Paul Fleischman is a Newbery Award-winning author of books for both children and young adult readers. He blends musical language with quirky looks at the world, viewed through the lens of human and natural history. "I'm a maker at heart," Fleischman declared in School Library Journal. By that, Fleischman meant that he creates stories out of the most unlikely found objects: forgotten bits of history, the detritus of bookstores and scrapbooks. Comparing writing to the creation of found sculptures, Fleischman went on to explain in School Library Journal the making of his books. "I collect materials, relying heavily on chance. I sort and discard. I envision possible shapes the book might take.... A sculpture grows upward; paragraphs grow down."

Fleischman writes of the insect world, of a bloody Civil War battle, of the limitations of medicine, of a world turned upside-down, or of a class trip that turns...