Childrens Crusade

Bill Blair finds the land by accident - three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of the family he has yet to create, Bill buys the property on a whim. In Penny Greenway he finds a suitable wife, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life seems compelling and answerable, and they marry and have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife at a time when women chafed at the conventions imposed on them.

Crusade of Tears is an astonishing tale of courage, perseverance, and faith surrounding the tragedy of the Children's Crusade of 1212 in which thousands of German children crossed the Alps in a heart-wrenching attempt to rescue Jerusalem from Islam. Baker paints a masterful portrait of the times, one that blends meticulously researched historical accounts with a compelling plot and an unforgettable assortment of characters.

Robert: Left on the steps of a church as a baby, Robert was often hungry but never stole food like the other orphans in town. Introverted and extraordinarily intelligent, he knew all the Latin prayers and hymns by heart by the time he was five years old. Georgette: Her own mother died in childbirth, leaving Georgette with a father who, seventeen at the time, had neither experience nor aptitude as a nurturing parent, and a brother known in town as Le Fuer - The Spitfire - for his terrible temper.

As a boy at boarding school in Great Britain, Norman would never have guessed where his life's work would take him. After serving in World War I, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he played a key role in the beginnings of InterVarsity Fellowship. Following in the footsteps of C.T. Studd, Norman then answered God's call to join the Heart of Africa Mission in the Belgian Congo. A passionate yet humble evangelist, missionary, and teacher, Norman went on to lead the Worldwide Evangelistic Crusade (WEC) and helped found the Christian Literature Crusade.

In this second book of The Newton Chronicles, Luke Alexander and his friends Nathan and Lydia are still on the hunt for Luke's father, who has been noted as "missing, presumed dead." But Luke and his friends aren't so sure. After finding a watch in Luke's father's office that helps them jump through time, the three friends are on a quest to find Luke's dad.

Tristan and his companions - the fiery archer Robard Hode and the assassin maid Maryam - have escaped to England. But tragedy has occurred to Tristans beloved abbey while they were on the Third Crusade, and Robards home in Sherwood Forest suffers under the rule of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Many obstacles still prevent them from delivering the Holy Grail into safe hands. Tristan must defeat the evil Sir Hugh in one final battle. And he must learn the secret of his birth.

Once the sheltered son of nobility, Will has become an exile. While his father, Lord Shackley, has been on the Crusades with King Richard, a treacherous plot to unseat Richard has swept across England, and Shackley House has fallen. Will flees the only home he's ever known into neighboring Sherwood Forest, where he joins the elusive gang of bandits known as the Merry Men.

In France in the year 1096, everyone in the Jewish community is terrified of the Crusaders, who have been known to burn Jewish houses in the name of religion. One cold Sabbath afternoon, while 12-year-old Elvina is alone in the house, three soldiers pound on her door. One of them is wounded. Elvina has only a moment to make a difficult choice that could put her family and the entire community at risk. Can her guardian angel guide her now?

Hope is in short supply, but courage runs deep as the Salamancan hunters recover from a devastating loss. Jenn knows she must rally her team against the Cursed Ones, but her focus is shattered. She’s torn between passion for Antonio, who once fought by her side, and hate for the bloodthirsty vampire he’s become. His volatility is tearing apart their team...and Jenn’s trust.

Thousands of knights and foot soldiers are mustering in Venice for the launch of the fourth Crusade. Among them is young Arthur de Caldicot, soon to dubbed a knight. He is thrilled to be part of this huge gathering; but all too soon the crusade falls into disarray.

In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city.

In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city.

Even at the age of nine, little Golda Meir was known for her leadership skills. As president of the American Young Sisters Society, she organized friends to raise money to buy textbooks for immigrant classmates. This story is a glimpse at the early life of Israel's first woman prime minister.