Jack Ford

Two decades before the Civil War, a middle-class farmer named Samuel Maddox lies on his deathbed. Elsewhere in his Virginia home, a young woman named Kitty knows her life is about to change. She is one of the Maddox family's slaves--and Samuel's biological daughter. When Samuel's wife, Mary, inherits her husband's property, she will own Kitty, too, along with Kitty's three small children. Already in her fifties and with no children of her own, Mary...

When my son Sean was born with special needs, his mother and I were told he would never be ''normal'' and we mourned for the life we had imagined for him. We thought we would have to be his teacher and protector, more so than the typical child. However, we quickly learned that lessons can come from the most unlikely places and that our world would be changed for the better in ways we could have never envisioned. . . all because of Sean. Before he...