Gail Shalan

All science classrooms discuss animals that hibernate during winter months, but few know about animals that estivate, a prolonged sleep during hot or dry periods. Learn about the reasons estivating animals become dormant, whether it's because warm weather threatens food supply or to avoid increased body temperatures. From the ladybug to the salamander, from the lungfish to the desert hedgehog, twelve estivating animals and their habits, both when...

"A propulsive contemporary women's fiction debut with dark humor and messy yet warm-hearted family dynamics, perfect for fans of Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Emma Straub's All Adults Here. All families are messy. Some are disasters. Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison over 15 years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn't spoken to anyone in her family since. Ten years...

Settling her family into their new home in Georgia, Air Force wife and professional organizer Ellie Avery is busy. With two children, a party to plan for Mitch's promotion, and new contacts to develop, Ellie decides to relax by taking the family dog for a peaceful stroll. But what they find is an abandoned graveyard disturbed by recent flooding leaving two corpses in full view. One is that of a World War I casualty. But the second is recent. Ellie's...

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town. When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated...

Neurodivergent Maudie is ready to spend an amazing summer with her dad, but will she find the courage to tell him a terrible secret about life with her mom and new stepdad? This contemporary novel is a must-read for fans of Leslie Connor and Ali Standish. A Schneider Family Book Award winner!

Maudie always looks forward to the summers she spends in California with her dad. But this year, she must keep a troubling secret about

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In this cozy mystery series opener, a military wife and professional organizer unpacks a murder case in her new neighborhood.
Moving four times in five years has honed Air Force wife Ellie Avery's packing and unpacking skills. But moving with a newborn daughter and husband Mitch in tow, during a heat wave, is enough to make her turn to chocolate for comfort. And when Ellie finds a local environmentalist dead on the side of the road,

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While ten-year-old Maya attends an elite private school on scholarship her classmates are unaware that she and her family are living in a homeless shelter, but on one poignant day Maya discovers having a house is not the only way to have a home.

Scandalous passions and decades-old resentments swirl with the relentless fury of a summer storm...............

Air Force wife Ellie Avery is so good at organizing she's turned pro. But when a fellow military wife turns up dead, Ellie tackles a different type of case--murder... Ellie Avery balances motherhood, marriage, and her own business--Everything in Its Place--with cheerful efficiency. A maestro of organization, she sees her life as an easy checklist that does not include the untimely death of Penny Follette. Unlike the police, Ellie isn't convinced...

Ellie Avery planned a perfect family getaway: fun in the sun on Florida's Gulf Coast, with a side visit to the eBay vendor who'd mistakenly sent her the wrong handbag. But what should have been a simple exchange turns into a fatal transaction when Ellie discovers Angela495 floating face-down in her pool. With some savvy snooping, Ellie learns that Angela's dangerous double life included blackmail, compromising photos, and a scandalous secret that...