Virginia L Kroll

Each member of a family writes an anonymous "I'm thankful for" note and places it in the Thanksgiving bowl, but after the family guesses who wrote each note, the bowl is accidentally left outside, where it rolls off on a year-long series of adventures.

Ryan thinks it is funny to call the slowest runner in his class "Doug the Slug," until his older brother teases him for having a teddy bear.

Having promised her younger brother that she will watch him race in the Special Olympics, Cristina is offered the chance to meet a famous author--her favorite--on the same day and must make a tough choice.

A child describes teddy bears owned by other children, from Joshy's giant grizzly to the floppy bear Poppy's grandmother made from socks.

Parents and children discuss how their families came to be, covering birth families, adoptive families, two-parent families, and single-parent families.

A little girl guides the reader through each step of a posada, a Hispanic holiday tradition celebrated on the nine nights before Christmas.

Anya gets a big surprise when she finds some abandonded goose eggs that she plans to use for the traditional Ukrainian pysanky for Easter. Includes instructions for making Ukrainian Easter eggs and information about the tradition.

At lunchtime Daddy and Jesse play their favorite game: a question and answer game about people who live in Africa and the ways in which they are connected to Jesse.