Patricia MacLachlan

In the year before they become the orphans known as the Boxcar children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden live with their parents at Fair Meadow Farm, where, although times are hard, they take in a family who has been stranded in their car during a blizzard.

When a drought tests the commitment of a mail-order bride from Maine to her new home on the prairie, her stepchildren hope they will be able to remain a family.

Barkus is a large and very clever dog, and Baby is a cat, and together their adventures make life exciting for seven-year-old Nicky and her family.

At bedtime, a cat in the window reassures a little girl that family members, friends, her dog, and even her brother love her.

Eight-year-old Cassie Witting is upset when she finds out that her mother, Sarah, is expecting a baby, but writing in the journal that belonged to her brother Caleb helps her sort out her feelings and understand that Sarah will always love her.

As the children walk around their beloved farm, they discover more and more chicken talk scratched into the dirt. The family can hardly believe it. What will the chickens possibly say next!? With beautiful watercolor illustrations from New York Times bestseller Jarrett J. Krosoczka and heartwarming text by Newbery Medal-winning author Patricia MacLachlan, Chicken Talk is the perfect book to chuckle over, whether you live in the city or the country....

While spending Christmas at their grandparents' farm, Lily becomes convinced that her younger brother Liam is right about White Cow being lonely and helps him seek a companion for her, leaving little time for Christmas preparations or reading.

Reminds firstborn children that they will always special--even if another child or children follow--because they have been the first to do many things, including teaching their mother and father to be parents.

While in North Dakota helping her Aunt Frankie prepare for a possible flood, Lucy finds her voice as a poet with the help of her two-year-old brother Teddy, the rest of their family, and a few cows.

Illustrations and rhyming text follow an assortment of creatures as they make their way to a nest, the shore, or a porch while the day comes to an end and the moon begins to rise.