Award-winning author Patricia Hickman crafts a critically acclaimed gem that warms the heart and tickles the funny bone. During the Great Depression Jeb Nubey is running from the law when he meets three abandoned children. After they pass a stormy night in a church, Jeb is mistaken for the new pastor-a widower with three kids. Looks like more trouble for Jeb. But the chance for a steady job and three squares a day is too good to turn down.

"After escaping the trauma of the Umbrella Lady's home, thirteen-year-old Saffron Faith Anders is determined to find the father who abandoned her all those years ago. But when she finds him in a nearby town, Saffron is shocked to discover that he has married a woman he clearly had been involved with before her mother's death. Worse, her father insists Saffron pretend to be his niece so he can continue to con his new wife's family. Desperate for her...

"Sarah Brandt is shattered when she learns that a woman has inquired at Hope's Daughters Mission for Catherine, the abandoned child she has taken as her daughter. The woman claims she was Catherine's nursemaid, now acting on behalf of the girl's mother to reunite them. Unwilling to simply hand Catherine over to a complete stranger, Sarah asks Malloy to investigate. But when he goes to interview the woman at her tenement in Chelsea, he finds she has...

"Coo, a ten-year-old girl raised by a flock of pigeons, delights in finally making human contact, but quickly learns that our world is more cruel and complicated than she could have guessed"-- Ten years ago, an impossible thing happened: a flock of pigeons picked up a human baby who had been abandoned in an empty lot and carried her, bundled in blankets, to their roof. Coo has lived her entire life on the rooftop with the pigeons who saved her. Its...

"When police lieutenant Macon Ridley and his loyal K-9, Bogie, respond to a frantic call from Daniels Canine Academy, they're stunned to discover a baby on DCA's doorstep. New recruit Macon tantalized Emma Daniels when she first trained his new pup. Now, that sizzling spark propels the pair to solve a dangerous mystery. At stake is not only an innocent infant, but also Emma herself..." -- Page [4] cover.

When his alcoholic mother disappears, fifteen-year-old Laurence is determined to find her, take care of his little brother, and keep their predicament a secret, all while trying to win a luxury vacation for his mom in a radio call-in contest.

Inadvertently reunited with the daughter she secretly abandoned and the girl's Irish Catholic adoptive mother during the height of the Prohibition era, the adult daughter of a Jewish industrialist finds her life turned upside down by her daughter's bold and unconventional personality.

Foster children Andi and Bruce have been placed with a flaky couple who care more for their aspiring rock careers than their charges. Their mischievous tendencies repeatedly get them into trouble. After a close call with the local pound, the kids end up searching for Friday, their secretly adopted dog, in an abandoned old hotel where they find several other stray dogs seeking shelter. They, along with three other local kids, begin caring for the strays....

Twelve-year-old Lulu, burdened with caring for her sister, Serena, since their father disappeared, must learn to trust her new friends and community when secrets and lies catch up with her. Twelve-year-old Lulu and her younger sister, Serena, have a secret. As Daddy always says, {28}its best if we keep it to ourselves,

While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.