The Fourth Child

“A beautifully observed and thrillingly honest novel about the dark corners of family life and the long, complicated search for understanding and grace.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and Weather “The Fourth Child is keen and beautiful and heartbreaking—an exploration of private guilt and unexpected obligation, of the intimate losses of power embedded in female adolescence, and of the fraught moments of glancing divinity that come with shouldering the burden of love.” —Jia Tolentino, New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror “A remarkable family saga . . . The Fourth Child is a balm—a reminder that it is possible for art to provide a nuanced exploration of life itself.” —Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty The author of Break in Case of Emergency follows up her “extraordinary debut” (The Guardian) with a moving novel about motherhood and marriage, adolescence and bodily autonomy, family and love, religion and sexuality, and the delicate balance between the purity of faith and the messy reality of life. Book-smart, devoutly Catholic, and painfully unsure of herself, Jane becomes pregnant in high school; by her early twenties, she is raising three children in the suburbs of western New York State. In the fall of 1991, as her children are growing older and more independent, Jane is overcome by a spiritual and intellectual restlessness that leads her to become involved with a local pro-life group. Following the tenets of her beliefs, she also adopts a little girl from Eastern Europe. But Mirela is a difficult child. Deprived of a loving caregiver in infancy, she remains unattached to her new parents, no matter how much love Jane shows her. As Jane becomes consumed with chasing therapies that might help Mirela, her relationships with her family, especially her older daughter, Lauren, begin to fray. Feeling estranged from her mother and unsettled in her new high school, Lauren begins to discover the power of her own burgeoning creativity and sexuality—a journey that both echoes and departs from her mother’s own adolescent experiences. But when Lauren is confronted with the limits of her youth and independence, Jane is thrown into an emotional crisis, forced to reconcile her principles and faith with her determination to keep her daughters safe. The Fourth Child is a piercing love story and a haunting portrayal of how love can shatter—or strengthen—our beliefs.

Megan Hall's first collection of poems, Fourth Child, has the texture of a carefully wrought, hand-stitched garment. It is something you want to bury your face in, like the familiar scented fabric of an item of clothing that belonged to a beloved who is gone. The Poems combine a dark humour and terrible grief with a lightness and restrained sensuality. Her language has the qualities of dance: uninhibited and polished, accomplished and vivid. Fourth Child shows a poet courageously facing deep feelings while being committed to accurate writing, making beautiful and living things out of the fabric of loss, grief, and emptiness.

The new bestseller from Jacqueline Wilson, creator of Tracy Beaker, Hetty Feather and The Illustrated Mum, is a funny, moving and heartwarming story of four children who discover a way to make wishes come true. Echoing the classic E Nesbit novel, Five Children and It, this new story from this mega-selling author, winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, is a brilliant read not just for those familiar with the original book but for any of Wilson's millions of fans.

The format of the book is unique. She writes a story about each person and experience that had a profound impact in her life. After some stories, she writes a heartfelt letter to the person to thank them for helping her become the person she is today. It was her experiences both positive and negative that gave her the opportunity to grow and find truth. It is her story, the Fourth Child, Theresa Ann Moseley Fax, PHD. She is a mother, wife, sister, school administrator, college adjunct professor, three time award winning educator, member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Radio and Television, National Association of Black School Educators (NABSE), and a world traveler. She's had experiences that many people encounter everyday and they have no hope of survival. She is HOPE. Although in her life she was emotionally abused as a child, suicidal, physically assaulted, homeless, mugged, and lived in a shelter for battered women for a month, she found a way not to be the victim anymore. the Fourth Child is a story of perseverance, faith and hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The third edition of this book presents a most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of population trends and patterns in Singapore since its foundation in 1819 to the present day. Separate chapters are devoted to population growth and distribution, changing population structure, migration, mortality trends and differentials, marriage trends and patterns, divorce trends and patterns, fertility trends and differentials, family planning, abortion and sterilisation, fertility policies and programmes, immigration policies and programmes, labour force and future population trends. The strength of the book lies in the author's deep familiarity with the subject acquired through spme personal involvement in the compilation of demographic statistics, as well as the formulation of population policies for the country.

Presents a comprehensive analysis of population trends and patterns in Singapore since its foundation in 1819 to the present day.