Central Kansas Library System

A luminous, poignant true story, Alison Smith's stunning first book, Name All the Animals, is an unparalleled account of grief and secret love, the tale of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and a young woman struggling to define herself in the wake of his loss. As children, siblings Alison and Roy Smith were so close that their mother called them by one name, Alroy. But on a cool summer morning when Alison was fifteen, she woke to learn...

Ginny Carter was once a rising star in TV news, married to a top anchorman, with a three-year-old son and a full and happy life in Beverly Hills -- until her whole world dissolved in a single instant on the freeway two days before Christmas. In the aftermath, she pieces her life back together and tries to find meaning in her existence as a human rights worker in the worst areas around the globe. Then, on the anniversary of the fateful accident --...

"Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn. He is driving his family home after his daughter's field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever. Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit...

When four year old Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren't expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the following months, a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy's trip to heaven and back. This true story, retold by his father but using Colton's uniquely simple words, offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as...

Just before his thirteenth birthday, Jeremy Fink receives a keyless locked box--set aside by his father before his death five years earlier--that purportedly contains the meaning of life.

Twelve-year-old Dill refuses to deal with the recent death of her mother until her dog starts running with a pack that is suspected of killing livestock on neighboring farms, and Dill's beloved grandfather becomes so sick that he needs to go the hospital just like her mother did.

His family and village swept away by a tidal wave, Jiya learns to live with the ever-present dangers from the sea and volcano.

Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the American Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.

Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart and married to the love of her life, a passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when his life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry, so it's a good thing he planned ahead. Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief, but in rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Holly's 30th...