CANR
WORK TITLE: Moonleapers
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.haddixbooks.com/
CITY: Columbus
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 275
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 9, 1964, in Washington Court House, OH; daughter of John Albert (a farmer) and Marilee Grace (a nurse) Peterson; married Doug Haddix (a newspaper editor), October 3, 1987; children: Meredith, Connor.
EDUCATION:Miami University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1986.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN, copy editor, 1986-87; Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, IN, reporter, 1987-91; Danville Area Community College, Danville, IL, adjunct faculty, 1991-93; freelance writer, 1991-94.
AVOCATIONS:Travel.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Phi Beta Kappa.
AWARDS:Honorable mention, Seventeen magazine fiction contest, 1983; fiction contest award, National Society of Arts and Letters, 1988; American Bestseller Pick-of-the-Lists selection, Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination from Mystery Writers of America, Young-Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Quick Pick for Reluctant Young-Adult Readers and Best Book for Young Adults designations, Notable Children’s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies listee, National Council for Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, Sequoyah Young-Adult Book Award, and Black-Eyed Susan Award, all 1996-97, Arizona Young Readers Award, 1998, and ALA Best Book for Young Adults designation, all for Running Out of Time; Children’s Book Award (older reader category), International Reading Association (IRA), and YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young-Adult Readers and Best Book for Young Adults designations, all 1997, Black-Eyed Susan Award, 1998-99, and Nebraska Golden Sower Award, 2000, all for Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults and American Bookseller Pick-of-the-Lists designation, both for Leaving Fishers; YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Picks Top-Ten designations, both 2000, California Young Readers Medal, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, and Nevada Young Readers Award, all 2001, all for Among the Hidden; American Bookseller Pick-of-the-Lists designation, American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults honor, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young-Adult Readers designation, and IRA Young Adults’ Choices listee, 2001, all for Just Ella; American Bookseller Pick-of-the-Lists designation, for Turnabout, The Girl with 500 Middle Names, and Among the Imposters; Eleanor Cameron Award for Middle Grades, 2003, for Escape from Memory; Edgar Allan Poe Award for best juvenile book, Mystery Writers of America, 2025, for Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key; numerous other awards and honors.
RELIGION: Presbyterian.WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to anthologies, including Indiannual and The Luxury of Tears, National Society of Arts and Letters, 1989; On the Edge, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000; I Believe in Water, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000; and Make Me Over: 11 Original Stories about Transforming Ourselves, Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.
Many of Haddix’s books, including Just Ella, Leaving Fishers, Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, and her “Shadow Children” novels, have been adapted as audiobooks.
SIDELIGHTS
Award-winning author Margaret Peterson Haddix writes novels for young adults and juvenile readers that deal with topics from religious cults and futuristic dystopias to modern-day science fiction and reality-based fiction. Haddix’s debut novel, Running Out of Time, a time-slip story with a twist, has become something of a classic of the form and was adopted for use in middle-school classrooms around the United States. Haddix has written several other mainstream novels for middle-grade readers that address more complex themes. While Haddix’s novels for young adults share little in terms of plot, setting, and theme, critics have commended her ability to involve even reluctant readers in the lives of her realistic characters.
(open new1)In an interview in Cynsations, Haddix talked with Cynthia Leitich Smith about she built on her early successes as a writer. Haddix admitted that “a lot of my struggles in the beginning were just about having the confidence to think that it was possible to be published. And I was so green and stupid and ignorant, starting out. I think I expected everything to be easier after that—because then I would know what I was doing. And I certainly do know more than I did back then, but every book is like starting over, with its own challenges and struggles. And its own opportunities.”(close new1)
Haddix was born in Washington Court House, Ohio, in 1964, the daughter of a farming father and a mother who worked as a nurse. “I grew up on lots of stories,” Haddix once told CA, “both from books and in my family. My father in particular was always telling tales to my brothers and sister and me—about one of our ancestors who was kidnaped, about some friends who survived lying on a railroad bridge while a train went over the top of them, about the kid who brought possum meat to the school cafeteria when my father was a boy. So I always thought that becoming a storyteller would be the grandest thing in the world. But I didn’t want to just tell stories. I wanted to write them down.”
