April Book

Shackles
By: Dianne J. Wilson

Jason is not the kind of guy you would want to take home to mom. He’s foul tempered, a bit of a womaniser and has a conscience that has been collecting dust for years. All that is shaken up though, when he unearths a package of carefully preserved love letters and a portrait while diving off the coast of Africa. So many unanswered questions, the letters snag something inside of him. Intrigued despite himself, he begins to unravel the mystery caught up in pages. He finds himself tangled up in the life of a girl he’s never met... a girl who is in desperate trouble.

March Book

Love Come Softly
By: Janette Oke

A Compelling Love Story Set in the "Little House on the Prairie" EraShe ventured west with the man she loved, but in one day her whole world had crumbled around her... Nineteen-year-old Marty Claridge starts west with her adventurous, boyish husband, Clem, seeking to claim land and hoping for good fortune. But when the venture turns suddenly to tragedy, Marty is left alone with her great loss. And coupled with her grief and heartache is the grim reality that there is no way to return home.Clark Davis and his little girl, Missie, are also in great need. Clark?s wife has died, leaving him to care to Missie and the farm at the same time. His offer to Marty comes with good intention, but will courage and faith be enough to bring them to true love?First introduced in 1979, Love Comes Softly has become a beloved classic in the inspirational fiction category. A generation of readers has laughed and wept and rejoiced with Marty and Clark Davis whose tragic circumstances threw them together on the frontier prairies of the 1800s. More than one million copies of Love Comes Softly have been sold. And now, the novel that launched inspirational fiction is being transformed into a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, which will premiere April 13, 2003.

February Book

Counting By 7s
By: Holly Goldberg Sloan

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.

“Holly Goldberg Sloan writes about belonging in a way I’ve never quite seen in any other book. This is a gorgeous, funny, and heartwarming novel that I’ll never forget.”—John Corey Whaley, author of Where Things Come Back

"Willow Chance subtly drew me into her head and her life, so much so that I was holding my breath for her by the end. Holly Goldberg Sloan has created distinct characters who will stay with you long after you finish the book."—Sharon Creech, Newbery Award-winning author of Walk Two Moons

"In achingly beautiful prose, Holly Goldberg Sloan has written a delightful tale of transformation that’s a celebration of life in all its wondrous, hilarious and confounding glory. Counting by 7s is a triumph."—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

January Book

One Thousand Gifts
By: Ann Voskamp

Just like you, Ann Voskamp hungers to live her one life well. Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. 'How,' Ann wondered, 'do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long--and sometimes even dark? How is God even here?' In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. It's only in this expressing of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted...a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved--by God. Let Ann's beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive. Come live the best dare of all!

December's Book

A Man Called Ove
By: Frederik Backman

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

November's Book

The War That Saved My Life
By: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

2016 Newbery Honor book Winner of the 2016 Schneider Family Book Award This New York Times bestseller is an exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2 For fans of Counting by 7s Nine year old Ada has never left her one room apartment Her mother is too humiliated by Ada s twisted foot to let her outside So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war Ada doesn t waste a minute she sneaks out to join him So begins a new adventure of Ada and for Susan Smith the woman who is forced to take the two kids in As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony learns to read and watches for German spies she begins to trust Susan and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie But in the end will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother Winner of the 2016 Schneider Family Book Award 2016 Newbery Honor book An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2 from the acclaimed author of Jefferson s Sons and for fans of Number the Stars Nine year old Ada has never left her one room apartment Her mother is too humiliated by Ada s twisted foot to let her outside So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war Ada doesn t waste a minute she sneaks out to join him So begins a new adventure of Ada and for Susan Smith the woman who is forced to take the two kids in As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony learns to read and watches for German spies she begins to trust Susan and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie But in the end will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2 from the acclaimed author of Jefferson s Sons and for fans of Number the Stars Nine year old Ada has never left

Octobers Book

Girl From The Train
By: Irma Joubert

Six-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Aushwitz.  Jakob Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks.  As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl’s unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.

Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When Jakób discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.

But she can’t stay with him forever. Jakób sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families—so long as Gretl’s Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.

Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, Jakób and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.