Laurie Lawlor

author • educator • often found in nature

Laurie Lawlor

Laurie Lawlor author

Fiction

Dead Reckoning

Book Description

A Pirate Voy­age with Cap­tain Drake

Sir Fran­cis Drake (1542–1596) became well-known among pirates and pri­va­teers. He was an expe­ri­enced and dar­ing sea­far­er. One of his most famous voy­ages was his suc­cess­ful cir­cum­nav­i­ga­tion of the world between 1577 and 1580 which ensured that he would be one of the best remem­bered fig­ures of Tudor England.

Emmet nev­er knew he had a cousin–a sig­nif­i­cant dis­cov­ery for any­one, but for Emmet, life-chang­ing. With­in moments of meet­ing Cap­tain Fran­cis Drake, Emmet is invit­ed to be his cous­in’s ser­vant aboard The Pel­i­can on a glo­ri­ous trad­ing expe­di­tion to exot­ic Alexan­dria, Tripoli, and Con­stan­tino­ple. It is a chance to go on a great voy­age and to escape the angry mobs who now threat­en him and his home.

Reviews and Comments

“Lawlor paints her char­ac­ters with a fine-tipped brush. Fran­cis Drake, a bril­liant naval hero was also a cru­el pirate dri­ven by greed as well as glo­ry. … Lawlor has ably done her research.” (Chica­go Sun-Times, 24 Jul 2005, 9B)

“…a cap­ti­vat­ing and com­pelling adven­ture of a young man caught in a whirlpool of ter­ri­ble, trau­mat­ic events.” (Evanston Round Table, 24 Aug 2005, p 17)

“…the sto­ry is authen­tic and har­row­ing, and the his­tor­i­cal details are well done. This book would be per­fect for old­er teens who love his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, or want more on pirates.” (School Library Jour­nal)

“This is dark­er than most YA fic­tion, but high­ly real­is­tic; it will cer­tain­ly appeal to YAs who like real­is­tic his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, espe­cial­ly sea adven­tures.” (KLIATT)

“Real­is­tic, well-researched his­tor­i­cal nov­el … [pro­vides] vivid insights into the char­ac­ter of Fran­cis Drake.” (VOYA)

“Based as close­ly as pos­si­ble on the some­times-scant his­tor­i­cal record, Lawlor’s work is full of adven­ture and live­ly detail; a sol­id after­word and author’s note con­tin­ue the sto­ry.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“…ambi­tious Fran­cis push­es for­ward to achieve his goal of ‘girdling the globe.’ Lawlor’s obvi­ous­ly exhaus­tive research comes through. [Lawlor’s account] will appeal to read­ers…” (Book­list)

Dead Reckoning

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
Simon & Schuster,2005

Please look for this book at 
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.

Come Away with Me

Book Description

Even a girl with as much pluck and imag­i­na­tion as Made­line “Moe” McDono­hugh can’t drum up much excite­ment in her small town. But then the gyp­sies come to town and Moe looks to them as a means of see­ing the world.

Just as she is plan­ning to run away, her mother’s glam­orous cousins, Let­tie and Lulu, come to vis­it. Moe’s plans for see­ing the world shifts to Let­tie and Lulu and she hopes that they might take her away—that is until she dis­cov­ers Lettie’s ter­ri­ble but fas­ci­nat­ing secret.

Moe’s adven­ture and win­dow on the world final­ly comes, how­ev­er, when Father pur­chas­es a Ford Mod­el T, the first in town. Moe is about to enter the biggest adven­ture of her life.

Reviews and Comments

“A dream­er with an infec­tious sense of humor, 12-year-old Moe is a lik­able hero­ine of this first vol­ume in the promis­ing Heart­land Series … a fresh and fun­ny nov­el.” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly)

Come Away with Me

Heart­land Tril­o­gy, Book 1

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
illus­trat­ed by Jane Kendall
Simon & Schuster/Minstrel Books, 1996

Please look for this book at
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.

Addie’s Forever Friend

Book Description

Addie Mills is not a brave per­son. She is afraid to learn to swim. She’s ner­vous around fire­crack­ers. And she’s very wor­ried that her fam­i­ly will move from Iowa to Dako­ta, where it’s wild and dangerous.

Addie is not like her brave friend, Eleanor. Eleanor can swim like a fish, and she is always ready to do some­thing excit­ing. Now Eleanor has dar­ing plans for the Fourth of July. Will Addie go along?

Can Addie and Eleanor be friends forever?

Awards and Recognition

  • Iowa Chil­dren’s Choice Award nom­i­nee, 1999–2000
  • Soci­ety of Mid­land Authors Chil­dren’s Fic­tion Award final­ist, 1998

Reviews and Comments

“…Ami­able atmos­pher­ic por­trait of life in 1880s Iowa … the sto­ries are gen­tle and heart­warm­ing, and full of authen­tic detail—warmly evoked in the black-and-white illustrations—and smat­ter­ings of dra­ma; Lawlor has a knack for mak­ing his­tor­i­cal fic­tion com­fort­able and rel­e­vant to read­ers.” (Kirkus Reviews)

A Note from Laurie

Addie’s For­ev­er Friend (and the oth­er books in the Addie Series) are based on the expe­ri­ences of my great-grand­par­ents and their chil­dren in the 1880s in Iowa and the Dako­ta Ter­ri­to­ry. To write these books, I did exten­sive detec­tive work—tracking down old let­ters, diaries, and rem­i­nis­cences as well as news­pa­pers and photographs.

