"When the Tuckers' next door neighbor mentions someone rang their doorbell late the previous night, Sarah and Kenny Tucker check their home's security camera and discover something shocking: the doorbell ringer also visited their house... and it was a terrified young woman with a shackle hanging from her right wrist. Almost overnight, she becomes known as The Girl on the Porch. There is national coverage on CNN and Fox News, and the video goes viral. As days pass and no one comes forward to identify the woman, fresh footprints appear in the garden next to their house; a neighbor's pet is viciously killed; and a man starts following their daughter Natalie....

“This quiet novel sings. A graceful profound story for all ages that speaks well beyond its intended audience.” —Kirkus (starred review) Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler will love this tween novel about opening your heart and finding family when you least expect it. When a young couple finds a boy asleep on their porch, their lives take a surprising turn. Unable to speak, the boy, Jacob, can't explain his history. All John and Marta know is that they have been chosen to care for him. And as their connection and friendship with Jacob grow, they embrace his exuberant spirit and talents. The three of them blossom into an unlikely family and begin to see the world in brand-new ways.

What if friendship cost you everything? Dumped at her grandmother¿s house in Hawaii after a family tragedy, sixteen-year-old Olive Galloway is desperate to return to Boston before her dad loses all common sense and sells the family house. But plane tickets cost money. With the help of a quirky guy named Brander, and a mysterious girl named Jazz, Olive lands a summer job and launches a scheme to buy a plane ticket home by the end of the summer. They talk her into hanging out at their church youth group, but Olive can¿t help remembering how God didn¿t answer her prayers the last time it was really important. Why should He help now? It¿s up to her to make it home. When Jazz reveals a painful secret, Olive¿s plans are challenged. Jazz needs money¿lots of it. Olive and Brander are determined to help their friend but, when their fundraising efforts are thwarted, Olive is caught in the middle. Helping Jazz means giving up her ticket home. And time is running out.

What to do if a rather insistent bear squats on your porch today? Followed in short order by a shaggy squirrel, a spraying skunk, a playful possum, and a bevy of forest critters large and small? This hilarious cumulative tale of reluctant hospitality and generous inclusivity will leave readers chanting, "OKAY. OKAY! YOU CAN STAY." But watch out! That porch is starting to sway. . . . Jane Yolen's uproarious chant-aloud story is brought to life by Rilla Alexander's dazzling retro-hip illustrations in an exuberant collaboration sure to take its place alongside such cumulative classics as This is the House that Jack Built and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.

From gentleman callers to big men on campus, from Coke dates to "parking," From Front Porch to Back Seat is the vivid history of dating in America. In chronicling a dramatic shift in patterns of courtship between the 1920s and the 1960s, Beth Bailey offers a provocative view of how we sought out mates-and of what accounted for our behavior. More than a quarter-century has passed since the dating system Bailey describes here lost its coherence and dominance. Yet the legacy of the system remains a strong part of our culture's attempt to define female and male roles alike.

Knock...Knock... When Emma finds a dead body on her porch with her name written on the dead man's hand she uncovers a sinister clue to the mystery that has haunted her since childhood. FBI agent Emma Griffin is sent undercover to the small sleepy town of Feathered Nest to uncover the truth behind the strings of disappearances that has left the town terrified. To Emma there is nothing that can lay buried forever. Even though her own childhood has been plagued by deaths and disappearances. Her mother's death, her father's disappearance, and her boyfriend's disappearance. The only cases that she hasn't solved. Her obsession with finding out the truth behind her past was what led her to join the FBI. Now, she must face what may be her biggest case. In Cabin 13 there lies an uneasy feeling. The feeling of her movements being watched. When a knock on her door revealed a body on her porch and her name written on a piece of paper in the dead man's hand. Suddenly her worlds collide. With the past still haunting her, Emma must fight past her own demons to stop the body count from rising. The woods have secrets. And this idyllic town has dark and murderous ones. Either she reveals them or risk them claiming her too. In Feathered Nest, nothing is what it seems. The Girl in Cabin 13 is about to find out that the dead may have secrets of their own.

Twelve-year-old Ellie's boring summer becomes exciting when she develops a crush on her new next-door neighbor, an older boy with a troubled past, whom her parents have forbidden her to see.

Trouble seems to seek out Delores, but she never backs down from a challenge. From her humble beginnings as a sweet Georgia peach, to her rise to late-in-life reality television stardom, Delores always faces everything head-on with a headstrong will. Discover the shocking truth about her trials and tribulations along the way: How she dealt with spousal abuse by giving as good as she got. How she suffered the loss of a child from a forced abortion. How she nearly died in a car wreck that rendered one of her children catatonic. Life might give her lemons, but Delores makes the best lemonade this side of the Mason-Dixon line, then sells that lemonade back to life for a large profit!

"A provocative new novel by the nationally bestelling author of THE ATOMIC CITY GIRLS, about nine generations of one family in Eastern Tennessee whose women, in eerie echoes of the notorious Appalachian murder ballads made famous by singers, over more than a century, have been traumatized by acts of violence"--

"Nell Dickerson fondly recalls childhood nights on the sleeping porch of her grandparents? Mississippi Delta home?the sounds of katydids, cicadas, and tree frogs, the merciful breeze from the overhead fan. But during the heat of the day, the family sought refuge indoors, leaving the dog to his lonely vigil. “I felt like he understood that the porch was the gateway between inside and outside and that it was his duty to keep sentry there in case someone wanted to pass,” she recalls. Years later, Dickerson noticed that few new homes had porches, their residents increasingly dependent on air conditioning. “We Southerners used to be social,” she notes. “Now, we risk losing what makes us Southern: porch sitting. But there is hope. Our dogs maintain the tradition.” Dickerson weaves her passion for historic preservation?first detailed in her 2011 book, Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation?into a fun, uplifting photographic collection that perfectly captures a Southern tradition. Dickerson?s incomparable photographs introduce an unforgettable variety of “house dogs,” “yard dogs,” “shop dogs,” “swing dogs,” “bench dogs,” “top dogs,” “under dogs,” and “dock dogs.”" --from the publisher.