The Only Child

Surviving a horrific school shooting, a six-year-old boy retreats into the world of books and art while making sobering observations about his mother's determination to prosecute the shooter's parents and the wider community's efforts to make sense of the tragedy.

Almost every graduating class had a girl who disappeared. A decades-old crime threatens to tear apart three generations of women in this unputdownable mystery that will keep you gripped until its last heart-wrenching page. 1949 It is the coldest winter Orcades Island has ever known, when a pregnant sixteen-year-old arrives at Fairmile, a home for 'fallen women' run by the Catholic Church. She and her baby will disappear before the snow melts. 2013 Frankie Gray has come to the island for the summer, hoping for one last shot at reconnecting with her teenage daughter, Izzy, before starting a job as a deputy sheriff. They are staying with her mother, Diana, at The Fairmile Inn, soon to be a boutique hotel, but when an elderly nun is found dead in suspicious circumstances, and then a tiny skeleton is discovered in the grounds of the house, Frankie is desperate for answers. At once an evocative, unsettling tale of past misdeeds and a crime thriller that will have you reading with your heart in your mouth, The Only Child is compulsively addictive storytelling from the international bestselling author of The Silk House. **Contains BONUS extract from Kayte's spellbinding Top Ten bestseller The Silk House** 'A spine-chilling evocative thriller' The Australian Women's Weekly 'An absorbing and chilling tale' New Idea 'Page-turning ... For lovers of classic commercial fiction, The Only Child is a thrilling feminist tale revealing stories that have too often been left buried' Books+Publishing 'A great book entertains with a compelling narrative, one that keeps the reader's attention while weaving in universal truths about the human condition during the best and worst of times. Kayte Nunn's The Only Child will join Marge Piercy's Braided Lives, along with films such as Blossoms in the Dust and Vera Drake, as a reminder of what is at stake when the reproductive rights and choices of girls and women are diminished. It is a well-paced story with finely drawn characters - and it's hard to put down' JACQUELINE WINSPEAR 'A taut, clever whodunit ... Kayte Nunn keeps the stakes high and the characters compelling, making for a fast, fresh, engrossing historical mystery!' KATE QUINN 'A deeply moving look at a past when women's reproductive rights were denied . . . a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story that resonates in today's world' SUSAN WIGGS 'Richly drawn characters, masterful storytelling, and a slowly unraveling mystery kept me on the edge of my seat, right up until the satisfying ending' KAREN McQUESTION Praise for Kayte Nunn: 'All the elements of a classic gothic tale . . . that comes with a thrilling twist in the final pages' Daily Telegraph 'Beautifully written with heart-stopping pacing' The Australian Women's Weekly 'I found myself racing towards the final pages. Utterly spellbinding' NATASHA LESTER 'A haunting, atmospheric novel that is near-impossible to put down' SALLY HEPWORTH

Guides parents--and future parents--through the long list of factors working for and against them while highlighting the many positive aspects of raising and being a singleton. Original.

Rosemary knows what it's like to be an only child: there are grownups everywhere! Brothers and sisters are what she wants. Even when they argue, it's like belonging to a special club, she thinks. How can she get a larger, more lively family? Rosemary is stumped, until she discovers some "only" creatures and figures out a way to bring home what's missing in her life. Humorous illustrations that pop with personality show Rosemary growing from a bewildered baby surrounded by too many hovering adults to a confident backyard ringmaster who proves that being an only child can be fun!

Drawing on the experiences of a wide range of 60 only children, this book explains the difficulties they are faced with and how, as adults, they have learnt to cope with these problems. Growing up as an only child can foster a greater sense of responsibility and social skills, only children are often more sensitive and considerate to the needs of others. Yet, it can also lead to difficulties in forming close relationships and the intensity of the relationship with their parents can become oppressive. At a time when couples are increasingly limiting their families to one child this book answers a pressing and growing need. It is a book that the parent or partner of an only child will need to understand an only child. The Only Child, written by two authors who are themselves only children, shares the experiences of other onlies, and the stories in this book demonstrate even if someone is without siblings there are millions of others who can understand how they feel.

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book Hailed by Entertainment Weekly and the Wall Street Journal as a best book of the year, this gorgeous and imaginative story—part picture book, part graphic novel—is utterly transporting and original. USA Today declared it “a compelling and melancholy debut from an important new talent" as well as "an expansive and ageless book full of wonder, sadness, and wild bursts of imagination.” And like Shaun Tan's The Arrival and Raymond Briggs's The Snowman, it is quickly becoming a modern classic. A little girl—lost and alone—follows a mysterious stag deep into the woods, and, like Alice down the rabbit hole, she finds herself in a strange and wondrous world. But... home and family are very far away. How will she get back there? In this magnificently illustrated—and wordless—masterpiece, debut artist Guojing brilliantly captures the rich and deeply-felt emotional life of a child, filled with loneliness and longing as well as love and joy. “A haunting, wordless, gorgeously drawn picture book.” —People “Told wordlessly through soft, dreamy illustrations, Guojing’s tale evokes the loneliness of growing up under China’s one-child policy.” —Entertainment Weekly “A dreamy, wordless debut.” —The New York Times "Majestic.... Rare is the book containing great emotional depth that truly resonates across a span of ages: this is one such." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred "Reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’s classic, The Snowman (1978), this is quiet, moving, playful, and bittersweet all at once." —Booklist, Starred

"Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Lily Dominick interviews a criminal suspect who claims that he is more than two hundred years old, personally inspired Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker's novels, and is Lily's father. To discover the truth Lily embarks on a journey that will threaten her career, her sanity, and ultimately her life"--

A prominent journalist, only child, and mother of an only child presents a case in support of one-child family life, offering perspectives on how single-child families can benefit the economy and environment while promoting child and parent autonomy.