On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of 13 beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three nudges to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter Willa on her third miscarriage,...

Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother's life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed. The narrator, a writer, recalls all that...

Little Sal and Little Bear both lose their mothers while eating blueberries and almost end up with the other's mother.

A young llama wants to play but must go shopping with his mother instead, and so he gets angry and makes a mess at the store.

Hawk accepts her mother Max's help to prevent vengeful hybrids, amoral scientists, traitorous politicians, and a deadly virus from overwhelming her beloved, polluted city.

Mama animals tell their little ones all the ways they are loved, forever and always.

Little Critter feels so frustrated that he thinks of running away.

Illustrations and rhyming text portray a young bear searching for its mother and meeting many North American animals along the way.

Little Fish has all sorts of fishy friends in his underwater home, but loves one of them most of all.