From preconception to adolescence to creating a healthy family lifestyle, this guide covers health during pregnancy and natural childbirth; healthful eating for the whole family; uses and abuses of TV, computers and video games; discipline issues; and more.

Are You Planning a Wedding or Preparing for a Marriage? Like most engaged couples, you’re researching venues, trying on dresses and picking out tuxedos or suits, tasting sample dishes, dreaming of honeymoon destinations, and doing everything to ensure your wedding day is the event of a lifetime. But as more seasoned couples will tell you, there’s more to a marriage than a wedding. A lot more. How do you build a marriage that you’ve dreamed of? Dr. Greg Smalley, vice president of marriage at Focus on the Family, and his wife, Erin, along with 14 marriage experts, serve as your marriage guides as you prepare for life beyond the wedding day. From how to handle those everyday conflicts to how to better connect on a spiritual level, they’ll show you how to get ready for a lifetime of commitment. When the flowers have faded and the last morsel of cake has been eaten, you’ll stand with your new spouse, ready to face life together. Equip yourself for a marriage that lasts by learning: How to leave your parents (while still honoring them) and cleave to your spouse Why spiritual intimacy is key to a lasting relationship Why the language of love is communication (and how to build it) How to manage conflict in a healthy, God-honoring way Why sexual intimacy in your marriage will be the gift that keeps on giving Invest in a marriage that will last for decades. Are you ready?

Afterbirth is about what parenting is really like: full of inappropriate impulses, unbelievable frustrations, and idiotic situations. It's about how life for some parents changes for the worse after their kids are born. Or so it feels. It's about how not every threeyear- old is charming and delightful and about how sometimes when your kid is having a tantrum, you have to stifle the impulse to round-house him. And Afterbirth is funny—the participants are some of the best comic writers and performers today, turning their attention very close to home and sparing no one, particularly themselves. The thirty-five pieces include: • Caroline Aaron on what it feels like when the kid moves out of the house ("The New Parenting Paradigm") • Christie Mellor on why it's dangerous to tell people what you really think about being a mommy ("Yahooey") • Joan Rater on parenting the unexpected ("Attachment Adoption") • Neil Pollack on unforeseeable and unreasonable parental rage ("The Tennis Pro") • Matt Weiner on trying not to parent violently like his father did ("Go Easy on the Old Man")

A porcupine hatches a prickly plan to bring his animal friends together on Valentine’s Day in this humorous, heartwarming tale where everyone gets a happily ever after. Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day—or it will be if Porcupine has any say. He uses his quills like Cupid’s arrows, hoping to bring the sweet and sentimental spirit of the holiday to all his forest friends. But with every poke! that Porcupine gives, he gets a hey!, ouch!, or yowser! in return. It seems Porcupine’s mission isn’t turning out quite like he planned, but with some quick thinking he might just be able to save the day…and maybe find a valentine of his very own.

My Blended Family is an entertaining and colorful book intended to help adults explain the concept of blended families and how they work. There are two stories in this book, Weekend Visit and Birthday Party.

Fans of Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers will love this mischievously funny read-aloud from award-winning author/illustrator Jon Agee Mysterious noises keep waking up the Wimbledon family. "That's very odd," says Mr. Wimbledon each time, but when he returns from checking on the sounds, he's always reassuring: "It's only Stanley; he's fixing the oil tank." "It's only Stanley; he's clearing the bathtub drain." But what Stanley the dog is actually doing while his oblivious family goes back to bed is deliciously absurd: he's turning the house into a rocket ship to zoom himself and his family to another planet for an alien encounter. This is a perfect rhyming read-aloud for fans of irreverent tales like Click Clack Moo and I Want My Hat Back.