Books with title The Year of the Baby

Pearl deals with death, life, and family in this haunting, humorous, and poignant debut that School Library Journal calls a “well-written depiction of adolescence and the pervasive, perplexing nature of loss.”The world can tip at any moment…a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mom dies after giving birth to her baby sister, Rose. Rose, who looks exactly like a baby rat, all pink, wrinkled, and writhing. This little Rat has destroyed everything, even ruined the wonderful relationship that Pearl had with her stepfather, the Rat’s biological father. Mom, though…Mom’s dead but she can’t seem to leave. She keeps visiting Pearl. Smoking, cursing, guiding. Told across the year following her mother’s death, Pearl’s story is full of bittersweet humor and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mother, but also the fact that her sister—The Rat—is a constant reminder of why her mom is no longer around.

In Chinese, peng you means friend. But in any language, all Anna knows for certain is that friendship is complicated. When Anna needs company, she turns to her books. Whether traveling through A Wrinkle in Time, or peering over My Side of the Mountain, books provide what real life cannot—constant companionship and insight into her changing world. Books, however, can’t tell Anna how to find a true friend. She’ll have to discover that on her own. In the tradition of classics like Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books and Eleanor Estes’ One Hundred Dresses, this novel subtly explores what it takes to make friends and what it means to be one.

In this sequel to Year of the Dog, Pacy has another big year in store for her. The Year of the Dog was a very lucky year: she met her best friend Melody and discovered her true talents. However, the Year of the Rat brings big changes: Pacy must deal with Melody moving to California, find the courage to forge on with her dream of becoming a writer and illustrator, and learn to face some of her own flaws. Pacy encounters prejudice, struggles with acceptance, and must find the beauty in change.Based on the author's childhood adventures, Year of the Rat, features the whimsical black and white illustrations and the hilarious and touching anecdotes that helped Year of the Dog earn rave reviews and satisfied readers.

Prize-winning author Parland narrates events of a tumultuous 1918, between WWI and the Russian Revolution, from the viewpoint of six-year-old Riki in this strong intensely imaginative novel. Barricaded on a Finnish farm in a lovely, ghost-haunted countryside, along with parents, aunts, uncles and godlike Grandmother - whose thundered warnings from vengeful biblical texts create a frightening childhood mythology - Riki confuses Baal, devourer of children, with Bull, the lordly animal who bellows and rampages in a nearby field. Parland suggests the wartime brutality through Bull and the deaths of helpless creatures."" - Publishers Weekly.

Every summer the trucks roll in, bringing the carnival and its infinite possibilities to town. This year Tessa and her younger sister Lulu are un-chaperoned and want to be first in line to experience the rides, the food . . . and the boys. Except this summer, jealousy will invade their relationship for the first time, setting in motion a course of events that can only end in tragedy, putting everyone's love and friendship to the test. Alternating chapters of prose and comics are interwoven in this extraordinary novel that will break your heart and crack it wide open at the same time.