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Animated GIF of TTL Forces of Nature cover

Happy book birthday to Forces of Nature!

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: FORCES OF NATURE, the third book in the series, is final­ly here! So, what’s this one about? Here’s an overview: Crazy-but-true sto­ries make this acclaimed non­fic­tion series per­fect for fans of curiosi­ties and wonders—and any­one look­ing to explore ways to sep­a­rate fact from fic­tion. Did you know stud­ies have shown that too many fid­get spinners

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What I’ve Been Up To This Month

The month isn’t even over yet, but so much has been packed into the last few weeks it feels more like two months already! That’s not exact­ly an excuse for neglect­ing the blog, but, you know, life hap­pens. Any­way… Beach­side Non­fic­tion Work­shop I start­ed out the month at the Beach­side Non­fic­tion Work­shop with Can­dace Flem­ing & Jen­nifer Swan­son. It was amazing!

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Happy National Trivia Day!

It may itself be a lit­­tle-known fact, but Jan­u­ary 4th is Nation­al Triv­ia Day! To cel­e­brate, I thought I’d post some triv­ia tid­bits from Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies. Remem­ber, ONE of the claims in each set of three below fol­low­ing is false. Can you fig­ure out which one in each trio is the fake triv­i­um? (Did

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Happy holidays (and a gift idea)!

Are you buy­ing any of my books to give as a gift this hol­i­day sea­son? If so, thank you! I’d be thrilled to send you a signed book­plate and some book swag for you to include with your gift. Just send an email to laurie@lauriethompson.com with the details (which book, to whom it should be per­son­al­ized, and what mail­ing address you’d like

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Zoo Scientists cover

Review: Three Stars in the Night Sky

THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY by Fern Schumer Chap­man Gussie Rose Press/June 6, 2018 Grades 5–8, 56 pages Here’s what the pub­lish­er says: At the age of 12, Ger­da Katz fled Nazi Ger­many and came to Amer­i­ca all by her­self. Decades before the label gained recog­ni­tion, she became what’s now known as an “unac­com­pa­nied minor.” Gerda’s sto­ry of fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion reflects the dislocating

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Votes for Women!

Votes for Women! Amer­i­can Suf­frag­ists and the Bat­tle for the Bal­lot by Winifred Con­kling Algo­nquin Young Read­ers, Feb­ru­ary 13, 2018 Grades 8–12, 320 pages Here’s what the pub­lish­er says about Votes for Women!: For near­ly 150 years, Amer­i­can women did not have the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, they won that right, when the 19th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion was ratified

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Facts First! Nonfiction Monday

Review: Capsized! by Patricia Sutton

Cap­sized! The For­got­ten Sto­ry of the SS East­land Dis­as­ter by Patri­cia Sut­ton Chica­go Review Press (July 1, 2018) Grades 5–8, 176 pages Here’s what the pub­lish­er says about Cap­sized!: A fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal account of courage and tragedy on the Chica­go Riv­er On July 24, 1915, the SS East­land, filled to capac­i­ty with 2,500 pas­sen­gers and crew, cap­sized in the Chica­go Riv­er while still moored

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Zoo Scientists cover

Review: EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS

EAVESDROPPING ON ELEPHANTS by Patri­cia New­man Mill­brook Press/August 1, 2018 Grades 4–8, 56 pages Here’s what the pub­lish­er says: Can under­stand­ing how for­est ele­phants com­mu­ni­cate help sci­en­tists find ways to pro­tect this vul­ner­a­ble species? Researcher Katy Pane and oth­ers involved with Cor­nell University’s Ele­phant Lis­ten­ing Project believe it can. Patri­cia New­man takes read­ers behind the scenes to see how sci­en­tists are mak­ing new

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2018 CYBILS Round 1 judge

2018 CYBILS, here I come! I’m excit­ed to share that I’ll be a CYBILS judge again this year. The CYBILS Awards rec­og­nize authors and illus­tra­tors whose books for chil­dren and young adults com­bine both lit­er­ary mer­it and pop­u­lar appeal. In the past, I’ve always helped with judg­ing the younger non­fic­tion cat­e­go­ry (Non­fic­tion Pic­ture Books in 2011 and 2012, and Elementary/Middle

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

The Histories and Mysteries blog tour roundup

Our lat­est in the Two Truths and a Lie series, His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies, has been out for a few weeks now, and we were lucky enough to have it hit the web for its offi­cial blog tour right around pub­li­ca­tion day. Now that the dust has start­ed to set­tle a bit, I want­ed to share all of the in-depth reviews, edu­ca­tion­al materials,

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