The Arctic region of North America is a land of long days, icy cold, hardy people and peculiar creatures.  The Inuit people there have made traditional use of remarkable folk tales to find truth and explain the mysteries of an astonishing world.

In Fish-Boy, An Inuit Folk Tale, Vanita Oelschlager retells a tale passed down by a wise old Inuit. It's an...

This is a spiritual journal for those who need some help coming out of a dark night of the soul. Some of these dark nights deal with addiction, divorce, sickness, or a death. By writing down some of the difficult feelings we have during this hardship, we might find some release and healing. We will help you on your journey to recovery. This journal has...

Cimarron Girl: The Dust Bowl Years of Abigail Brubaker is a fictional recollection of young Abigail’s experiences on the family’s Oklahoma prairie farm, located in Cimarron, the heart of the Dust Bowl. Abby’s first-person account chronicles key episodes each year as the depth of the drought unfolds. As she grows, personal perspectives are woven from actual...

This is a true story about Estonia, a small European nation that won its freedom from the former Soviet Union by showing that the spirit of a people is stronger than tanks and bullets. They showed their spirit by doing what they have always loved doing: raising their voices together in song. Sing Freedom! captures the essence of this successful nonviolent...

Because Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that someone will live with for years, or even decades, it is important for family and friends to understand what the person is going through and learn how to give support.

Multiple Sclerosis used to be feared because it was so unpredictable and doctors knew very little in how to treat it. Thanks to good...

Children and adults under the age of 40 have forgotten about the Pullman Porter.

This book will teach children and adults, who the porters were and why they were

so important in our history. Porters worked in early train cars and because they

traveled the country and learned much, many Pullman porters became leaders back

in their home communities. They...

Words and pictures show children what a dangling participle is all about. Young readers are shown an incorrect sentence that has in it a dangling participle. They are then taught how to make the sentence read correctly. It is done in a cute and humorous way. The dangling participle loses its way and the children learns how to help it find its way back to...

This book is based on a true event, the real life adventure of nine year-old Ariel Bradley. It reveals the anxiety of the Americans, who a battle in the first months of the Revolutionary War. It also shows George Washington’s keen sense of humor and his wily, perceptive view of his British adversaries.

Ariel Bradley is Washington’s boy spy who pretends to...

Magic Words is a modern translation (1965) of a very old Inuit creation story by nationally known poet Edward Field. As a poem it captures beautifully the intimate relationship this Arctic people have with their natural world.

Magic Words describes a world where humans and animals share bodies and languages, where the world of the imagination mixes easily...

Ivy In Bloom captures the weariness of a young girl tired of a long winter. "I stare out the window," she says on the first spread of brown and gray, "looking for birds or flowers/or even warm showers/but I don't see any such thing." But then Spring comes when "March is out of breath...snow melting to flowery waters and watery flowers...spring rose from its...

Porcupette Finds a Family, is a story about how a baby porcupine (called a porcupette) finds a new family after losing his mother. He wants to have an attachment to the bear family he finds, but is afraid his "bear" mother and "bear" brother and sister will leave him too. This causes him to act out his fears in
ways that jeopardize acceptance from his...

Children are innately curious about words, especially phrases that make them laugh ("Ants in your pants!"), sound silly ("Barking up the wrong tree" or "Goosebumps") or trigger images that tickle a child's sense of the absurd ("Like a bull in a china shop"). Birds of a Feather introduces children to the magic of idioms - words that separately have one...

A Tale of Two Mommies is a beach conversation among three children. One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too.
True to a child's curiosity, practical questions follow. "Which mom is there when you want to go fishing? / Which mom helps out when Kitty goes missing?" To which he answers: "Mommy helps...

A Tale of Two Daddies is a playground conversation between two children. The boy says he heard that the girl has two dads. The girl says that is right. She has Daddy and Poppa. True to a child's curiosity, practical questions follow. "Which dad helps when your team needs a coach? / Which dad cooks you eggs and toast?"
To which she answers: "Daddy is my...

