The Girl In The Red Boots

Can a mother be both loving and selfish? Caring and thoughtless? Deceitful and devoted? These are the questions that fuel psychologist Dr. Judy Rabinor’s quest to understand her ambivalence toward her mother. While leading a seminar exploring the importance of the mother-daughter relationship, Dr. Judy Rabinor, an eating disorder expert, is blindsided by a memory of a childhood trauma. Realizing how this buried trauma has resonated through her life, she sets off to heal herself. The Girl in the Red Boots weaves together tales from Rabinor’s psychotherapy practice and her life, helping readers understand how painful childhood experiences can linger and leave emotional scars. In the process, Rabinor traces her own journey becoming a wounded healer and ultimately making peace with her mother, and herself. Not a traditional self-help book outlining “steps” to reconcile or forgive one’s mother, The Girl in the Red Boots is a poignant memoir filled with hard-won life lessons, including the fact that it’s never too late to let go of hurts and disappointments and develop compassion for yourself—and even for your mother.

Meet stubborn as a mule Skye: a precocious, hilarious, delightful yet exasperating four-year-old drama queen who lives in south Louisiana. When Skye was given a shiny new pair of red rubber boots, she fell in love with them. Skye insisted on wearing the boots day and night, for practically a whole year. Although Skyes mother wearily attempted to persuade her to wear shoes other than the boots, Skye absolutely refused. Skye knew she was driving her sweet mother to her wits end, yet her boots made her feel so securely grounded that she stubbornly continued to wear them. Then one day something really scary happens, and everything changes in an instant!

There was once a poor little girl called Karen. In summer, she walked barefoot and in winter, she wore clogs that hurt her feet. She had no choice, it was all she had. Dame Shoemaker wanted to help her and sewed, as best she could, a pair of red shoes. When she wore them for the first time, Karen’s life took an unexpected turn. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013. Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

Everyone in the village of Friedensdorf is happily preparing for Christmas except grumpy Hans the shoemaker. Then a visit from an angel transforms Hans' mood and sets him to work in his shop.

Little girls can get very attached to their clothing and accessories. They want to be the princess. The princess in this story happens to wear boots...red boots. And to this little girl, her red boots are precious. She wears them all the time...with anything and anywhere. So what happens when they don't fit anymore? She discovers with the help of her mom, that she will be ok...better than okay actually, because she has the love of the Lord. This is something powerful and special, and something that she will never outgrow.

Sarah loves her shiny yellow boots, until the day she finds she has grown and cannot fit into them any more.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award 'Mesmerising, compulsive, deliciously dark' LUCY FOLEY Carmel is missing - but doesn't know she's lost. When sensitive, distracted eight-year-old Carmel becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, a man claiming to be her estranged grandfather finds her - and takes her. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth makes it her mission to find her. But in what she's told is her new family, Carmel has embarked on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is - and who she might become. 'Keeps the reader turning pages at a frantic clip . . . What's most powerful here is not whodunnit, or even why, but how this mother and daughter bear their separation.' CELESTE NG **Carmel and Beth's story continues in The Lost Girls - pre-order now!**

Sophie Virginias dream of becoming a cowgirl is closer to being realized when she receives a short visit from her grandparents. The strong-willed four-year-old also learns a painful but valuable lesson during their visit also. The experience is one she will certainly remember.