Ever since eleven-year-old Dexter Duckworth and his brother, Dougal, lost their mom, everything has been different. But "different" takes on a whole new meaning when, one day just before Christmas (or Kissmas, as they call it), Dexter finds a golden rock in the forest that hatches into an adorable alien. Gobbledy is smarter than he seems and is lost on planet Earth. Before long, Gobbledy takes Dexter, Dougal, and their best friend Fi on an adventure of friendship, family, and loss—one that requires them all to stay out of trouble, protect Gobbledy from a shadowy group called the Planetary Society, and prepare for their school's Winter Extravaganza Play, where Dexter has to be a dreaded Gingerbread Man. Gobbledy is a fun-filled holiday story that adds up to two brothers, three friends, unlimited jars of peanut butter, a ketchup factory, and one little alien far, far from home.

Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews In this personal narrative, Wendy J. Menara reveals the rare perspective of a child living in the shadow of death, caring for a chronically ill, mentally abusive, bedridden parent. She shares episodes of her life caring for her mother and the heartbreak, at age thirteen, of losing her mother. By the time she entered first grade in the early 1970s, her parents had divorced, her father was rarely in her life, and her volatile, pain-wracked mother was bedridden with multiple sclerosis. With no other options, the optimistic child and her siblings fed, groomed, and cared for their mother's deteriorating body. Though her mother was abusive, Wendy refused to stop loving her. Only after her mother's death would she discover damaging secrets and hidden identities that would forever change her world. Told in vignette form, Wendy J. Menara's compassionate chronicle, Silence of Shame: A Child Caring for Her Bedridden Mother, is for...