Little Bird

Beautiful. -Recommended by Tân, City Lights Books A man drives his truck up to a cliff's edge. Unable to go any further, he opens the back door of his truck and a flock of birds flies out, but, as the man soon discovers, a small timid bird remains. Surprised and delighted, the man acts kindly towards the bird and an intimacy develops. After lunch, the man tries to show the bird that he should fly off and join his friends. The man's comic attempt at flight deepens the encounter between these two very different creatures. Soon the bird flies off and the man drives away, but in a surprise twist the bird and his friends return, and in a starkly lyrical moment we see them all experience something entirely new. Germano Zullo is a prolific writer and poet who lives in Geneva, Switzerland. He writes for adults and children alike, and has written many popular children's comics and stories. Albertine has illustrated loads of children's books and also illustrates for many of the daily French newspapers in Switzerland. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts in Geneva.

The skeletons in the closet have nothing on the one in your backyard. Freshly divorced and grieving the death of her father, Josie Lauer has caged herself inside her home. To cope with her losses, Josie follows a strict daily routine of work, playing with her dog, and trying to remember to eat a decent meal—and ending each night by drinking copious amounts of vodka. In other words, she is not coping at all. Everything changes when Josie wakes to find a small shrub has sprouted in her backyard the morning after yet another bender. Within hours, the vine-like plant is running amok—and it's brought company: a busybody new neighbor who insists on thrusting herself into Josie's life, and a talking skeleton called Skelly that has perched itself in Josie's backyard on a throne made of vines. As the strangely sentient plant continues to grow and twist its tendrils inside Josie's suddenly complicated life, Josie begins to realize there's a reason Skelly has chosen to appear. All Josie has to do is figure out what that reason is—and she has only a few days to do it, or else she might find herself on the wrong side of catastrophe.

The debut picture book from acclaimed, Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange! Jessica Lange weaves a beautiful tale in this elegant and heartfelt story about two sisters, Ilse and Adah, who are visiting their grandmother's quaint farm. Ilse and Adah agree that they need an adventure on a rainy summer day, and they quickly decide that sneaking into the old, ramshackle barn is the perfect undertaking. When they discover a wealth of treasures, including an antique birdcage, their curiosity gets the best of them, and they ask their grandmother for the story behind these mysterious objects. As their grandmother reminisces about her journeys through Paris and Rome, and about a very special pet canary named Uccellino-Italian for "little bird"-the girls realize that they are experiencing a truly magical summer.

A joyful, universal story of a day in the life of Little Bird. A heartening read-aloud about a day in the life of Little Bird, who sings the world alive, flies with Cloud, travels with Wind, nestles with Moon, and dreams of flying among the stars. Sally Morgan's poetic language and Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr's sensitive artwork combine to make this a beautiful, distinctive publication with global appeal. Printed on FSC-certified paper with vegetable inks.

Fly Home, Little Bird is Beverly's memoir, which focuses on the unexpected consequences of her parents becoming evangelical missionaries. The story arc includes living in a residential school spanning ten years where she was abused by the school nurse and other dorm parents. As an adult she also became a missionary. In her mid-thirties she had the agency to leave the church and create a life outside evangelical communities. Beverly became an activist for reform and change in the policies and practices of reporting abuse of children in mission agencies in both the U.S. and Canada. This included holding a "prayer vigil" at the C&MA's annual conference to put public pressure on them to investigate allegations of abuse (it worked). She has co-founded on-line Facebook groups which have many members from a plethora of mission boarding schools and agencies. And she is one of eight former MK's featured in a documentary, All God's Children. The documentary has been widely viewed in communities of former MK's and their families as well as in churches. Perhaps the most important thread in Fly Home Little Bird is how, with therapeutic help, she changed the web of intergenerational trauma within her immediate family.

Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.