My Mom Is Going Away But She Will Be Back One Day

Military families spend time apart while serving their country, with one or more parents deployed. This beautifully illustrated children’s picture book helps explain to the child how life will continue while the parent is away and how to communicate over the distance until the day they reunite. The story and art enables each child to interact with the deployed parent by talking about ways to keep in touch, so they can emulate. At the end, two cutout pages allow the child to write a letter and draw a picture for their deployed parent.

How Do You Forgive a Parent Who Has Failed You? One summer, Melissa Cistaro’s mother stepped into her baby-blue Dodge Dart and drove away, leaving behind Melissa and her brothers. Rarely seeing their mother as they were growing up, they blamed themselves for her leaving, turning to each other for support and seeking out often destructive ways to cope with living without their mom. Decades later, with children of her own, Melissa finds herself in Olympia, Washington, as her mother is dying. She has just days to find out what happened that summer and to confront the unthinkable fear that a “leaving gene” might be lying dormant inside of her. She knew she came from a long line of mothers who left their children. But when Melissa stumbles across a folder titled “Letters Never Sent” tucked away in her mother’s filing cabinet, she begins to feel the wreckage of her mother’s painful journey, before and after she abandoned her family. Alternating between Melissa’s tumultuous coming-of-age and her mother’s final days, Without My Mother is a haunting yet ultimately uplifting story of one woman’s quest to discover how our parents’ choices impact our own and how we can survive those choices to forge our own paths.

Military families spend time apart while serving their country, with one or more parents deployed. This beautifully illustrated children’s picture book helps explain to the child how life will continue while the parent is away and how to communicate over the distance until the day they reunite. The story and art enables each child to interact with the deployed parent by talking about ways to keep in touch, so they can emulate. At the end, two cutout pages allow the child to write a letter and draw a picture for their deployed parent.

My Invisible Friend Did It! A beautifully illustrated picture story about how a young girl, Emilie, uses her invisible friend as an excuse to keep from telling her dad the truth. Every time she forgets to clean up after herself, it's her friend who did it. The story teaches the reader that it's better to tell the truth, by showing that the lie eventually backfires on Emilie. However, her dad is there to help her understand why telling the truth is so important. Recommended for reading ages 3-7 years.

We're Moving Today! A Moving Story. Another beautifully illustrated picture book written by author James R. Thomas. Come join the adventure with a family that is moving to a new house and how they work together through their journey. The author uses rhymes to make the story fun and humorous to help the reader understand the moving process. When my family gets into the car, I have to hold my pet fish, Max, in a jar. I’m hoping the road trip won’t be too far. Away we go, as we travel down the road, with a full carload. There may be some bumps along the way, but nothing my family can’t handle this day.

From the right side of Nelson's Star Fighter there was an eruption of cannon fire. A Tourian War vessel had him in its sights. A dozen rounds hit the fuel tanks on Nelson's left wing and smoke started to come from the engine. Joe Devlin has started his first year at the Space Academy and nothing has gone his way. His father's heroics in the Tri-Sun War are legendary and Joe has plans to follow in his father's footsteps to be a Star Fighter. While his father is deployed to the war, can Joe measure up to the task at hand? With the town in smoke, Joe better find out if he can fix what he messed up before his father discovers his secret. Reading Level - Ages 8+ years

Boy Are Animals Wild! A beautifully illustrated picture story about how two brothers unite to protect wildlife and their habitats, helping to conserve wild plants and animal species. The story is an account on how one boy is mischievous in his ways, but through his brother’s good deeds, changes his outlook on animal conservation. The story gives several examples to the reader on how their actions make an impact on the daily life of animals. Recommended for reading ages 3-7 years.

BOY DOES WATER RUN! A beautifully illustrated picture story about how two brothers unite to conserve water, helping to save the world’s resources. The story tackles a serious environmental concern and helps the reader see how easy it is to make an impact, reducing the amount of water each person uses in his or her daily life. The tale walks the reader through examples in which children avoid waste and become environmentally conscious. Recommended for reading ages 3-7 years.