It is 1934, and Mary Elizabeth Barrett is the youngest of four growing up in Benkleman, Kansas. In a town where there are few secrets, it is quite a surprise when her father, George, uses his wife's jelly-making money to buy a secondhand touring car and announces they are moving to California. Despite his wife Ruth's protests, the touring car is packed in a week's time. Whether they like it or not, the family is on their way to a new beginning. Five days later, after the family stops in Minton, Colorado, for lunch, Mary Elizabeth's father hops in the old touring car and tells them he will be right back. While the sun lowers in the sky, Ruth finds a note from George in her pocketbook, telling her that although he has decided to head to California alone, he will be back to get them all eventually. With just over one hundred dollars to their name, Ruth and her four children make a decision: they will stay in Minton. As Mary Elizabeth and her family begin anew, they soon realize that happiness comes in the simplest of moments as they learn to look at challenges as stepping stones and face the harsh reality that George may never return. The Last Apple on the Tree is a story of trials, perseverance, and family togetherness as a mother and her four children find beauty in their own little garden of life.

A little apple tree in a forest of oaks begs God for stars like those glimmering on the branches of the great oak trees beside her. As the seasons pass, she learns to appreciate her own gifts and realizes that it’s possible to find a star in each of us.

Originally published over twenty years ago, and out of print since 1998, Sleeping Bear Press is proud to bring this beloved Christmas tale to a whole new audience. Moving and nostalgic, and brought to life by glowing watercolor paintings, it reveals the joy of a very special present and the love that a father and daughter share.

A true story of a son remembering his father. The story takes the reader on a journey through 3 generations, showing the kind of life his Father had, his adventures and more importantly, what he created. The 'life-cycle' of the Apple Tree mirrors his father's own life, from the moment when he planted the tiny seeds with his own father all those years ago: the beautiful tree grows and blossoms, season after season, bearing fruit and new saplings. It is a reflection of how each families' stories are inevitably entwined in one another's, and how we all live out our own 'life-cycle', creating loving memories along the way: memories that we must pass onto the next generation!

When feuding neighbors Sonnet and Zeke are paired up for a class project, they unearth a secret that could uproot Sonnet’s family—or allow it to finally heal and grow. Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. Sonnet doesn’t want to think about how Gramps and his tree are both growing old—she just wants everything to be okay. Sonnet is not okay with her neighbor, Zeke, a boy her age who gets on her bad side and stays there when he tries to choose her grandpa to interview for an oral history assignment. Zeke irks Sonnet with his prying questions, bringing out the sad side of Gramps she’d rather not see. Meanwhile, Sonnet joins the Green Club at school and without talking to Zeke about it, she asks his activist father to speak at the Arbor Day assembly—a collision of worlds that Zeke wanted more than anything to avoid. But when the interviews uncover a buried tragedy that concerns Sonnet's mother, and an emergency forces Sonnet and Zeke to cooperate again, Sonnet learns not just to accept Zeke as he is, but also that sometimes forgetting isn't the solution—even when remembering seems harder. Award-winning author Claudia Mills brings enormous compassion and depth to this novel of unlikely friendship and generational memory. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

The Story of the Apple reveals the solution to a long-standing puzzle. Where did the apple come from, and why is the familiar large, sweet, cultivated apple so different from all other wild apple species with their bitter, cherry-sized fruits? This book will fascinate gardeners who wish to know more about the origin and natural history of the plants that they grow in their yards or orchards, researchers and students in botany and horticulture who want the evidence from DNA, geology, anthropology, archaeology, zoology, and Classical history, and anyone with an interest in diet, well-being, and the benevolent effects of plants on the emergence of humankind.

The Birds The idea for this famous story came to her one day when she was walking across to Menabilly Barton farm from the house. She saw a farmer busily ploughing a field whilst above him the seagull s were diving and wheeling. She developed the idea about the birds becoming hostile and attacking him. In her story, the birds become hostile after a harsh winter with little food, first the seagull s, then birds of prey and finally even small birds, all turn against mankind. The nightmarish idea appealed to Hitchcock who turned it into the celebrated film. Daphne disliked the film and particularly disliked the translation of the setting from Cornwall, with its small fields and stone hedges, to small-town America. Monte Verità The Apple Tree The Little Photographer Kiss Me Again, Stranger The Old Man