An engaging picture book for children ages 4 to 7 about the miraculous staircase built for the Sisters of Loretto in Santa Fe, New Mexico, through the intercession of Saint Joseph.

The myth is the story of how the chapel acquired its spiral staircase through the intervention of a mysterious white-bearded carpenter who came in answer to the sister's prayers. The author has tracked down the mystery. While St Joseph may not have been directly involved, a miracle of sorts did bring Santa Fe this lovely small Gothic structure with stained glass windows.

Joyce leaned her black Triumph bicycle against a wall, and shivered in the foggy, early dawn light. Glancing up at the enormous wooden, carved gate, she hesitated. This was a secret world she was about to enter... For 16 year old Joyce, who lived in one of the poorest streets in Cambridge, the college building where she was about to enter represented privilege, wealth, a life she'd never live. As a bedder, Joyce would be working up and down one of the stone staircases, making the beds of the male students, sweeping floors, dusting desks. She never expected to also find herself mothering, chastising and sometimes even covering up for 'her boys'. The Staircase Girls takes us into the lives of Joyce and other bedders, like Nance, Maud, Rose and Audrey. They endured the Second World War and then had to contend with poverty, ill health and bereavement. They loved, lost and loved again. But their friendships gave them strength, and their work gave them happiness - and even a lasting connection with their charges, some of whom would go on to run the country. Revealing their untold stories for the first time, this is a vivid, poignant account of these remarkable women's lives.

Who built the mysterious spiral staircase in the little chapel at Loretto Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico? Was it a master craftsman or the work of good St. Joseph? Archbishop John B. Lamy had the chapel, patterned after the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, built for the Sisters of Loretto and the young ladies of the academy. When the school closed after more than a century of outstanding service, the site was sold. Old and new owners agreed that the chapel, and the famous staircase, must be preserved for its beauty and peace--now and in the future.

Set in Transjordan just before the 1967 war with Israel, Staircase of a Thousand Steps is a "remarkably well-written...thoroughly absorbing novel" (Arizona Daily Sun) that takes us to a place where memory whispers like fear, where visions of a long-ago forbidden love affair haunt a precocious young girl — and where the flare of old rivalries can be as sudden as searing as the desert wind.

In 1878, after her mother's death on the way West, thirteen-year-old Lizzy Enders is left by her father at a convent school in Sante Fe, where she must deal with being the only non-Catholic student and where she plays a part in what some consider a miracl

Frieda and her five brothers (each of whom had different fathers) grew up within the inner cities of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanian. Thier wayward mother had an admitted "drinking problem," and spent most of her days in liquor bars. This neglect often left the five siblings to fend for themselves amongst often harsh and unforgiving elements of their city's urban streets. At age seven, as Frieda walked home one late-Spring afternoon, she felt the presence of God, forewarning her of difficult trails ahead. This presence encouraged the child to persevere, despite pending obstacles. Soon, Frieda's faith was tested, as the world around her turned into a series of relentless nightmares ... most of which occurred within the families. A disturbling, though ultimately inspiring, true life account of a young girl's struggle to maintain faith, overcome abuse, sexual assault and the host of demons these crimes introduced. Faith that a better life is possible, if she could escape her dysfunctional environment, was all she had.

An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city--from one of America's most acclaimed young fantasy writers. The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country's most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov's cruel reign may not yet be over.

Down the Up Staircase tells the story of one Harlem family across three generations, connecting its journey to the historical and social forces that transformed Harlem over the past century. Bruce D. Haynes and Syma Solovitch capture the tides of change that pushed blacks forward through the twentieth century—the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the early civil rights victories, the Black Power and Black Arts movements—as well as the many forces that ravaged black communities, including Haynes's own. As an authority on race and urban communities, Haynes brings unique sociological insights to the American mobility saga and the tenuous nature of status and success among the black middle class. In many ways, Haynes's family defied the odds. All four great-grandparents on his father's side owned land in the South as early as 1880. His grandfather, George Edmund Haynes, was the founder of the National Urban League and a protégé of eminent black sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois; his grandmother, Elizabeth Ross Haynes, was a noted children's author of the Harlem Renaissance and a prominent social scientist. Yet these early advances and gains provided little anchor to the succeeding generations. This story is told against the backdrop of a crumbling three-story brownstone in Sugar Hill that once hosted Harlem Renaissance elites and later became an embodiment of the family's rise and demise. Down the Up Staircase is a stirring portrait of this family, each generation walking a tightrope, one misstep from free fall.

A haunting and emotionally satisfying novel from a much-loved and critically acclaimed author, which weaves fairy tale and gritty realism together to dazzlingly effect.