Offill, Jenny

"To eight-year-old Grace Davitt, the world is full of strange wonders. Through the eyes of her mother, Anna--an ornithologist who speaks five languages--their small lakeside town in Vermont becomes a glittering mystery filled with secret tongues, monsters in the lake, and birthday parties for the Earth. Anna's untamed spirit stands in sharp contrast to Grace's father, a chemistry teacher who examines his surroundings through the lens of rationalism and order. As Grace's family begins to fall apart and she finds that she must choose between her parents, her conflicting loyalties take her on a remarkable journey that spans all corners of the country--and of her own boundless imagination"--Provided by publisher.

Lizzie's work in the library of a university where she was a once-promising grad student is overshadowed by her side hustle answering letters for "Hell and High Water," a podcast hosted by her old mentor, characterized by doom and gloom. Lizzie is supposed to be answering these letters as an unofficial shrink, but as her own life as a wife and mother begins to suffer from her obsession with disaster psychology, writing notes of hope to the podcast correspondence becomes harder and less fulfilling.

A young girl lists seventeen things she is not allowed to do, including not being able use the stapler after attaching a pillow case to her brother's head.

Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years, she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment, but Lizzie has little chance to spend her new free time with her husband and son before her old mentor, Sylvia Liller, makes a proposal. She's become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, and wants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right wingers worried about the decline of western civilization. As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she begins to wonder what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls.

A young girl lists seventeen things she is not allowed to do, including not being able use the stapler after attaching a pillow case to her brother's head.

Teaches readers how to conduct science experiments through step-by-step instructions for eleven failed inquiries designed to test such hypotheses as whether it is possible to wash dishes in a washing machine, and if it is possible to live through the winter eating nothing but ketchup-covered snowballs.

A child takes a sloth named Sparky as a pet.

A women reflects on changes in her marriage, the surprises and challenges of motherhood, and her enduring questions about life in short vignettes.

A child tells an outlandish tale of what took place while a younger sibling was taking a nap.

A child takes a sloth named Sparky as a pet.