It's wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler's inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo's home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects...

Discover What Adoption and Foster Care Really Look Like If you are considering adoption or foster care or are already somewhere in this difficult and complicated process, you need trusted information from people who have been where you are. Mike and Kristin Berry have adopted eight children and cared for another 23 kids in their nine-year stint as foster parents. They aren't just experts. They have experienced every emotional high and low and encountered...

New friends and a mystery help Aven, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.

"From New York Times bestselling Joanna Ho, of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, and award-winning educator Liz Kleinrock comes a powerful companion picture book about adoption and family. A young girl who is a transracial adoptee learns to love her Asian eyes and finds familial connection and meaning through them, even though they look different from her parents'. Her family bond is deep and their connection is filled with love. She wonders about her...

Every day, Paige Redwine is haunted by a choice she made when she was only seventeen. Now, just past forty, still single, she lives a tidy, controlled life as a well-respected English professor at a college in Nashville. Nothing could prepare her for the day Treha Langsam - the daughter she secretly placed for adoption - walks into her classroom as a student, unknowingly confronting Paige with both her greatest longing and her greatest fear. As Treha...

"Susie Mast's Amish life in Lancaster County has been shaped by events beyond her control, with the tragic deaths of her Dat and close-in-age brother casting long shadows. Now twenty-two, Susie remains unmarried despite her longtime affection for friend Obie Yoder. Unfortunately, her concerns are soon multiplied due to her mother's worsening health and her younger sister's urgent desire for answers about her adoption. Once again, Susie faces the possibility...

The act of adopting children, and the processes and politics around it, have changed drastically in recent decades, mostly for the better. Still, many prospective adoptive parents remain bewildered or apprehensive, and those who have adopted find themselves struggling in ways they hadn't anticipated. Thicker Than Blood is a comprehensive yet down-to-earth look at adoptive parenting in the twenty-first century. Author Marion Crook's family includes...

"Seventh-grader Ben, always an outsider, is led into a deep friendship with Halley, who is being treated for cancer, by the special dog he and his adoptive mother take in." -- Provided by publisher.

"When the man she loved years ago returns to town, one young woman's complicated past rises again, threatening to expose her well-kept secrets. If Maxine could put her finger on the moment when her life went into a tailspin, she would point back twenty years to the day her daddy died. She tells herself he's the only person who ever really knew and loved her, and if he hadn't left her behind, her future would've taken a different path. No absentee...

"Twelve-year-old Milo is stuck spending the winter holidays in a house full of strange guests who are not what they seem-again! He will have to work with friends old and new to uncover clues in search of a mysterious map and a famous smuggler's lost haul"-- Provided by publisher.