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Frances Schoonmaker

Middle Grade Historical Fantasy

Winner of the 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery, Frances Schoonmaker is the author of The Last Crystal Trilogy

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Winner of the 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery, Frances Schoonmaker is author of The Last Crystal Trilogy (Auctus Publishing). The trilogy combines history, mystery, and fantasy around the central theme that there are some things only a child can do because children imagine possibilities adults often fail to see. 

As an elementary school teacher, Schoonmaker drew on imagination and the arts to engage children in learning about and making sense of the world around them. As a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, she directed the graduate program in elementary and middle school education, a program drawing heavily on story and children’s literature. She has taught, lectured, and consulted internationally, particularly in the Middle East and in Asia. 

Curiosity about places and interest in people and their cultures inform Schoonmaker’s fictional writing. A native of Oklahoma, she grew up not far from where one branch of the Santa Fe Trail cuts through Oklahoma. She lives with her family in Baltimore. Friends and family are important to her. When she’s not writing, she is likely to be found in the garden, on a long walk, sketching, reading or wondering what is beyond the next hill. 

Read BookTrib’s review of The Black Alabaster Box here, and check out BookTrib’s Q&A with Frances Schoonmaker here.

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BOOKS:

Titles in The Last Crystal Trilogy:

The Last Crystal (2019)

The Red Abalone Shell (2018)

The Black Alabaster Box (2018)

Books in the Poetry for Young People Series, Sterling Press:

Poetry for Young People: Robert Louis Stevenson. Russian edition. Moscow, (2000)

Poetry for Young People: Robert Louis Stevenson (2000)

Poetry for Young People: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1999)

Poetry for Young People: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1998)

Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg (1995)

Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson (1994)

Your biggest literary influence:

J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, George Macdonald

Last book read: 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The book that changed your life:

It is hard to name one book. My life has been profoundly influenced by books from childhood. But during a sabbatical from teaching, after my daughter was born, I happened on Erikson’s classic Childhood and Society. He talks about the social significance of childhood and the vital role culture plays in the formation of the child. I was particularly taken with his stages of play in ego development and how we return to them throughout life to reflect and engage with our world and with others. As a teacher, I observed how our society has increasingly shown a loss of respect for childhood and play as critical in children’s development. Erikson gave me a solid basis for articulating what I believe about the importance of play, and the profound respect a teacher should have for each child they have the privilege of teaching. 

Your favorite literary character:

Bilbo Baggins, beloved since I first read The Hobbit over 50 years ago. Hobbits are small enough to be disregarded. In a complicated world, they’re uncomplicated. They treasure comfort, good food, gardens and are disinclined to have adventures, much less enter into battles. I’m drawn to Bilbo because he is thoroughly a hobbit, yet when needs to, he steps up, not because he feels adventurous but because he doesn’t want to let others down or have them think he’s not up to the task. When adventure finds him, he gives it his best despite misgivings. He is kind and loyal. He is not corrupted by treasure. And he wants to do right — sacrificing the Arkenstone and his friendship with Thorin Oakenshield in order to save Thorin and avert war. Yet after the glory of adventure, he returns to the comforts of Bag End content to be an anomaly in his beloved Shire.

Currently working on: 

Another middle-grade historical fiction. Sid Johnson’s family decides to go to California when their barn in Illinois is burned by bounty hunters, compromising them as a stop on the underground railroad. Sid imagines they are leaving all that behind for a great adventure on the Santa Fe Trail. He is about to learn that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past,” to borrow from William Faulkner.

Words to live by: 

Kindness and imagination.

Advice for aspiring authors: 

Sister Joan Chittister cites an old monastic tale in which a monk explains the work of a monastery: “We fall and we get up. And we fall down and we get up. And we fall down and we get up again.” 

Reviews:

Kirkus Reviews The Last Crystal

Midwest Book Review

Goodreads Praise

Amazon 5 Star Review

Testimonials:

“Schoonmaker has put a great deal of attention into historical context and scholarship about the Great Westward Migration. Plus, the books are infused with exciting magical elements that kids adore.”
— Courtney McGee,
The Baltimore Sun, Towson edition (Wednesday, April 25, 2018, p.21). Read more: Towson Times 

“This book is fantastic. It weaves history, fantasy, life lessons, and story all into one. I could not put it down!
—  Anjela Horjus, Head Librarian, Lower School Glenelg Country School

“I have now read this beautiful book twice once on my own and once with my teenage son. … The historical issues are all here racism (both towards Native Americans and African-Americans), western expansion, and even the environmental degradation that follows as a result. But this is subtle rather than “preachy” the sign of a good storyteller.”
— Kimberly S., Amazon Review

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