My Baby Rides the Short Bus - The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities

Charlotte Temple is an 18th-century moralistic lesson to young girls, showing how an innocent schoolgirl is deceived into a life of misery and remorse in America. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth.

This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted.

When Petey suffers a broken heart and starts losing his feathers, Mrs. Chairbottom decides to retrieve his one true love from the island of Mongo Tongo.

Book Two of the Babysitter Out of Control! Series

From the Critics:

"Looking for Love on Mongo Tongo is a lighthearted, amusing, fast-paced adventure that will thrill young readers. Highly recommended." CM Magazine, June 4th,2010

"This mad-cap tale is a pleasure to read and is especially good for children who are starting to read chapter books. The book is beautifully illustrated and has a very imaginative plot line with barrels of laughs." BIZ X Magazine, September 2010 issue

About the Author:

In addition to the Babysitter Out of Control! series of early chapter books, Margaret J. McMaster is the author of the middle-grade novel, Carried Away on Licorice Days, which was nominated for the Canadian Library Association's 2009 Book of the Year for Children Award, the 2010/2011 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award, and the 2011 Rocky Mountain Book Award. She is a past contributor to the Canadian Children's Annual and her creative non-fiction piece, After All These Years, was shortlisted for the 2006 CBC Literary Award.

In Northampton, Massachusetts, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse--so why were her patients dying? So many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred while Kristen made her rounds on Ward C that her colleagues jokingly called her the "Angel of Death." Yet most people didn't suspect the horrifying truth behind the nickname: that Gilbert's polished facade concealed a scheming, manipulative liar and homicidal, narcissistic sociopath.

From August 1995 through February 1996, Gilbert dealt out wholesale death. Her victims were helpless patients who trusted her as a caregiver, only to learn too late that she was a killer, her weapon a drug capable of causing fatal heart attacks. But she got away with murder until three of her fellow nurses could no longer ignore the proliferation of deadly "coincidences" on Gilbert's watch. Investigators believe Kristen Gilbert may have been responsible for as many as 40 deaths. As the law closed in, she struck back, faking suicide attempts, harassing witnesses, stalking her ex-boyfriend, and terrorizing the hospital with bomb threats. In March 2001, after being found guilty of four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, Angel of Death Kristen Gilbert was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ella Dubose is a Southern lady of a certain age--an age at which memories of youth can rush in at every turn and overwhelm the present. But while Ella's two younger children are concerned for her health and want to limit her independence, Ella--elegant, unconventional, and unrepentantly willful--has very different ideas. And she's not about to be controlled by anyone, not when there are tasks she needs to complete and loose ends that must be tied.

The first step is to leave her family and take a road trip back to the places where key chapters of her life unfolded. Myrtle Beach has been overrun by theme restaurants and ocean-front condos, but the Priscilla is still the charming, shingled inn Ella remembers from visits long ago. At the Priscilla, Ella and her companion, Goldie, sip cocktails on the porch and dine on she-crab soup and fried oysters while awaiting the arrival of Ella's oldest son, Tyler, now a successful writer in New York. And there, too, Ella meets a dashing, attentive gentleman who will help her finally face her ghosts and determine which of the secrets she has carried for so long must be shared, and which are better left untold.

With its unforgettable and instantly loveable heroine and evocative portrayal of Southern life--past and present--Dancing in the Lowcountry is a beguiling, beautifully rendered novel about the places and people that stay with us, the courage it takes to live in the present, and the endless ways life can surprise us, over and over again.

James Villas was the food and wine editor of Town & Country magazine for twenty-seven years. His work has also appeared in Esquire, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, The New York Times, and the Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. Two of his cookbooks have been nominated for a James Beard Award. He has also won a James Beard Award twice for journalism and received Bon Appetit's Food Writer of the Year Award in 2003. James Villas is the author of more than a dozen cookbooks and books on food, including My Mother's Southern Kitchen and The Glory of Southern Cooking. He's currently working on his next novel. He lives in East Hampton, New York.

"Jimmy's fiction is like his cooking, wry and ribald, languid and laugh-out-loud funny. When you are from the South, as I am, these are the characters you wish were in your family. A wonderful novel from a wonderful man. The only better thing than reading it would be to hear the author read it outloud. His delicious sass fills every page. A real feast. Serve with some sippin' whiskey and enjoy!" --Marsha Norman, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of 'night, Mother

"James Villas has crafted an epic story steeped in the traditions and culture of the South. It's about family and secrets, memories and regrets, lifelong passions and the inevitable tragedies we all face. Ella Dubose is a complicated, courageous woman still living with gusto, still struggling over life's hurdles, still dancing in the Lowcountry with grit and grace." --Cathy Lamb, author of Julia's Chocolates

"James Villas' Dancing in the Lowcountry resonates with the elegance and master storytelling skills that have made his award-winning food writing timeless. Simply told and yet complexly layered, Miss Ella's journey from spoiled girlhood to endearing eccentricity vividly reminds us that there is always more to the celebrated "steel magnolias" of the South than meets the eye. Not all Southerners are good storytellers, but Villas sure makes the maxim seem true." --Damon Lee Fowler, author of Classical Southern Cooking and The Savannah Cookbook

"In the character of Ella Dubose, James Villas shows us how through sheer force of character a person can throw off the burden of the past and choose to accept the challenge of the future. Authentic detail of time and place helps bring Miss Ella's beloved Lowcountry alive on the page." --Holly Chamberlin, author of Tuscan Holiday

Erika Sifrit was once a high school basketball star and an honors student. Then she married Navy SEAL Benjamin Sifrit and began taking drugs, hoarding diamonds, and turning brutally bad. Some say Erika was abused by "B.J." Some say she pulled his strings. But by the time they reached Ocean City, MD, Erika was packing a gun in her Coach bag and was caught in the grips of new American death ride. . .

In the sun-kissed, sea-swept resort town of Ocean City, a loving couple crossed paths with Erika and B.J. Sifrit. Shortly thereafter, Erika was wearing a bloody wedding ring on her necklace, while what remained of two dismembered vacationers was buried in a Delaware landfill, and a modern-day "Bonnie and Clyde" story was being written--a lurid tale of madness, money, sex and murder. . .

"[Phelps] shockingly reveals that unimaginable evil sometimes comes in pretty packages." --Gregg Olsen

"M. William Phelps' true tales of murderers and mayhem are scary-as-hell thrill rides into the dark heart of the inhuman condition." --Douglas Clegg

"Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place as one of our most engaging crime journalists."--Katherine Ramsland