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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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Bookstore window display

Launch party recap for Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries

I want­ed to share some of my favorite pho­tos from the Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies launch par­ty last Sat­ur­day at Brick and Mor­tar Books: This is the win­dow dis­play that greet­ed us when we arrived at Brick and Mor­tar Books! So nice!! They had loads of books ready for sale! The sign­ing line starts to form. Fun sign­ing books! Signing

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Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Happy book birthday to Histories and Mysteries!

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES is final­ly here! It takes a lot of peo­ple work­ing togeth­er to cre­ate a book, and this book had such an amaz­ing team behind it. Many, many thanks to my co-author, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte; our agent, Erin Mur­phy; our edi­tor, Jor­dan Brown; and all the won­der­ful folks at Walden Pond Press and HarperCollins.

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What to read on World Refugee Day

Can you imag­ine becom­ing a refugee, need­ing to leave your house sud­den­ly with no plans, lit­tle idea of where to go, and the knowl­edge that you may nev­er return? Every day chil­dren and their fam­i­lies are being forced to flee their homes, com­mu­ni­ties, and coun­tries around the world just to stay alive. Today, June 20th, is World Refugee Day, held

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