Frank Carlson Library

In small-town Carolina, sixteen-year-old Lutie Painter treasures the "Laundry List" of songs written by her ancestor and does not want to share them, but ultimately they help her learn more about her absent mother and connect with fellow students Kelvin, Doria, and especially Train, a former friend.

"Have you ever encountered a shark? Drenda Keesee has--both in the ocean and in the workplace! In this book, Drenda is not talking about the kind of sharks you see on shark week. She's talking about the kind of sharks you encounter every week--at work, in relationships, and even at church. She's talking about the kind of sharks who wound you with words and accusations; take bites out of your time; rip the joy from your dreams; and leave you hopeless,...

"Having grown up the privileged daughter of artists, Vincent has a life that is lovely in many ways. At forty-four, she enjoys strolling the streets of Paris and teaching at the modern art museum; she has a vibrant group of friends; and she's even caught the eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal: her Irish husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about his...

When her parents separate and she and her siblings move with their mother from the northwest coast to a midwest prairie farmhouse, fourteen-year-old Zoe, miserably unhappy to be away from the ocean and her father, begins to develop a deep attachment to her new surroundings, when, after a shoplifting episode, she is assigned to work at a nature preserve.

The internet and the mobile phone have disrupted many of our conventional understandings of our selves and our relationships, raising anxieties and hopes about their effects on our lives. This timely and vibrant book provides frameworks for thinking critically about the roles of digital media in personal relationships. Rather than providing exuberant accounts or cautionary tales, it offers a data-grounded primer on how to make sense of these important...

Trixie and Tracky are disappointed when the wooden train set they join is full of bossy trains and snoring train tracks.

Told from different viewpoints, five sixth-graders, facing various challenges and under pressure to do well on statewide assessment tests, agree to a plan for acing the tests.

When they learn that their favorite manicurist is getting married, the Tanner sisters run into difficulties after one of them is chosen as a flower girl and the other is not.

A collection of pieces, both prose and poetry, inspired by life: love, loss, abuse, trust, grief, and ultimately, love again.