Books like Maple & Willow Together
By Lori Nichols
For siblings who are inseparable one minute and at each other's throats the next, this book names that push-and-pull without taking sides. Gentle, seasonal, tender with a wink of real sibling tension.
Swept away from his family tree, a stick creature is fetched by a dog, thrown by a child, turned into a snowman's arm, and nearly burned on a fire before Santa Claus steps in to help him get home for Christmas.
A great-grandson wanders through his grandfather's topiary garden, where hedges shaped like a farmboy, a soldier, and a chickenpox-covered kid retell a whole lifetime one memory at a time.
When a beloved baby blanket grows frazzled and worn, a boy's grandfather keeps transforming it into something new — until the day there's nothing left to remake.
A city kid worries that Santa can't visit her apartment building — no chimney, no room on the block for a sleigh and eight reindeer — until her family and community show her the Christmas spirit finds a way.
A young boy visits his nana in the city and finds it loud, crowded, and frightening — until she sews him a special cape that helps him feel brave enough to see it as wonderful.
A carpenter named Caleb gets into a spat with his wife Kate, then wakes up transformed into a dog — unable to speak or explain who he really is, so he stays close to her as her loyal companion.
Twelve poems follow one family through a full year, from January sledding to July fireworks to autumn leaves underfoot, finding wonder in each month's particular light and weather.
A little star loves the giant Mooncake she bakes with her mama in the sky, and though she's told to wait, she can't resist sneaking nibble after nibble.
A grandfather leads his three grandchildren up to the attic, pulls out his old bowler hat and tap shoes, and shows them the vaudeville song-and-dance act he once performed on stage.
A little girl and her daddy spend a day at the beach, facing small mishaps — a lost shoe, a ball drifting out to sea, a melting ice-cream cone — that he patiently fixes, one by one.
A newly hatched bird tumbles from his nest and sets off alone to find his mother, asking a kitten, a hen, a dog, and even a giant machine called a Snort if they're the one he's looking for.
