Elizabeth loves to hear her grandmother's stories, and none is more dear to her than the story of her namesake: St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Together the two recall the holiness and charity of this great saint while preparing to celebrate her feast day.Dessi Jackson's lively storytelling voice draws listeners into another time and place, while Lydia Grace's beautiful watercolor illustrations provide a richly detailed delight for the eyes. This charming tale is wonderful to read aloud for the young and young at heart.

A “brilliant” novel of Elizabeth Bathory, the notorious sixteenth-century Hungarian aristocrat who bathed in the blood of virgins (St. Petersburg Times). Turmoil reigns in post-Soviet Hungary when journalist Drake Bathory-Kereshtur returns from America to grapple with his family history. He’s haunted by the legacy of his ancestor, the notorious sixteenth-century Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who is said to have murdered more than 650 young virgins and bathed in their blood to preserve her youth. Interweaving past and present, The Blood Countess tells the stories of Elizabeth’s debauched and murderous reign and Drake’s fascination with the eternal clashes of faith and power, violence and beauty. Codrescu traces the captivating origins of the countess’s obsessions in tandem with the emerging political fervor of the reporter, building the narratives into an unforgettable, bloody crescendo. Taut and intense, The Blood Countess is a riveting novel that deftly straddles the genres of historical fiction, thriller, horror, and family drama.