Dan Andreasen – illustratör

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is reach with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.Take Ellen, Lacey's great-great-great-great-grandmother, growing up on an Illinois farm in 1830. Ellen asks her father to bring her some blue calico; instead, he brings her a new stepmother, Julia, and Julia's difficult son, Silas. It isn't until clashes between Silas and Ellen's father threaten to tear her new family apart that Ellen realizes how much Julia has come to mean to her -- but is it too late to save her patchwork family?

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is rich with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.Take Daniel, Lacey's great-great-grandfather, growing up on his grandparents' Illinois farm in 1890. Daniel is happy on the farm, but he is determined to find a way to get out west to visit his father so they can be a whole family again. He hatches an ingenious if risky scheme to make the trip, but when he arrives at the depot in Valentine, Nebraska, he finds the little town abuzz with fears of a Sioux uprising. And an even bigger surprise awaits him at his father's cabin, forcing Daniel to rethink his idea of what makes a family whole.

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is rich with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well. Take Lacey's great-great-aunt Ida Lou, living with her brother, Vic, and their struggling single mother in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1918. Vic wants to join the fighting overseas, while Ida Lou dreams of becoming an aerialist like her heroes, The Flying Wards. She's sure that traveling with the circus will enable her to find her long-absent father. But even as a rich suitor for Ida Lou's mother promises a bright future for the family, a near-tragic accident threatens to put an end to Ida Lou's dreams.

“We said there was no home like a raft. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery…but you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Sail down the Mississippi with Huck Finn and the runaway slave, Jim. Twain’s beloved tale, with its folksy language, creates an indelible image of antebellum America with its sleepy river towns, con men, family feuds, and a variety of colorful characters.

Half wolf, half dog, White Fang fully understands the cruelty of both nature and humans. After nearly starving to death during the frigid Arctic winter, he’s taken in first by a man who “trains” him through constant whippings, and then by another who forces him to participate in vicious dogfights. Follow White Fang as he overcomes these obstacles and finally meets someone who offers him kindness and love.