The author, on how she and Sasha were united:Sophie, our last German shepherd, died suddenly after a fantastic holiday at the beach. My son, my daughter and I were absolutely distraught. My husband, not so much. He and I had agreed to wait to get another dog, but alas he left for Europe on business ... and my daughter, then eleven, went to work. She found Sasha and lobbied hard for her. I talked to my husband about this by phone. I discussed my concerns about buying a dog over the internet, my worries about taking my kids then eleven and fifteen with me to a strange person’s home to get the dog and how exactly we might pay for said dog. But none of this quite registered with him. It was when we were driving home with the adorable puppy Sasha curled up at my daughter’s feet, that...[read on]About Choldenko's new novel, Chasing Secrets, from the publisher:
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel.Visit Gennifer Choldenko's website.
San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls.Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.
The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love.
Coffee with a Canine: Gennifer Choldenko & Sasha.
--Marshal Zeringue
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