FICTION · CHILDREN
Barbara Jean Hicks
Also known as: Barbara Jean Hicks Na
Award-winning author, storyteller, speaker and educator Barbara Jean Hicks has published eight picture books, including ONCE UPON A PARSNIP, MONSTERS DON’T EAT BROCCOLI, A SISTER MORE LIKE ME and THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER KITTY. Barbara has taught at the preschool, middle school and community college levels and worked in an urban elementary school as author-in-residence, program facilitator and parent educator. She has also written adult novels and novellas and marketing copy for numerous businesses and trade publishers and worked as an editor and proofreader. Based in Northwest Washington state, Barbara travels extensively to deliver her highly rated Young Author and Family Literacy programs to students, teachers and parents throughout the U.S.
The Porthkerris Council School stood half-way up the step hill which climbed from the heart of the little town to the empty moors which lay beyond.
— from Coming home
Most acclaimed
All That Glitters
Driven from the Dumas mansion back to her beloved bayou, Ruby's only hope is that fate will let her begin anew.... Living again in a humble shack, Ruby is determined to make a secure and happy home for her precious infant daughter, Pearl. Paul Tate -- her first love, whom she was forced to abandon -- is at her side once more, now a man of dazzling wealth. When he whisks her into his grand house, it seems their future is assured. As mistress of Cypress Woods, Ruby can forget even the shocking reason she and Paul must wed in a secret ceremony and remain husband and wife in name alone. But the thick, expensive walls of Cypress Woods cannot shut out the terrible memories that have woven their fabric over her destiny, or the cold eyes of Paul's mother Gladys, reminding Ruby of the secret she must keep to give Pearl a loving father. Then her venomous twin sister, Gisselle, arrives to taunt her with news of Beau Andreas, the true father Pearl has never met, and the only man Ruby will ever long for with all her body and soul. Desperate to find the complete, fulfilling life she craves, Ruby builds a precarious new existence, a flimsy shanty of hope that the first flood washes away. Only when the storm exposes the very blackest evils of the past will she glimpse the rainbow's fragile promise, a morning of sunshine and laughter with a family of her own....
Coming home
Coming Home is a novel about tremendous victory and unprecedented loss, a story of faith and a forever kind of love, love that will stay with you long after the last page. This stand-alone novel will serve as either a grand introduction or a beautiful conclusion in the saga of the Baxter Family. The Baxters make plans to come together for a summer lakeside reunion, a celebration like they haven’t had in years. But before the big day, the unthinkable happens. As the Baxter Family rallies together, memories come to light in the grief-stricken hours of waiting and praying, memories that bring healing and hope during a time when otherwise darkness might have the final word. In a season that changes all of them, the brilliance of family love overshadows even the valley of heartache as the Baxters draw closer to God and each other. Along the way, secrets are revealed and the truth about the Baxter Family history is finally made known. Ultimately, in this portrait of family love, the Baxters cling to each other and to God’s promise of forever.