new york (state)

An adapted version of Washington Irving's classic tale of a local schoolmaster who is met on the road by the Headless Horseman.

When twelve-year-old Lidie leaves Brazil to join her father and brother on a horse ranch in New York, she has a hard time adjusting to her changed circumstances, as does a new horse that has come to the ranch.

"As the new millennium approaches, the eccentric town of Thebes grows even stranger. Clocked by a Catholic statuette, Mrs. Leontina Scales begins speaking in tongues. Her daughter, Tabitha Scales, and her sons scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus--whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K. Only a modern master like Gregory Maguire can spin a tale this frantic, funny, and farcical. The ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries join with a gay singing group. The Radical Radiants battle the Catholics. A Christmas pageant goes horribly awry. And a child is born. THE NEXT QUEEN OF HEAVEN is Maguire's most imaginative story yet"--.

Told in their separate voices, fifth-graders Sylvan, whose parents' divorce causes him stress, and Charity, who lived in Kenya for the past five years, both strive for normalcy at school and start a petition to keep their teacher, Mr. In, from being fired.

Manhattanites Matisse Osgood and her artist parents move to upstate New York when her father's Parkinson's disease worsens, and Matisse must face high school in a small, provincial town as she tries to avoid thinking about her father's future.