Old Friends New Friends

It's the first day of school, and none of my old friends are in my new class! Making new friends can be hard, but in this gorgeous new picture book, it can also be a whole lot of fun!

This Toy Story 4 deluxe Step into Reading leveled reader is based on the exciting new Disney/Pixar movie hitting theaters June 21, 2019! Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 4 opens a new chapter in the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the rest of the Toy Story gang. Directed by Josh Cooley (Riley's First Date?) and produced by Jonas Rivera (Inside Out and Up) and Mark Nielsen (associate producer for Inside Out), Toy Story 4 opens in theaters on June 21, 2019. Step 1 readers feature big type and easy words. Rhymes and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. For children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading on their own.

Grace begins to feel left out when her best friend, Laura, gets a part in the school play and spends all her time rehearsing with a new friend.

Paired with colorful and vibrant art by Lenny Wen, Old Friends by Margaret Aitken is an inventive and heartfelt debut picture book that celebrates found family, caregiving, and the value of intergenerational friendships. Marjorie wants a friend who loves the same things she does: baking shows, knitting, and gardening. Someone like Granny. So with a sprinkle of flour in her hair and a spritz of lavender perfume, Marjorie goes undercover to the local Senior Citizens Group. It all goes well until the Cha-Cha-Cha starts and her cardigan camouflage goes sideways. By being true to herself, Marjorie learns that friends can be of any age if you look in the right places.

Will their new-found freedom come at a price? It’s 1970 and Debbie Hargreaves is heading to college in Leeds, where she’ll be sharing with three girls she’s never met before. Although they’re all from very different backgrounds, Debbie soon becomes firm friends with shy Lisa, outspoken Karen and cool, self-assured Fran. At the same time, Fiona is struggling to cope with four young children and her duties as a rector’s wife. The arrival of a new childminder should be the answer to her prayers, but Glenda’s open flirting with Fiona’s husband soon sets tongues wagging. Is Fiona’s marriage really under threat? Debbie loves her newfound independence and the male attention she attracts, but in enjoying her new freedom is she neglecting her family and friends, and forgetting her roots? A charming saga of family and friendship, perfect for fans of Margaret Dickinson and Rosie Harris.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s “touching, funny and inspiring” true story of daily life in a New England nursing home (The New York Times). Ninety-year-old Lou quit school after the eighth grade, worked for the rest of his life, and stayed with the same woman for nearly seventy years. Seventy-two-year-old Joe was chief probation officer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, holds a law degree, and has faced the death of a son and the raising of a mentally challenged daughter. Now, the two men are roommates in a nursing home. Despite coming from very different backgrounds, the two become close friends. Focusing on these two men as well as introducing us to the other aging residents of Linda Manor in Northampton, Massachusetts, literary journalist Tracy Kidder examines the sorrows and joys of growing older and the universal struggle to find meaning in the face of mortality. From the New York Times–bestselling author and National Book Award–winning author of The Soul of a New Machine, this is an extraordinary look inside an often-hidden world. “As in his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Soul of a New Machine, House, and the best-selling Among Schoolchildren, Kidder reveals his extraordinary talent as a storyteller by taking the potentially unpalatable subject of life in a nursing home and making it into a highly readable, engrossing account.” —Library Journal “Rich detail and true-to-the-ear dialogue let the brave and determined elderly speak for themselves—and for the continually surprising potential of the human spirit.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Originally published in single magazine form in Secret Origins 13, Action Comics Weekly 613-618, 627-634."

Marcella teaches Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy the fun of making new friends and the importance of keeping old ones.