Customer Reviews

The Staircase

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The year is 1878. Thirteen-year-old Lizzy Enders is torn by grief. After her mother's death on the long journey westward from Missouri, her father has abandoned her at a convent school in Sante Fe, New Mexico. He is determined to prospect for gold in Colorado and regain the family wealth lost in the final days of the Civil War, just before Lizzy's birth. As the only non-Catholic girl at the school, she finds herself an unwelcome outcast, teased and tormented by the other students, especially snooty Elinora, who pretends that she wants to be a nun to avoid suspicion while sneaking out at night to see a boy. Lizzy's only friends are a slightly crazy old woman who lost both her husband and only son to the Civil War, and a travelling carpenter hired to build a staircase at the scool. But even with these two friends, Lizzy still longs for the day her father will return for her, and she wonders if that day will ever come. I highly reccomend this novel to fans of Ann Rinaldi's books. It's another excellant book by her, and she's one of my favorite authors.

I read this book to my daughters because it is based on the fascinating, true story of a staircase that was built mysteriously and miraculously in the Loretto Chapel of Santa Fe. According to history, the nuns were praying for a staircase to be built to the upper level, and a mysterious stranger came, built it, and left quietly without payment. The staircase can still be seen and it is a wonder in design.

The book adds the girl Lizzie to the story, a Methodist thrust into a Catholic school. When the other girls cause a stink about the mysterious carpenter, and plot to get rid of him, Lizzie defends him and thereby becomes the outsider in the group. The way she is treated is quite unfair, but she tries to react without resorting to the same spiteful tactics of the other girls. I enjoyed reading aloud with the nasty intonation of Lizzie's rival, but my daughters thought for their ages, the girls behaved quite immaturely. I agree with one of the young reviewers that stabbing the kitten in the eye was unpleasant to read, but otherwise, I enjoyed this story very much as Lizzie's conflicts were resolved in the midst of the mysterious carpenter's visit.

I read my first Ann Rinaldi book when I was 12 years old. I give her credit for my love of history. I continue to read her books, because I know I will get a good story and "Staircase" is no exception. Lizzy Enders is on her way West with her family and their charge, Elinora. When Lizzy's mother dies, life, as she has known it, is over. Elinora is to be taken to a Catholic convent school where her uncle is Bishop. Lizzy expects to leave with her father, but is left behind. There, she learns some hard lessons in life and how to take the good with the bad, with a little help from friends.

Rinaldi, in her classic style has taken an event in history and built a wonderful, captivating story around it. No matter how old I get, as long as she keeps writing, I will be reading. I highly suggest you do the same. If you are have never read her books before, this is a great place to start.

I bought this book excited by the premise and found it to be a sad disappointment. Populated with gross stereotypes, misrepresentative of the Faith, and full of poorly-constructed two-dimensional characters made colorful by circumstance rather than spirit, Rinaldi takes a beautiful piece of Church Lore and turns it into a relativistic anti-Catholic romp. Propaganda at its worst. Irredeemably convoluted if not downright hateful.

Lizzy Enders feels abandoned in Santa Fe when her father and the remainder of their wagon train to Colorado leave in the middle of the night. Though not exactly alone in the convent school, Lizzy is certainly an outsider, the only Methodist and labeled as a heretic by Mother Magdalene. Add to that the fact that her own mother has just died on the Trail and left without a proper burial. Consider also the fact that she is outcast by the other girls in the convent, including her nemesis, Elinora who has traveled the Trail with her from Independence. The Staircase is more than a story about one girl's acceptance and perseverance in a life that is less than charmed, though. It is a story of hoping for miracles, but more importantly of realizing miracles, even when they do not come in the packaging one expected to find them. Heart-warming and based on the story of the Chapel of Loretto's fabled staircase from the late 1870's, another exceptional offering by Rinaldi.

Lizzy Enders is ripped to pieces with grief after losing her very sick mother on the Santa Fe trail. But she is even sicker when her father abandons her along the way- at a Catholic boarding school run entirely by nuns. She is a Methodist, and the other girls look down upon her. She is also stuck sharing a room with her horrible cousin, who can only think about herself. While trying to understand the ways of the strict Catholic church, Lizzy is asked to accompany a strange lady who lives at the convent up to her son's grave each day. She learns more from this lady than she could immagine. But when she and her cousin, Eleanorea, end jup in the town on an escapade in the middle of the night, Lizzy meets a carpenter, desperately in need of a job. Lizzy gets a strange feeling about the man. She knows the church needs a staircase up to the choir loft built, so invites him to come talk to the nuns. She forms a tight bond with the man, who preforms one of the most famous miracles in history before he vanishes. Lizzy is wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement around every corner.
A very good book. It was a little descriminative against Catholics in my opinion, but that takes little away from the book itself. An all-around great story.

I liked this book. It was pretty good with all the important things. One thing bad about it though, is that it stayed on the same "level". I don't really think there was a "climax". But I did like the story.
I'd say that the best part of the book is when the bishops arrives. His so nice, and he knows what Elinora is really like, because she fool alot of people. The worst part, well its not really the book, but more what happens in the story. I hate it when Elinora stabs Cleo the kitten in the eyes with a needle then throws her out the window. She doesn't need to hurt Cleo to show Lizzy how much she hates her.
The author did a really good job on characters, I really felt I knew them all like I had really known them for years. The other thing is the conflict, she had like five conflicts going on at the same time. So those were all pretty good.

Ages 12 and older will find The Staircase refreshingly different: it tells of Lizzy, whose father has left her at a girls' school run by nuns on his way to new exploration in the West. Methodist Lizzy doesn't understand the Catholic nuns or the girls in the school; but when she befriends a poor carpenter and fights for his rights, she begins to see new potentials in her life.

This book is a wonderful tale of the actual mysterious carpenter of the Sisters of Loretto and his masterful staircase. I thought it was wonderful how the staricase was a way to test the users faith in the end, with no railings on either side and built of strong and sturfy mysterious wood and wooden pegs instead of nails. The fact that the actual staricase has withstood all these years is amazing as well. I give this novl 5 stars because it covers everything that is needed and only leaves you hanging in one aspect, whisch is exactly as it should have been. Perfect.

The story of a young Methodist girl whose mother dies en-route to the west, and her father abandons her at a girls catholic school in the town of Santa Fe NM. The story is centered on a local 'myth' that the spiral staircase in their church was a miracle, that St.Joesph appeared in the guise of peasant carpenter and built it with wood he conjured.

From a historical standpoint the book is a bit light, but it might be good supplementary reading for the settling of the southwest.