KINDRED SOULS

From beloved author Patricia MacLachlan comes a poignant story about what we do for the ones we love, and how the bonds that hold us together also allow us to let each other go.

Jake's grandfather, Billy, hears the talk of birds, is eighty-eight years old, and is going to live forever. Jake and Billy love taking walks around the family farm, and every day, Billy tells Jake just how much he misses his old sod house, where he lived before the wooden farmhouse was built. Billy asks Jake to build him a little sod house, but Jake is reluctant, for reasons even he does not quite understand. But then BiIly gets sick. If Jake builds Billy's beloved sod house, maybe Billy will come home from the hospital and everything will go on always. Can Jake do this one special thing for his kindred soul?

Patricia MacLachlan is the celebrated author of many timeless books for young readers, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal. Her novels for young readers include Arthur; For the Very First Time; The Fact and Fictions of Minna Pratt; Skylark; Caleb's Story; More Perfect than the Moon; Grandfather's Dance; and Word After Word After Word. She lives with her husband and two border terriers in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.