Deb Nance

A girl has left her homeland and is beginning school in a new country. The girl is filled with longing to have a name that is easy to say, to have a lunch that looks like the lunches of others. Tentatively, she tries to connect with others, and, after a few misfires, she succeeds.

A lovely story of making friendships and connections despite differences, with beautiful and poetic language and soft gentle illustrations.

Author/illustrator Sophie Blackall tells the stories of an old farmhouse that sheltered twelve children...the stories of the making of the house, the children's play and the children's work, the evolution of the house until it finally became a home not for people but for wild animals. And all the stories are told in sparkling rhymes and all the stories are illustrated with vivid and detailed pictures.

A true nostalgic delight of a picture book.

Owl desperately wants to be a knight, but he's not sure he is up for the job. But then knights start disappearing and, he dares to apply. Off he goes to knight school, and, happily, he successfully becomes a knight and is assigned to be on Knight Night Watch. And it is here he faces his biggest challenge of all.

Such a gentle story, and yet such a powerful story, of courage and cleverness and overcoming obstacles, all told in a way that allows children to figure things out for themselves. You can't help but love Knight Owl.

Seinfeld shares the best of his standup from the decades of his career.

We listened to this as an audiobook all the way to East Texas and all the way back home. Laughing all the way...

Fox sees something lying still, completely still, in a forest clearing. It is a bird. The bird does not move. The bird does not make any sounds. Fox does not understand.

It is Moth who helps explain to Fox what has happened. The bird is dead.

Very few picture books take on such complex subjects as death, and very few picture books attempt to help children understand death; The Circles in the Sky does this, and does this beautifully.

I started this book today because our Thanksgiving begins on Friday, and I would like to do everything I can to have a lovely holiday and to build relationships with those people I love.

For me, this was a very helpful book.

Most importantly, Lerner reminds us over and over that we can try every idea in the book and things may still fail. I think that's a good reminder for me not to expect too much.

She also suggests we take things slowly, to expect that if things are to get better, it will probably take time.

Lerner offers ideas for how to respond in some common situations: when you disagree with someone, when someone is criticizing you, when you are being ignored, when you are talking too much, when you are angry.

I feel like I underlined everything in the book at times, but that's because it's a book with a lot of good stuff in it.

A little girl and her dog sing and dance to the rhythms of her city. And then disaster strikes...an earthquake hits her city. But all is not lost; the people in the city come together to rebuild and repair the buildings and to help those who have been hurt.

A beautiful story of community and connection.

If you want to make a cookie and you can't find it in here...well, I'd honestly be shocked. This cookie cookbook has recipes for everything from snickerdoodles to chocolate chip cookies to brownies, from biscotti to macarons to palmiers, from shortbread to meringues to madeleines, from kolaches to baklava to florentines.

Cookies that are completely new to me? Argentinian Alfajores. Broa. Polvorones. Chrusciki. Fiori di Mandorle. Garibaldi Cookies. Heidesand. Kipferl Biscuits. Kourabiedes. Lebkuchen. Mutzen. Pfeffernüsse. Pizzelles. Zaletti.

Oddest sounding cookies? Chickpea & Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. Cigarettes Russe. Double Shot Cookies. Fig & Flaxseed Cookies. Gouda, Cumin & Walnut Cookies. Grasshopper Cookies. Matcha & Poppy Seed Cookies. Parmesan & Pepper Shortbread. Roquefort, Thyme & Pink Peppercorn Cookies.

Emma Mitchell has struggled with depression every day for twenty-five years. She's tried all sorts of things—talking cures, medication, and more—but the most effective relief she has found is by going out into nature.

This book is Emma's diary, written and illustrated over the course of a year, and in the diary Emma documents her daily moods along with her ventures out into nature.

“When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago.
The second best time? Today.”
—Chinese proverb

David Milarch, a nurseryman in Michigan, had a near-death experience, and an idea came to him. He felt led to find old, large, and hardy trees all over the world and clone them and plant them. Jim Robbins tells David's story in The Man Who Planted Trees.

Acorn was a little wild.

Acorn didn't listen to the warnings of the other acorns. Instead, he jumped right into dangerous adventures. He didn't care; he gloried in the joy of all the elements of life.

