Laura Amy Schlitz Books In Order

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair

A feisty orphan is taken in by a band of phony spiritualists in this intriguing, engaging novel. Maud Flynn is known at the orphanage for her impertinence, so when the charming Miss Hyacinth and her sister choose Maud to take home with them, the girl is as baffled as anyone. It seems the sisters need Maud to help stage elaborate’s ances for bereaved, wealthy patrons. As Maud is drawn deeper into the deception, playing her role as a ‘secret child,’ she is torn between her need to please and her growing conscience until a shocking betrayal makes clear just how heartless her so called guardians are. Filled with tantalizing details of turn of the century spiritualism and page turning suspense, this lively historical novel features a winning hero*ine whom readers will not soon forget.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty two unforgettable characters. Maidens, monks, and millers sons in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There s also mud slinging Barbary and her noble victim; Jack, the compassionate half wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Robert Byrd inspired by the Munich Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth century Germany this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

The Night Fairy

From 2008 Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz comes an exhilarating new adventure and a thoroughly original fairy who is a true force of nature. What would happen to a fairy if she lost her wings and could no longer fly? Flory, a young night fairy no taller than an acorn and still becoming accustomed to her wings wings as beautiful as those of a luna moth is about to find out. What she discovers is that the world is very big and very dangerous. But Flory is fierce and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. If that means telling others what to do like Skuggle, a squirrel ruled by his stomach so be it. Not every creature, however, is as willingto bend to Flory’s demands. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz and world renowned illustrator and miniaturist Angela Barrett venture into the realm of the illustrated classic a classic entirely and exquisitely of their making, and a magnificent adventure.

The Bearskinner

A dejected soldier makes a pact with the devil in this haunting, ultimately
hopeful fairy tale, masterfully retold and vividly illustrated.

Man or bear? When a person gives up hope, is he still human? Such is the story of a soldier who has lost everything to war: his childhood home, his family and friends, his youth, and his innocence. Enter that sly opportunist, the devil, who wraps the soldier in the armor of a dead bear’s skin, fills its pockets with gold, and makes a dangerous and horrible wager. An unforgettable retelling of a classic Grimm tale, The Bearskinner is a story about the struggle between the two sides of our selves, and the heroic strength it takes to claim a victory.

The Hero Schliemann

Archaeologist? Mythmaker? Crook? This engaging, illustrated biography of Heinrich Schliemann a nineteenth century romantic who most believe did find the ancient city of Troy reveals him to be a fascinating mixture of all three.

From the time Heinrich Schliemann was a boy or so he said he
knew he was destined to dig for lost cities and find buried treasure. And if Schliemann had his way, history books would honor him to this day as one of the greatest archaeologists who ever lived. But a little digging into the life of Schliemann himself reveals that this nineteenth century self made man had a funny habit of taking liberties with the truth. Like the famous character of his hero, the poet Homer, Schliemann was a crafty fellow and an inventor of stories, a traveler who had been shipwrecked and stranded and somehow survived. And Heinrich Schliemann was determined to become a legend like Homer but in his own time.
Following this larger than life character from his poor childhood in Germany to his achievement of wealth as a merchant in Russia, from his first haphazard dig for the city of Ilium to his final years living in a pseudo ‘Palace of Troy,’ this engrossing tale paints a portrait of contradictions
a man at once stingy and lavishly generous, a scholar both shrewd and reckless, a speaker of twenty two languages and a health fanatic addicted to cold sea baths. Laura Amy Schlitz weaves historical facts among Schliemann’s fanciful recollections, while Robert Byrd’s illustrations evoke his life and times in wonderful detail. Along the way,
The Hero Schliemann gives young readers food for discussion about how history sometimes comes to be written and how it sometimes needs to be changed.