes. She climbed down and carefully made her way along the steep path leading up to the dusty road. She crept higher and came up silently behind a boulder near the road. She looked around the rock and saw legs with boots pointing toward the sky. They were not moving. As she came around, she saw a man, and his eyes held hers in a plea. His lips whispered "please" as he pulled a paper from inside his shirt. He held it out for Samantha to take and pushed his last words out. "Must...get this...to Washington." Young Adult readers and "tweens" will enjoy finding out about the freed slave/spy who gives her the note and the heart wrenching decisions she makes, which put her own life in danger to help her country during the American Revolution. Will she ever see the young Private First Class Sutter again and the beautiful brown horse with liquid eyes?

When Samantha is reunited with Nellie, she discovers that their lives have changed in very different ways.

It was a rainy day, just as Samantha had hoped for. She woke up to the sound of raindrops on her bedroom window. She jumped out of bed, ran down the stairs, through the kitchen, across the full length of the family room, and to the back doors, squishing her little nose against the glass. She stood there waiting for the rain to stop. A morning rain only meant one thing to Samantha—a day of searching for rain gnomes.

Though the gossips had them pegged as an item, teacher Rachel Woodward was merely helping Sean Bates, the new guidance counselor, learn small-town ways. But his looks and charm were almost irresistible. And it was a good thing Rachel no longer fell prey to romantic insanity. Yet she couldn’t ignore Sean, or how wonderfully he cared for the sweet, rambunctious five-year-old who’d landed in their school—and both their hearts. Little Samantha needed a father, and Sean would be the perfect man for the job. But she needed a mother, too...and suddenly Rachel wondered if God had a family in store for her after all.

Edward’s world has fallen apart. Marriage failed. House lost. Career in deep trouble. Now he has to find a place to live while rebuilding his shattered life. That is when he rents a room in the household of the old-fashioned Mrs King. Mrs King has a daughter – Samantha – with some deep developmental issues who at age 21, still lives in the world of a five year old. Can Edward be of any help and if so, how? Would becoming her younger brother, wearing diapers and plastic pants and drinking from a bottle help? This wonderful AB/DL story is full of fun and enjoyment as Edward discovers who he really is inside as he becomes a ‘Samantha's New Brother ’.