Peggy Collins – författare

An exciting picture book inspired by a real-life classroom service dog with themes of friendship, neurodivergence, and courageHarley the service dog is on the job! He goes to school every day with Ms. Prichard to make sure she feels safe. Their students are a lot of fun, but Harley can’t play with them while he's wearing his work vest. They write him lots of letters instead, and everything is perfect in the best, most quiet class in the whole school. Until the day the old stage curtains catch fire. As the fire alarm blares and chaos erupts, Harley remembers that Ms. Prichard isn't the only human in his class who gets upset by loud noises.Inspired by a true story, Harley the Hero celebrates the work of service animals and the normalization of neurodivergence. Author-illustrator Peggy Collins brings Harley and his class to charming life and concludes with an Author's Note about the real dog behind the fictional Harley.

It's Afghan schoolgirl Aria's first day back at school since her accident. She's excited, but she's also worried about sitting on the hard floor all day with her new prosthetic "helper-leg." Just as Aria feared, sitting on the floor is so uncomfortable that she can't think about learning at all. She knows that before the war changed many things in Afghanistan, schools like hers had benches for students to sit at. If she had a bench, her leg would not hurt so much. The answer is obvious: she will gather materials, talk to Kaka Najar, the carpenter in the old city, and learn to build a bench for herself.In A Sky-Blue Bench, Bahram Rahman, author of The Library Bus, returns again to the setting of his homeland, Afghanistan, to reveal the resilience and resolve of young children—especially young girls—who face barriers to education. Illustrator Peggy Collins imbues Aria with an infectious spunkiness and grit that make her relatable even to readers with a very different school experience. An author's note gently introduces an age-appropriate discussion of landmines and their impact on the lives of children in many nations, especially Afghanistan, which has the highest concentration of landmines of any country in the world.Don't miss The Library Bus, also by Bahram RahmanWinner of the Middle East Book AwardFinalist for the Governor General's Literary AwardFinalist for the Florida Literary Association Children's Book AwardFinalist for the OLA Forest of Reading Blue Spruce AwardWinner of the Northern Lights Book Award: Multicultural Category

Daniel is preparing a special gift for his new baby sister, but will it be ready by the time they go to the adoption centre?To show baby Angela how much she is loved by her new family, Daniel wants to whistle for her like the songbirds he loves so much. But will she smile for him? When they arrive at the adoption center and Daniel still hasn’t got the knack of whistling, it’s Jessie, Angela’s birthmother, who knows just what to do.Whistling for Angela celebrates the familial bonds formed through the act of adoption. Illustrator Peggy Collins’ heartwarming close-ups of the families’ loving interactions create an intimate atmosphere throughout all the emotions of the day. In her author’s note Robin Heald shares the inspiration for the story, which came directly from her own experiences with adoption. She also explores the increasingly common practice of building connections between all three sides of the adoption triangle: the child, the birth family, and the adoptive family.