A Comfortable Boy

The ultimate kids' book about dogs, being good, being bad, and being yourself! From the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of Petra. Meet Buzz the dog. He's such a good boy. Buzz seems to have a perfect life .. . and a lot of very well-behaved friends. Buzz would never dream of being anything other than good. Right, Buzz? Buzz . . . ? For anyone who has ever felt pressure to be "good" at the expense of their own self-expression, and for anyone who has ever owned and loved a dog, this beautifully illustrated picture book from author-illustrator Marianna Coppo will have you laughing, smiling, and longing for your own unfettered frolic in the park. • With charming art and a positive message, this is an ideal read-aloud book for parents and children to share. • For dog lovers, pet lovers, and any kid who knows how hard it is to be good all the time • Marianna Coppo's first book, Petra, was a Good Reads Choice Awards Picture Book Finalist and received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus. For dog-loving children and fans of such picture books as Gaston, Harry the Dirty Dog, Antoinette, and Naughty Mabel. For any child who struggles to be "good" and understands the fun (and frustration) of being "bad." • Picture books for kids ages 5–8 • Dog books for kids • Books about acceptance, self-confidence, and being yourself Marianna Coppo is an author-illustrator who studied editorial illustration at MiMaster in Milan, Italy. Her first book in the United States, Petra, was published to critical acclaim. She lives in Rome.

At a time when many boys are in crisis, a much-needed roadmap for helping boys grow into strong and compassionate men Over the past two decades there has been an explosion of new studies that have expanded our knowledge of how boys think and feel. In How to Raise a Boy, psychologist Michael Reichert draws on his decades of research to challenge age-old conventions about how boys become men. Reichert explains how the paradigms about boys needing to be stoic and "man like" can actually cause them to shut down, leading to anger, isolation, and disrespectful or even destructive behaviors. The key to changing the culture lies in how parents, educators, and mentors help boys develop socially and emotionally. Reichert offers readers step-by-step guidance in doing just this by: • Listening and observing, without judgment, so that boys know they're being heard. • Helping them develop strong connections with teachers, coaches, and other role models • Encouraging them to talk about their feelings about the opposite sex and stressing the importance of respecting women • Letting them know that they don't have to "be a man" or "suck it up," when they are experiencing physical or emotional pain. Featuring the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience, How to Raise a Boy will help those who care for young boys and teenagers build a boyhood that will enable them to grow into confident, accomplished and kind men.

"Long before he became a celebrity by being depicted as John Keating in the Dead Poets Society, Sam Pickering lived an ordinary childhood in the South. This memoir, extraordinarily told, is Pickering?s crowning moment to his long, literary career. Told with honesty, warmth, and integrity, he tells his story through his eighth grade year, focusing on family, growing up, and centers on finding his self. For Pickering, family is everything. Happiness is precious. For some people happiness is hard-won, slowly distilled from the grit of rasping days. For others, like Sam Pickering, happiness has come easily. In A comfortable boy, Pickering describes the early years of childhood, rolling back through time on the wheels of anecdotal memory. With an eye peeled for detail, he recalls family and places. He meanders farm and school, roaming Tennessee and Virginia. He notices things that others sometimes miss or at least neglect. Recently, he wrote that he saw two stickers on the rear window of a rusting Pontiac, the warning 'Baby on Board' inexplicably beside the command 'Drive It Like You Stole It'. He owns three dogs, all mongrels rescued from the streets of Hartford, and he calls the trowel he uses to scoop up their droppings 'Excalibur'. For Pickering life's pleasures are endless, lurking amid the wildflowers of field and wood or sprouting in paragraphs written to his great-grandmother during the Civil War. In part A comfortable boy reveals what made Pickering a successful teacher and writer, not the wound of the suffering Romantic but instead the simple joy and gratitude for being born in the South at a certain time in a particular place and in a specific family among people, he writes, 'whom it was impossible not to love and not to laugh at and with'"--From publisher's description.

From bestselling author of She’s Not There, New York Times opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs. This is a book about dogs: the love we have for them, and the way that love helps us understand the people we have been. It’s in the love of dogs, and my love for them, that I can best now take the measure of the child I once was, and the bottomless, unfathomable desires that once haunted me. There are times when it is hard for me to fully remember that love, which was once so fragile, and so fierce. Sometimes it seems to fade before me, like breath on a mirror. But I remember the dogs. In her New York Times opinion column, Jennifer Finney Boylan wrote about her relationship with her beloved dog Indigo, and her wise, funny, heartbreaking piece went viral. In Good Boy, Boylan explores what should be the simplest topic in the world, but never is: finding and giving love. Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman—accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. “Everything I know about love,” she writes, “I learned from dogs.” Their love enables us to pull off what seem like impossible feats: to find our way home when we are lost, to live our lives with humor and courage, and above all, to best become our true selves.

Edgar award winner Theresa Schwegel returns with The Good Boy, her most dramatic and emotional novel to date, a family epic that combines the hard-boiled grit of her acclaimed police thrillers with an intimate portrait of a young boy trying to follow his heart in an often heartless city. For Officer Pete Murphy, K9 duty is as much a punishment as a promotion. When a shaky arrest reignites a recent scandal and triggers a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, all eyes are on Pete as the department braces for another media firestorm. Meanwhile, Pete's eleven-year-old son Joel feels invisible. His parents hardly notice him—unless they're arguing about his "behavioral problems"—and his older sister, McKenna, has lately disappeared into the strange and frightening world of teenagerdom. About the only friend Joel has left is Butchie, his father's furry "partner." When Joel and Butchie follow McKenna to a neighborhood bully's party, illegal activity kicks the dog's police training into overdrive, and soon the duo are on the run, navigating the streets of Chicago as they try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys—bad guys who may have a very personal interest in getting some payback on Officer Pete Murphy.

Meet Fergus, the canine star of the upcoming book from Caldecott Honor artist David Shannon. Much like Shannon's beloved characters, David and Alice, the adorable Fergus is always getting in trouble!Follow Fergus as he experiences the perfect doggy day--well, except for his bath, of course! From chasing cats and motorcycles to being scratched on his favorite "tickle spot," David Shannon's newest sweet and silly character will inspire young readers to laugh out loud at his mischievous antics. Fans of Shannon's previous books will love reading all about this naughty but lovable dog!

With a bridge in Boston and a bench in Falmouth dedicated to him, Tommy Leonard has been widely recognized for his many acts of charity and his avid promotion of health and fitness. The journey this affable Irishman took on his way to becoming one of Boston's most personable bartenders and the founder of the Falmouth Road Race began the day his father left him at a mission for children of the destitute at age six.Author Kathleen Cleary recounts the struggles, disappointments, heartbreaks, and humor of Tommy's childhood and teen years. She also shares the sometimes painful and comical stories of his young adulthood. Tommy's remarkable life transformed every corner of the world it touched, whether the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, the roads of Fukuoka, Japan, the bayous of Houston, or somewhere between two pubs in Woods Hole and Falmouth on Cape Cod.Tommy Leonard's heartwarming story will teach you that in following your dreams, embracing the positive will make all the difference.A percentage of the sale of this book will be contributed to a retirement trust for Tommy.