In the work of historical fiction Caravaggio Signed in Blood, the Renaissance artist is depicted as a brawling, unrepentant, street fighter in Rome, spoiling for his next battle. Equipped with a flashing sword and an eye to mayhem, he encounters the influential nobility and promptly slays one of them in a street clash. Now he is…
Some of us complain about having it rough. Really? Take a look at fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs – the only girl in her house -- who lives on a poor farm in Pennsylvania with her father and older brothers during the early 1900s. Here is her daily schedule: scrub and sweep the floor, clean out the…
The first time Steve sees the white-winged wasps he is sure they are really angels. Not only do they look like ethereal creatures, they can also speak to him. They say, “We’ve come because of the baby. We’ve come to help. We can fix what’s wrong with the baby.” The theme of a sick baby…
They meet on a narrow ledge six stories above the ground in the bell tower of their high school. At first, only one student notices, but dismisses the image because he sees only Theodore “Freak” Finch, a known nutcase. But wait! There is a girl on the other side of the bell tower. It is…
Corn fields. Farmers claim that you can hear the corn grow. And the corn does grow – tall and full –so thick that a person can appear or disappear between the rows. In the underpopulated town of Bone Gap, a beautiful girl from Poland appears in the empty barn of two young brothers, Sean and…
