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Virginia Frances Schwartz

Published Works

• NUTZ!, Tradewinds, 2011

• CROSSING TO FREEDOM, Scholastic Canada 2010

• L’Ultime Traversee vers la liberte, French edition, Scholastic Canada 2010

• 4KIDS IN 5E & 1 CRAZY YEAR, Holiday House‘06, Scholastic Canada ’07

• INITIATION Fitzhenry & Whiteside, ‘03

• MESSENGER, Holiday House ‘02), Paperback Fitzhenry & Whiteside,’05,

• IF I JUST HAD TWO WINGS, Stoddart/Fitzhenry, Toronto ‘01,

• SEND ONE ANGEL DOWN, Holiday House, 2000, F & Whiteside,’05,pb

• Awards and Nominations

For Send One Angel Down

• 2000 Parents Choice Gold Award for Fiction

• 2001 Notable Book for a Global Society

Best Book for YA ‘01 by YA Library Services of American Library Association

• 2001 Voice of Young Adults’ Top Shelf Fiction for Middle Readers

• 2001 Books for the Teenage, YA Division of the NYC Public Library

• Children’s Literature Choice List 2001

• Shortlisted for 2002 Charlotte Award of NY State, 2002 Mustang Book Award, 2002 Iowa Teen Award, 2002 South Carolina YA Book Award, 2002 Maine Student Book Award, 2002 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award, 2003 Georgia Children’s Literature Awards & 2003 Garden State Teen Awards.

• Featured in an exhibition of Award-Winning Children’s Books (1997-2002) at 2003 Book Expo America , California, sponsored by The Children’s Book Council

For If I Just Had Two Wings

• 2002 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People

• 2002 Silver Birch Fiction Award

• Canadian Children Book Centre’s Our Choice 2002

• 2003 Manitoba Young Readers Award

• Shortlisted for 2002 YA Canadian Book Award

• Shortlisted for 2003 Rocky Mountain Book Award

• 2004 Red Cedar Award

• 2004 Books for the Teen Age, YA Division of the NYC Public Library

For Initiation

• 2004 Notable Book, Kuriyama International Prize

• Nominated 2005 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award

• Nominated 2005 Willow Award

• Nominated 2006 Stellar Book Award for Teens

• Nominated 2006 Rocky Mountain Book Award

• Shortlisted 2004 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award

• Shortlisted 2004 Sunburst Award for Speculative Fiction

• 2003 White Raven selection at the International Youth Library in Munich

For Messenger

• 2002 Books for the Teen Age, YA Division of the NYC Public Library

For Crossing to Freedom (L’ultime traversee vers la liberte, Fr. Edition)

• Nominated for 2012 OLA Silver Birch Award

• 2011 IODE Violent Downey Book Award

• Shortlisted 2012 Surrey Readers’ Choice Award

• Selection-Communication Jeunesse 2011-2012 for French edition

• Children’s Choice Starred Selection

Presentation Details

Grades 4 – 7 (50 minutes) Prefer smaller setting like library or classroom. Fee depends on group size. Maximum 125. 2 presentations per day. Since author travels from NYC, travel, lodging, tolls and food expenses are incorporated into her fee: $400 per session; $650 for 2 sessions in same school.

Black History Presentation:

Talk will discuss how history, character, voices and images were developed in my slavery novels SEND ONE ANGEL DOWN, IF I JUST HAD TWO WINGS and, CROSSING TO FREEDOM, historical fiction novels about slavery. These books address different aspects of slavery: daily life on a Southern plantation (SOAD); a trip on the Underground Railroad to Canada (IIJHTW) and what happens to a young slave when he escapes into 1850’s Canada (CTF). Or this talk may just center on CROSSING TO FREEDOM, currently a 2012 Silver Birch nominee.

Requirements: A microphone, blackboard or whiteboard, tables and a CD player and hookup for computer system.