Most Popular Books by Susan Fletcher

A novel from Susan Fletcher, author of the bestselling Eve Green and Oystercatchers.

A boy risks his life to save some very special children in this fantasy adventure rife with “moments of real beauty and mystery” (Kirkus Reviews), set amidst the rich backdrop of Renaissance Venice. In Renaissance Venice, the secrets of glassblowing are guarded jealously. Renzo, a twelve-year-old laborer in a glassworks, has just a few months to prepare for a test of his abilities, and no one to teach him. If he passes, he will qualify as a skilled glassblower. If he fails, he will be expelled from the glassworks. Becoming a glassblower is his murdered father’s dying wish for him, and the means of supporting his mother and sister. But Renzo desperately needs another pair of hands to help him turn the glass as he practices at night. One night he is disturbed by a bird—a small falcon—that belongs to a girl hiding in the glassworks. Soon Renzo learns about her and others like her—the bird people, who can communicate with birds and are condemned as witches. He tries to get her to help him, but discovers that she comes with baggage: ten hungry bird-kenning children who desperately need his aid. Caught between devotion to his family and his art and protecting a group of outcast children, Renzo struggles for a solution that will keep everyone safe in this atmospheric adventure.

"You must go to the dragon. You must leave tonight." Before she even hears the words, Kaeldra already knows what she must do. She must search out the mother dragon whose draclings have just hatched and somehow get some of her precious milk. It's the only way to save her foster-sister's life. Kaeldra would rather not go. It's much too terriffying, much too dangerous. But Kaeldra knows that she's the only one who can do it. For she is the only one who can actually communicate with dragons. But little does Kaeldra know what she's getting into. She's about to begin a journey that will entwine her fate with that of three little draclings and one would-be dragonslayer. A journey the will become a struggle for life.

In the city of the dead, a dreamer awakens.... Young Babak has a magnificent gift: He can dream the future. Mitra, his brave older sister, is sworn to protect him. For them to survive living on the streets, she must do whatever is necessary -- including using her brother's talent for profit. When Babak is asked to dream for a powerful Magus, he receives a mysterious vision of two stars dancing in the night. Determined to solve this prophetic riddle, the Magus takes the boy and his sister on an arduous journey across the desert. What they discover will change the world in a way that no dream could ever predict....

Every night, Shahrazad begins a story. And every morning, the Sultan lets her live another day -- providing the story is interesting enough to capture his attention. After almost one thousand nights, Shahrazad is running out of tales. And that is how Marjan's story begins.... It falls to Marjan to help Shahrazad find new stories -- ones the Sultan has never heard before. To do that, the girl is forced to undertake a dangerous and forbidden mission: sneak from the harem and travel the city, pulling tales from strangers and bringing them back to Shahrazad. But as she searches the city, a wonderful thing happens. From a quiet spinner of tales, Marjan suddenly becomes the center of a more surprising story than she ever could have imagined.

There is a story about Kara and dragons. When she was four, she came down with vermillion fever. Her parents, thinking there was no cure, left her in a cave to die. A month, later she walked back into her parents’ home as healthy as if she had never been sick. It is said that a mother dragon lived in that cave, and she nursed young Kara back to life. Now, eleven years later, the only reminder of Kara’s illness is a small scar on her cheek. Of her contact with the dragon, there is more. Her eyes, which once were blue, are now green. And she can call down birds, which many believe is a sign that she can also call down dragons, for the two are distant cousins. Only Kara has her doubts. How can a beast as huge and terrifying as a dragon be related to a sweet, gentle bird? But could this explain why the king has sent for her? Does he think she has power over dragons? For Kara, the answer to this question means life or death—not only for her, but for all the dragons.

In this timeless and beautifully told story about family secrets and unresolved liaisons, Eve Green, pregnant with her first child, recalls her mother's death when she was eight years old and her struggle to make sense of her parents' mysterious romantic past.

Lyf has always been pampered, ever since she caught vermilion fever and drank dragon’s milk to cure it. The milk turned her eyes green—a sure sign that she could speak with dragons. But being able to communicate with dragons is not a coveted gift, not when the Queen’s forces are killing them for their hearts and imprisoning all who try to stop them. Now, the last of the dragon eggs are hatching, and the dragons and draclings are in greater danger than ever before. Their safety lies with a few dragon friends who bear the sign of the dove, like Lyf. But in order to save the dragons, Lyf will have to leave behind her life as a pampered child and accept a treacherous journey—one she may not survive.

In this stand-alone novel in the series, Bryn must save a dracling from a dangerous modern world that seems to have no place for an ancient dragon.

In late nineteenth-century California, when Chinese immigrants are being driven out or even killed for fear they will take jobs from whites, fifteen-year-old Eliza Jane McCully defies the townspeople and her lighthouse-keeper father to help a Chinese boy who has been kind to her.

