"In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowa preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend...

When we meet septuagenarian Margaret Hughes, she is living alone in a mansion in Seattle with only a massive collection of valuable antiques for company. Enter Wanda Schultz, a young woman with a broken heart who has come to Seattle to search for her wayward boyfriend. Both women are guarding dark secrets and have spent many years building up protective armor against the outside world. But as the two begin their tentative dance of friendship, the...

It's summertime, and Mr. Putter decides to join theYankee Doodle Dandies baseball team. He can still catch those fly balls, but will his creakiy knees cooperate when it's time to pick up those ground balls? With a little help from mrs. teaberry's good dog, Zeke, anything is possible from the outfield!

Old Sarah knits mittens for all the children waiting for the school bus and hangs them on the blue spruce tree at the bus stop.

Mr. Putter's neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry, decides that they should join a band, but finding the right one isn't as easy as it sounds--for them or their pets.

Mr. Putter thinks he is too old to celebrate his birthday, but when he remembers some of his past birthdays, he changes his mind.

"From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author--now in the fiftieth year of her remarkable career--a brilliantly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel that reveals, as only she can, the very nature of a family's life. "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The whole family--their two daughters and two...

"A curmudgeon and his eccentric new roommate join together to plan an epic escape in this charming, poignant tale. Joel lives in a nursing home, and he's not one bit happy about it. He hates being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to take his pills. He's fed up with life and begins to plan a way out when his new roommate, a retired soap opera actor named Frank, moves in and turns the nursing-home community upside down. Though the two men couldn't...

Old Mr. Putter gets an elderly cat named Tabby to share his English muffins and tea, listen to his stories, and keep him company while he works in his flower garden.

When grumpy Old Man Fookwire builds feeders to try to keep birds--the only creatures he likes--from leaving for the winter, he finds himself in a battle with clever, crafty squirrels who want a share of the abundant food.