It wasn’t supposed to be like this. 

When she created Barnaby’s Playhouse, Elana didn’t expect to have one of the largest children’s shows of all time. She had a family- her loving husband, Aaron, and daughter Laurie. And then there was Barnaby, the sweet, sensitive son who inspired the TV show that inspired millions of viewers to embrace creativity and learn along the way.

After fourteen seasons, Barnaby’s Playhouse airs its final episode... and everything falls apart.

Two years after Barnaby’s Playhouse ends, the family loses Aaron in a collision. The accident estranges Elana from her daughter and leads a regressed and grieving Barnaby to hide in the costume of her show’s titular polar bear. 

Between managing her grief and working to piece her family back together, Elana returns to her work for comfort, finding a new opportunity with a very unexpected writing partner: the boy from Aaron’s fatal accident. 

“A Bear Named Barnaby” concludes The Grief Trilogy by Brandon L Roberts with a harrowing and often funny tale of family dysfunction, second chances, and humanity’s growing reliance on nostalgia for comfort.

For years, Gavin Hastings has wrestled with his mother’s death and a childhood overshadowed by his father, restauranteur Jack Hastings. 

A tragic accident unexpectedly bestows a fortune upon Gavin and his siblings. But wealth can’t erase resentment, and Gavin’s anger toward his father remains as sharp as ever. Soon, he’ll discover that such a powerful grudge can call back the dead.

Jack’s ghost resurfaces with a fierce determination to reclaim his fortune. Now, Gavin is forced into a battle of wits and will with the one person he can never forgive. It’s son vs. father in a face-off that will challenge Gavin’s understanding of love, forgiveness, and the cost of holding on.

Bradley’s experiencing some changes. It seems like everywhere Bradley struggles to connect with others, stand up for himself, and get control back in his life. His marriage suffers as priorities shift from the home to the office, and while his heart yearns for change, a fear of being alone puts his life in limbo.

On an otherwise uneventful afternoon, a bee sting in a sunflower field brings a diagnosis that changes Bradley’s life forever. How will Bradley navigate a floral deformity that defies science, and with a cold Rhode Island winter fast approaching, will he even live to see a cure?