Postcards is intended for 4-8 year olds, ones who are old enough to understand that a parent in the military may have to go to a dangerous place, but maybe not why. It shows the important intergenerational bonding that families often experience during times of war.
The postcards and letters in the book were received by the author from her father during...

Knees shows the ups and downs of life with dyslexia. We have done this book in the style and size of a chapter book so that younger children and older children at low reading levels can read what seems to be an older child's book. We cover dyslexia's symptoms and the reasons school can be hard for dyslexics. We talk about some famous people who had or have...

The story is based on the actual experiences of Moses, an eight year-old boy and resident of St. Helene's orphanage outside Port-au-Prince. As an infant, he was lit- erally plucked from the waters of a nearby river, having been placed in a basket by whom we believe was his grandmother. The rest of his family perished in floods that wiped out their upland...

Bonyo Bonyo is a true story about how a Kenyan boy's courage and determination, along with critical support from family and strangers, helped him live out his dream of becoming a physician. Pursuing his goal forces him to leave his family and ultimately his country. But years later he is able to return as a doctor with the resources to build a much-needed...

The early railroads signaled real American progress– a sign of hope for all the nation. Rail work was tough, rife with danger and done by a close group of men who supported each other...men of great honor.

By 1910 the railroads employed 1,699,420 Americans. They were conductors, brakemen, firemen, engineers, porters, telegraphers, switchmen and...

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Out of the Blue shows children the magic of idioms - words that separately have one meaning, but together take on something entirely different. Children are curious about words, especially phrases that make them laugh ("Tickled Pink"), sound silly ("Shrinking Violet") or trigger images that tickle a child's sense of the absurd ("A Red Letter Day"). Out of...

A playful and rhythmic page-turner, Carrot the Cat learns that to like who you are is right where it's at. Carrot is a delightful story about a common house cat who finds that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries show children the magic of idioms - words that separately have one meaning, but together take on something entirely different.
Children are curious about words, especially phrases that make them laugh ("Couch potato!"), sound silly ("Eat your words") or trigger images that tickle a child's sense of the absurd ("Pie in the...

Made In China touches on two emotionally charged subjects - adoption and sibling relations. As told in this story, these are intertwined and very important to one young child who was "made in China." The story begins when the child is teased by her older sister that she is adopted from China, and "marked" just like her broom and toys. Upset, she goes to her...

Elefante is VanitaBooks' first board book for young children. It's said that elephants never forget. Poor Elefante forgets everything, like tying his shoes and picking up his toys. But he also forgets his shyness and when a playmate is mean. Children learn how forgetting some things can be a good thing. Elefante "forgot to be afraid of Mouse and he made a...

Big Blue is a cautionary tale for all of us, but especially children who may not realize that their actions can have unexpected consequences. Big Blue is a happy bird, and member of a large family that spends their winters in the warm south. Big Blue gets lazy though and instead of working, he lies about eating and sleeping. Soon, the flock leaves - but...

Ivan's Great Fall is the story of a young boy reluctant to say goodbye to summer. Everything about summer makes him happy. "I love to rise in the summer morn / when the birds sing on every tree." Summer is endless days of play and nights full of stars. As summer turns to fall, he discovers autumn has a charm of its own. "I do like pumpkins / all carved to...

The story is told from the perspective of a young Beetle who, with his mother, meets a crowd of caterpillars in the garden they all frequent. Soon they become friends and he watches in awe as the caterpillars weave themselves into cocoons. A special one catches his attention and Beetle "adopts" it by making all sorts of plans of what they will do together...

Elefante is VanitaBooks' first board book for young children. It's said that elephants never forget. Poor Elefante forgets everything, like tying his shoes and picking up his toys. But he also forgets his shyness and when a playmate is mean. Children learn how forgetting some things can be a good thing. Elefante "forgot to be afraid of Mouse and he made a...

"Multiple sclerosis is like having an elephant in your living room - permanently," says the author, whose husband, Jim, must use a wheelchair because of his MS. "You can ignore him and pretend he isn't there. Or get upset and try everything to get him out. Or you can accept that he's there to live with you until a cure for MS is found. One of the things Jim...