The Staircase
"'This one is wise,' he said.' This one has an old spirit. She has been  among us before.'" Though the Arapaho Indian on the trail praised her old  spirit, 14-year-old Lizzy Enders feels anything but wise. Within only a few  days, she has lost her mother to the fever, been left by her widowed father at a  convent, and thrust into the strange world of the Academy of Our Lady of Light  in 1870s Santa Fe. Born a Methodist, Lizzy just can't comprehend Catholicism:  "All this talk of blood and martyrdom and eating flesh and agony. It was just  all too much, is all." In an attempt to alleviate her misery, Lizzy befriends an  unemployed elderly carpenter and suggests he be hired to build the missing  staircase for the convent's new chapel. The other girls at the academy are  furious, since they have been praying for a miracle to complete the stairs, not  an old beggar. Can she convince them that this aged man, with his real tools, is  better than an ephemeral miracle? What Lizzy has to discover for herself is that  sometimes miracles come disguised in nun's habits... or carpenter's sandals.Based on a legend of a real chapel stairway in Santa Fe,The Staircaseis  a lively historical fiction that successfully merges myth, religion, and  old-fashioned pioneer sensibility. Lizzy's need to make order of her chaotic  world and define the unknown are timeless teen traits, makingThe  Staircasea historical novel with real relevance for today's adolescent.  (Ages 12 and older)--Jennifer Hubert--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.