Narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, 11-foot-square soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. But Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful--and attempts a nail-biting escape.

Unlike the other Birthmothers in her utopian community, teenaged Claire forms an attachment to her baby, feeling a great loss when he is taken to the Nurturing Center to be adopted by a family unit.

Vivian Howe, author of thirteen beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. In the Beyond, she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three 'nudges' to change the outcome of events on earth. Daughter Willa is on her third miscarriage; daughter Carson partying until all hours,...

Where can a woman turn when her own life threatens to overwhelm her ability to keep her children safe? New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard takes the readers of her newest novel on a wry and moving journey of loss and healing.

Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living — every Sunday she doles it out in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself

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A runaway mother's dilemma. Susanna Miller of Colorado loses custody of her baby daughter because of a stint in a mental home. She absconds with her to Maryland and resumes life under an assumed name. The dilemma comes when she learns of a serial killer's next move. If she goes to the police she risks losing her daughter. By the author of Reflection.

From her knowledge of when to change a diaper and how to make popsicles to her skills in driving a delivery truck and dancing the polka, a child sings the praises of a special family member.

Llama Llama's mother takes good care of him when he has to stay home from school because he is sick, but when Mama Llama begins to feel sick, too, Llama Llama knows how to take care of her.

"My Dark Vanessa meets The Queen's Gambit in this new novel of suspense about the bonds of family, the limits of talent, the risks of ambition, and the rewards of revenge. When former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis returns home to Milwaukee after her mother's unexpected death, she expects to inherit the family estate, the Elf House. But with the discovery that her mother's will bequeathed the Elf House to a man that Saskia shares a complicated history...

After five-year old Jack and his Mom escape from the enclosed environment that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a miraculous discovery: the outside world.

At bedtime, a little llama worries after his mother puts him to bed and goes downstairs.