Acorn Was a Little Wild celebrates the delight of taking a chance, daring to do something a little scary, being a little wild.

Undies, Please! is a board book that perfectly captures in simple pictures and simple text the experience of potty training for our youngest folks. Any kid will identify with the struggle of learning to use the potty and the joy of doing it successfully for the first time. And it's all told with gentle restraint and decorum.

Kids' poet Douglas Florian teaches the acquisition of toothbrushing skills in a powerful rhyme to our youngest people in this short board book. Florian shares the whole process but adds a charming element of fun. Kids will love learning to brush their teeth to this simple song-like rhyme.

Using only simple text and simple verse, Hanukkah Night delightfully shares the Hanukkah experience. The author also manages to include concepts of counting and ways of creating art. And she even makes it a good read-aloud for bedtime.

The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky is the reason I do the Cybils year after year...It's a book that hit me right in the gut, an amazing wordless picture book that celebrates the joy of being in nature. And I had heard nothing about it, I'd seen no mention of it, until it arrived as a nomination for the year's best picture book for the Cybils Awards.

“Reading has saved my life, again and again, and has held my hand through every difficult time.”

Cathy Rentzenbrink tells the story of her life through the books she read. Even during the hardest times, it was books that pulled her through.

At the end of each chapter is a list of recommended reads.

I used to be a huge fan of The Book of Lists series and The People's Almanac. This is a book from that lineage, but it's a tidy little hundred and fifty pages. The layers of the atmosphere. The order of English succession. Deities of various cultures. A list of left-handers.

Everything you didn't know you wanted to know.

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Even if I had only read this one beautiful sentence from Man's Search for Meaning, this would have been a worthwhile read.

To experience terrible event after terrible event during Viktor Frankl's time in the concentration camps...to feel moments of wonder at small miracles during his time there...to see times where, despite the horrors of the camps, humans rise up to be their best selves...this is the reason so many people have read and loved this book.

“The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.”

This reminds us all that we all have a choice every minute of our lives to add a deeper meaning to our lives even in the midst of suffering.

“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”

And the power of Love.

Aw, you can't help but be charmed by these letters to God from children.

Siddhartha wanders, becoming a seeker after truth, a poor contemplative, a rich man who looks for the sensual pleasures of life, a father trying to teach his son, and, finally, a man of wisdom.

This is one of the most profound books I've ever read. I'd love to read this again, and I'd love to find a group to read this and discuss this with.

Some quotes from this book:

“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”

“I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.”

“It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”

“And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.”

“And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world.”

It's always a happy day when the Pigeon is back with a new book. This time the Pigeon is making plans to ride the roller coaster. This is a more mature Pigeon than we have seen in years past, carefully anticipating what he needs to do—obtain a ticket, wait in line, ride a scary roller coaster—in order to realize his dream. And he carefully goes through the steps he's anticipated...only to find the roller coaster is...well...a little less roller-y and coaster-y than he'd hoped...but, nonetheless, quite fun.

An's grandmother Bà seems to be retreating further and further from the world, and An and her grandfather Ông create a plan to bring her back to them. They decide to grow gấc fruits from seed and make Bà's favorite food from her wedding long ago, xôi gấc. Their hope is that Bà will remember her wedding wish for a hundred years of happiness.

A lovely story of traditional Vietnamese culture and a beautiful story connecting grandchildren with their grandparents through their traditional culture.

In the land of the Tlingit people, a girl is guided by her grandmother to pick berries for her family to make into many useful things. Along the way, the girl learns about her place in nature and nature's place in her culture. And later she is able to teach these things to her sister.

Gunalchéesh!

Little Buckaroo and Buckaroo's horse, Lou, count all the cowpoke things—boots, saddles, neckerchiefs, hats, harnesses—around them in this little board book. A first book for all the cowpokes in your life.

Everyone in the red brick building was asleep.

Until...

WaaaAAH!

Rraak! Wake up!

Pitter patter STOMP!

Pssheew!

Everyone is awake with all the noises, and then slowly the nighttime sounds lull everyone back to sleep.

A book that reminds me of the wonderful classic, The Napping House. An ideal story for reading at bedtime, filled with onomatopoeia.