Central Kansas Library System

After a rough childhood in multiple foster homes, Krista Galloway is not a fan of Christmas. When she accepts a job as a city manager in the mountain town of Winter Hill, Washington, Christmas is part of the deal: the small town is famous for its Christmasville celebration. Krista doesn't always feel welcomed in the close-knit town, and her daughter Emily continually wonders, "Where's the snow?" Can a friendly stranger and his family help restore...

[This book] is [an] account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played torturous, unpredictable games - games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."--Back...

"This book is an honest and vulnerable first-person account of Celeste Edmunds a young woman who was raised by drug addict parents and, at a young age, learned to survive and protect her siblings among rapists and drug dealers. Eventually the state separated the family and Celeste was adopted, alone, into a dysfunctional, fractured home where she was treated, by a sadistic and manipulating mother, as an unwanted outsider. Contemplating taking her...