Virginia Nielsen

Almost eleven-year-old Harriet feels abandoned when her mother takes a new job, making her change schools and go to live with an uncle in a small California town, but as she becomes involved with her uncle's work with bats, she learns a lot about love.

It was his world The Louisiana bayous and marshes were home The Armand LeBlanc. The handsome fisherman could read the tides, the stars and the skies .... And he had his music--the rollicking music shaped by generations of Cajun folklore. But Armand couldn't read books and newspapers, much to Professor Jessica Owen's sorrow. There was so much he was missing in life, and she wanted to teach him everything. Yet it was Armand who taught her about love .... Jessica felt at peace in the warm, cloistered world of the Cajun people--Armand was both lover and guide. But was it enough for a lifetime of happiness?

Anna tells of her life with her husband raising their 3 children and how they came about to raise 3 foster children. It is a book of love and child rearing. Some of the stories she tells are funny and some are heartbreaking - just as life is. The author has a delicious sense of humor and timing.

When their village is threatened by a volcanic eruption, a young Hawaiian boy and his grandmother do not evacuate as the scientists advise them to, for the grandmother feels that her friend Madame Pele is only turning in her sleep and will not harm them.

Janice first sees the old Spanish mansion in the gloomy grey light of dusk, Casa de las Tres Hermanas...The House of Three Sisters. The eerie sight of the tangled gardens and peeling walls sends shivers up her spine. Janice never feels at ease at the Casa. She is grateful to Marita Folsom for inviting her there for weekends while her mother is away, and yet - something seems wrong. Rick, Marita's nephew, frightens Janice with his sinister, dark eyes and his strange smile. And then there are the ''accidents", the prowlers, and the unexplained death of Janice's dog. Janice doesn't admit anything is really wrong until the terrifying day she finds herself a prisoner of the Casa...

It was humiliating! As a teenager, Sara Eaton had got around her disabling stutter by becoming a ventriloquist. Maybe she couldn't talk for herself, but with one of her dolls on her knee, she was the life of any party. Now Sara was a child psychologist. She had long since conquered her stutter and only used her dolls to draw out bashful children. Then William Tyson walked into her life. Her heart flipped and visions of wedding bells danced through her head. But at the same time, Sara wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Because suddenly she was stuttering again--as badly as she had as a teenager.