“A lovely little miracle of a book.” —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal–winning author of The One and Only Ivan “[A] large-hearted and riveting medieval adventure.” —William Alexander, National Book Award–winning author of Goblin Secrets “A breathtaking adventure.” —Kirby Larson, Newbery Honor­–winning author of Hattie Big Sky A runaway boy befriends a polar bear that’s being transported from Norway to London in this “stupendous coming-of-age tale stuffed with adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). The polar bear is a royal bear, a gift from the King of Norway to the King of England. The first time Arthur encounters the bear, she terrifies him. Yet, strangely, she doesn’t harm him—though she has attacked anyone else who comes near. So Arthur finds himself taking care of a polar bear on a ship to England. Tasked with feeding and cleaning up after the bear, Arthur’s fears slowly lessen as he begins to feel a connection to this bear, who like him, has been cut off from her family. But the journey holds many dangers, and Arthur knows his own freedom—perhaps even his life—depends on keeping the bear from harm. When pirates attack, Arthur must make a choice—does he do everything he can to save himself, or does he help the bear to find freedom? Based on the real story of a polar bear that lived in the Tower of London, this timeless adventure story thoughtfully looks at the themes of freedom, captivity, and the bond between a boy and a bear.

This poignant historical nonfiction book, about a polar bear that was gifted to King Henry III, beautifully shows the importance of respecting our natural world and its precious animals. Long ago, when kings and queens ruled much of the world, the king of Norway gave the king of England a bear. Imagine a polar bear at ease in her natural arctic world, her only home--until trappers capture her and take her to the king of England. Imagine a polar bear in her lonely new world, stuck in a cage. This small, enclosed space is her only home--until King Henry III decrees that she be brought to the Thames River every day to swim and fish. Imagine now this same polar bear dipping a curious paw in the river water, then leaping in with a joyful splash. And it is here, in this unfamiliar, faraway land, in one small way, that she finds home once again.

An original and timely new YA novel from acclaimed author Susan Fletcher, set in a near-future where rogue gene editing has changed humanity—loosely based on The Little Mermaid A girl torn between two worlds . . . Turtle is scavenging a drowned town when she saves a stranger’s life. There’s something special about Kai—an attraction she’s never felt before. She would do anything to see him again. But Turtle can never truly be with Kai, because Kai is Normal, and Turtle is one of the Mer, kids whose genes were illegally hacked before birth and who now have working gills as well as lungs. Turtle lives on an old cruise ship with the other Mer in order to be close to the water she needs to survive. Yet she sneaks away and lies to her friends to spend more time on land with Kai. And the pull of the shore grows even stronger when Turtle reconnects with her sisters and learns that her father, who has been in prison for having her genes modified, has escaped and may be hiding out nearby. When scientists come up with a way for the Mer to surrender their gills and live as Normals, Turtle faces a terrible choice. Turtle loves her life with her Mer friends, but she desperately misses her family. And then there’s Kai . . . Should she give up her Mer community and their way of life, along with the joy of living freely under the sea? Or give up the guy she’s falling for . . . and any hope of reconnecting with her family?

For readers of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, comes this unforgettable novel about an eighty-seven-year-old woman on a quest for big answers and big adventures. Florrie Butterfield has lived a life full of unexpected travel and adventure. But at eighty-seven, she isn’t expecting many more surprises to come her way. Then, one midsummer’s night, something terrible occurs—so shocking and strange that Florrie grows wary. Is it really an accident, or is she being lied to? Is she living alongside a would-be murderer? The only clue is a magenta envelope, discarded earlier that day. With her suspicions overlooked and her abilities underestimated, Florrie is determined to uncover the truth. But as she turns detective, she finds herself looking back on her own life . . . and a long-buried secret, traced in faded scars over her knuckles, becomes ever harder to ignore. Will she discover what really happened that night? Or will much more come to light than even she had imagined? Prize-winning author Susan Fletcher’s new novel is an absorbing whodunnit that also looks at—and celebrates—the passions, regrets, secrets and adventures of one woman’s extraordinary and inspiring life.

In 1971, amidst the volatile desegregation of public schools in Austin, Texas, racial tensions in classrooms were exploding into daily violence. The traditional, highly competitive education system was failing drastically, pitting students against each other for the teacher's approval. Desperate for a solution, educational psychologist Elliot Aronson invented a radical, counter-intuitive intervention that would change pedagogy forever. He called it the Jigsaw Protocol. Instead of the teacher holding all the knowledge, the day's lesson was divided into pieces. Students were grouped into highly diverse teams, and each child was given just one piece of the puzzle. To pass the test, the students had no choice but to actively listen to, teach, and rely on their peers. The results were immediate and staggering: racial prejudice plummeted, empathy skyrocketed, and the test scores of minority students drastically improved without lowering the performance of others. This book resurrects one of the most successful, yet widely forgotten, psychological interventions in educational history. It explores the cognitive science behind why interdependence breeds intelligence, and why modern, hyper-individualized learning apps fail to replicate the deep neural pathways created by peer-to-peer teaching. Transform the dynamic of any group. Learn how to practically implement the Jigsaw methodology in modern classrooms and corporate training rooms to dissolve hostility, enforce collaboration, and unlock the true potential of active learning. bisac: EDUCATION / Educational Psychology, EDUCATION / Teaching / Methods & Strategies amazon keywords: jigsaw classroom method, collaborative learning strategies, educational psychology prejudice short excerpt: The incredible true story of how forcing students to rely on each other stopped a racial crisis and revolutionized learning. Susan Fletcher - Assembling the Jigsaw - The Forgotten Teaching Method That Erased Prejudice and Boosted Intelligence