When you go for a walk in nature, who do you see? What do you hear?

Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex’s voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America.

Mountain, river, wind, tree. Come, take a walk with me. What do we learn from plants when we listen to them speaking? Indigenous plantsman Nicholas Hummingbird calls on the legacy of his great grandparents to remember how one drop of rain, one seed, one plant can renew a cycle of hope and connection for him and for each of us.

Through the Squamish language and cultural traditions, learn about Indigenous plant relationships and how we are all connected to nature through plant-based foods, medicines, and materials.

Kochin is a heartsooth, a rare being with the ability to heal any wound. Any wound, that is, except death.Intent on defying nature and bringing Nhika back to life, Kochin keeps her body in a life preserving casket and waits for a miracle. Stricken with grief and descending into madness, Kochin realizes the answer to his desperate quest can only lie in one place: Yarong, the lush yet battle ridden island the first heartsooths called home.Months later, Nhika wakes in a familiar manor-house, with Kochin nowhere to be found. As she traces his footsteps across Theumas, she discovers the haunting path he walked to bring her back, and a world changed by war. When Kochin discovers the true and grisly way to resurrect a person from the grave, he must decide exactly how much he is willing to sacrifice, in order to reunite with the woman he loves.

From his bench outside the front door of his building, Tomah watches his community move around him. He is better at making people laugh than he is at schoolwork, but often it feels like his neighbor Ariel is the only one who really sees him, even in her sadness.Ariel has always danced ballet because of her Auntie Bineshiinh and loves the way dance makes her feet hover above the ground like a bird. But ever since Auntie went missing, Ariel’s dancing doesn’t feel like flying.As the seasons change and the cold of winter gives way to spring’s promise, Ariel and Tomah begin to change too as they learn to share the rhythms and stories they carry within themselves.

Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That’s why she gave him her car. Diego’s best friend, Lawson, needs a ride because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego’s not carrying, not selling, it’s cool. It’s just weed. But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened. As the lines between dealer and driver blur, everything Diego has worked for is jeopardized, and he faces a deadly reckoning with the choices he and his best friend have made.

The day-in the life continues with a bus to school, the class, a museum, and later on dinner and bedtime! What a sweet way to visit Mexico! A charming way to enjoy tiled streets, sunny sidewalks, and domestic scenes, and to take on new vocabulary.

A heartwarming tale of a girl waiting for her beloved Papá to return when the monarchs fly south to their home in Mexico.