On one expe­di­tion to Sab­u­la, Iowa, I brought along an ancient fam­i­ly pho­to, hop­ing to use it to find my great-aunt’s ornate Vic­to­ri­an house. Years ago, this had been the loca­tion of numer­ous fam­i­ly reunions.

My search seemed fruit­less, and just when I was about to give up, a group of local chil­dren came to my res­cue. They looked at the pho­to, and one child said, “See that fan­cy cement cis­tern cov­er? We walk past it every day on the way to school.” Then they showed me the spot.

Sure enough, the cis­tern cov­er was locat­ed on what would have been my great-aunt’s prop­er­ty. Although the house was gone, I felt grate­ful to have found at least one old fam­i­ly relic—the cis­tern cov­er, which over the years had been used for count­less games of tag and leapfrog.

Addie's Forever Friend

the Addie series, prequel

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
illus­trat­ed by Helen Cogancher­ry 
Albert Whit­man, 1997

Please look for this book at
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.

George on His Own

Book Description

Read­ers will remem­ber George as Addie’s pesky younger broth­er in Addie Across the Prairie, the first of Lau­rie Lawlor’s sto­ries about the Mills fam­i­ly and their Dako­ta home­stead. Now Addie is in Yank­ton for her first year of high school and twelve-year-old George is anx­ious to earn his liv­ing as a trom­bone player—something he’s very good at.

Mr. Mills, who thinks music is a waste of time, expects George to one day take over the fam­i­ly farm. But George hates farm­ing and deter­mines to “fol­low his vision” after meet­ing a trav­el­ing the­ater troupe, com­plete with musi­cians. When the Mills fam­i­ly suf­fers a dev­as­tat­ing loss for which George feels par­tial­ly respon­si­ble, the con­flict between George and his father comes to a head, and George sets off on his own dra­mat­ic adventure.

Reviews and Comments

“His­tor­i­cal fic­tion buffs as well as fans of the ear­li­er books will enjoy this offer­ing.” (Book­list)

“Lawlor has a sim­ple and gen­tle style that nonethe­less deals mat­ter-of-fact­ly with the hard life on the fron­tier and the chang­ing fam­i­ly dynam­ics … George’s strug­gles are sym­pa­thet­i­cal­ly por­trayed …” (Bul­letin of the Cen­ter for Chil­dren’s Books)

George on His Own

the Addie series, Book 4

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
illus­trat­ed by Toby Gow­ing
Albert Whit­man, 1993

Please look for this book at
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.

Addie’s Long Summer

Book Description

It’s the begin­ning of what promis­es to be a hot, dry sum­mer on the prairie, and twelve-year-old Addie Mills is feel­ing the weight of a big secret. While her fam­i­ly thinks she’s signed up to take the high school schol­ar­ship test. Addie has­n’t even mailed her appli­ca­tion. How can she admit she’s afraid she’ll fail and most of all, that she’s afraid to leave home? Even Tilla, her best friend does­n’t understand.

The arrival of Eliz­a­beth and Maudie, Addie’s cousins from Iowa, pro­vides a wel­come dis­trac­tion. Addie hopes to become espe­cial­ly good friends with Eliz­a­beth, who is her own age, but Eliz­a­beth is mis­chie­vous and spoiled.

Maudie is with­drawn, and from the begin­ning of the cousins’ vis­it, noth­ing goes as planned. It takes the rev­e­la­tion of anoth­er secret and an amaz­ing event to bring the cousins togeth­er and help Addie face the future.

Awards and Recognition

  • Iowa Chil­dren’s Choice Award nom­i­nee, 1994–95

Reviews and Comments

“The author’s metic­u­lous descrip­tions of ordi­nary aspects of farm life, such as milk­ing the cows, clean­ing the privy, and har­vest­ing the hay, pro­vide a last­ing and real­is­tic image of the harsh strug­gles of life on the Great Plains in the late nine­teenth cen­tu­ry. Lawlor cuts her char­ac­ters from stur­dy cloth, sews them into dra­mat­ic back­drops, then lets her read­ers frame the tableau, feel­ing enlight­ened and sat­is­fied.” (Book­list)

Addie's Long Summer

the Addie series, Book 3

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
illus­trat­ed by Toby Gow­ing
Albert Whit­man, 1992

Please look for this book at
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.

Addie’s Dakota Winter

Book Description

Ten-year-old Addie Mills can’t wait for school to begin after spend­ing a sum­mer with her rough-house broth­ers and pesky baby sis­ter. All she wants is one spe­cial friend. But scrawny, scrap­py Tilla Bergstrom isn’t the friend she imag­ined. Addie even thinks Tilla lies! But she’ll have to do until some­body bet­ter comes along. The girls are hav­ing fun—until some bul­lies threat­en Tilla because of Addie’s lie. When Tilla dis­ap­pears, Addie sets out on the long trek to her house to apol­o­gize and to bring her back. But Tilla can’t return to school. And Addie is soon trapped in a blind­ing bliz­zard, fight­ing for her life—and the friend she almost lost!

Awards and Recognition

  • Iowa Chil­dren’s Choice Award nom­i­nee, 1992
  • Nebras­ka Gold­en Sow­er Award nom­i­nee, 1992
  • North Dako­ta Flick­er Tale Award nom­i­nee, 1992

Reviews and Comments

“Lawlor once again cap­tures the pio­neer spirit—the hard­ships and sor­row as well as the joys and laughter—and shapes believ­able char­ac­ters and inci­dents.” (Book­list)

Addie's Dakota Winter

the Addie series, Book 2

writ­ten by Lau­rie Lawlor
illus­trat­ed by Toby Gow­ing
Albert Whit­man, 1989

Please look for this book at
your favorite pub­lic library
or used bookseller.