Books published by publisher Front Street Imprint of Boyds Mills Press

It's summer and it's hot. A girl is riding in the back seat of a car between her mother and her mother's sleeping boyfriend, his dog tucked between her feet. Her brother is driving. He suddenly stops the car, gets out, and stands silently. His mother joins him. The boyfriend continues to sleep. Mother and son lean against each other. He starts to cry. The girl distracts her little sister by taking her for a walk. From a distance, the girl hears shouting and sees her mother's boyfriend fall heavily onto the pavement. Their mother shoves her brother to the ground. This novel tells the bittersweet story of an unconventional family and its struggles. The story unfolds with an immediacy and an impact that only a perceptive but innocent child can convey.

Sixteen-year-old Berry Morgan lives with her mother in Rockville, Maryland, where her mother works as a reading tutor. Berry's father, a lobbyist, lives in San Francisco with his girlfriend. He comes in and out of Berry's life unpredictably. A year and a half ago, he showed up at her school with shocking news: Berry's sister was dead. While working as a volunteer at a school in Capetown, South Africa, Laura had been brutally murdered. Now Berry sets out on a two-week trip to South Africa with her father to attend a memorial service for Laura. He has arranged some other activities as well: a business meeting in Johannesburg during which Berry awaits him at a posh hotel; a guided tour of Soweto by minivan; and three days at Krueger National Park, where they live in round huts and go out spotting giraffes by day and elephants, leopards, and lions by night. Berry and her father's painful journey forces them to look beyond their own grieving and bear witness to a country's tortured search for truth and reconciliation.

One day as an old hermit is resting in the meadow an owl flies by, dropping his prey, a little mouse, into the old man's hands. Surprised and delighted, the hermit takes in his new friend as his own daughter. When it's time for Little Mouse to go out into the world, the duo sets off in search of the strongest being on earth -- which turns out to be, surprisingly, a mouse. A highly acclaimed South African artist's rendition of a time-honored theme.

When Prince Ma La Di is ailing, his father summons Doctor Me Di Cin. The doctor prescribes a healthy dose of fresh air, but the prince refuses to leave the palace. Doctor Me Di Cin promises to find an herbal cure. Each day, he returns to the palace empty-handed but full of tantalizing news of all that he has seen. The prince is so intrigued by the reports that curiosity soon gets the best of him and outside he goes.Piet Grobler's watercolors include whimsical plants and birds drawn from Chinese folklore.

Piggy wants his mommy to read him a story, but she's busy and tells him to wait "just a minute." As the minutes drag on, Piggy finds ways to amuse himself, ways that only a long-suffering parent with an impatient toddler can tryly appreciate. Join Piggy and his mommy in this hilarious and universal experience, uniquely depicted in Jung-Hee Spetter's fresh and frantic paintings.

Piggy wants his mommy to read him a story, but she's busy and tells him to wait "just a minute." As the minutes drag on, Piggy finds ways to amuse himself, ways that only a long-suffering parent with an impatient toddler can tryly appreciate. Join Piggy and his mommy in this hilarious and universal experience, uniquely depicted in Jung-Hee Spetter's fresh and frantic paintings.