Through adolescence and on into high school, Haddix maintained her love of both reading and writing. “For a long time, I tried to write two different kinds of stories: real and imaginary,” she once recalled. As a student at Miami University, she “majored in both journalism and creative writing (and history, just because I liked it). After college, I got jobs at newspapers, first as a copy editor in Fort Wayne, then as a reporter in Indianapolis. It was a lot of fun, especially getting to meet and talk to people from all walks of life, from homeless women to congressmen.”
Meanwhile, during her free time on weekends and in the evenings, Haddix continued to write short fiction. “This was frustrating,” the author once observed, “because there was never enough time. So, in 1991, when my husband got a new job in Danville, Illinois, I took a radical step: I quit newspapers. I took a series of temporary and part-time jobs, such as teaching at a community college, and used the extra time to write.”
The first large-story idea to percolate in Haddix’s imagination was the seed of Running Out of Time. “I’d gotten the idea when I was doing a newspaper story about a restored historical village,” she recalled. “I kept wondering what it would be like if there was a historical village where all the tourists were hidden and the kids, at least, didn’t know what year it really was.” When completed, her manuscript was quickly accepted by an editor at Simon & Schuster, and Haddix was on her way as a juvenile author.
In Running Out of Time, thirteen-year-old Jessie Keyser lives with her family in a frontier village in 1840. When the town’s children are stricken with diphtheria, Jessie’s mother reveals that it is actually the 1990s and their village is a tourist exhibit and scientific experiment gone awry. Because she is strong, Jessie is sent to the outside world to get help; her mother is fearful that the one-time idealistic planners of this “ideal” village may have become perverted in the twelve years since it began. In fact, Jessie’s mother is right: the idealism of community founder Mr. Clifton has been subverted by researchers who have now introduced diphtheria in order to see what will happen to patients without modern medical care. Out in the real world of the 1990s, Jessie must learn to deal with phones, traffic, flush toilets, and the seductions of fast food.
Haddix’s first novel for young readers met with positive reviews. Writing in School Library Journal, Lisa Dennis dubbed Running Out of Time “absorbing” and “gripping,” further noting that the “action moves swiftly, with plenty of suspense.” While Voice of Youth Advocates writer Ann Welton found Jessie’s adjustment to the drastic shift in time “far too smooth, resulting in a lack of narrative tension,” Welton nonetheless pointed out that Running Out of Time has “potential as a model for writing assignments and provides an interesting perspective on American history.” In his review of the novel for the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Roger Sutton also commented that Jessie’s “disorientation upon discovering the modern world would surely have been more pronounced than it seems,” but concluded that readers “will be gripped by the concept, and the book, readable throughout, [is] exciting in spots.” Dennis concluded in School Library Journal that young fans of Running Out of Time “will look forward to more stories from this intriguing new author.” They did not have long to wait.
Haddix wrote Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey when she was pregnant with her first child. “The story should have been very difficult to write,” she later recalled, “because I had a happy childhood and wonderful parents, and should have had nothing in common with the main character—tough-talking, big-haired Tish, whose parents abandoned her. But I’d once worked on a newspaper series where I talked to more than a dozen abused and neglected kids, and their stories haunted me for years. So writing the book was almost like an exorcism—I did feel possessed by Tish’s spirit. Actually, in a way, everything I’ve written has felt like that, like being possessed. When I’m writing, I feel like I must write.”
In Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, high school student Tish is taking an English class where she is required to keep a journal. Since Tish has no one but her journal to confide in as she deals with an absent father, a depressed mother unable to care for her or her younger brother, and a part-time job where the manager subjects her to sexual harassment, her journal—and hence the reader—becomes her confidante. The title of the book refers to the fact that Tish’s teacher has promised to only read finished work inspired by students’ journal entries, and not the individual entries themselves. Tish’s predicament goes from bad to worse when she has to shoplift from a local store to feed herself and her brother Matthew, and then she faces eviction from her home, as well. Finally Tish turns over the entire journal to her sensitive teacher who helps the young girl find help.
“Tish’s journal entries have an authentic ring in phrasing and tone and will keep readers involved,” Carol Schene concluded in her School Library Journal review of Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey. The result, according to Schene, is a “brief, serious look at a young person who is isolated and faced with some seemingly overwhelming problems.” Jean Franklin, writing in Booklist, called Haddix’s novel “a brief, gritty documentary” and “a natural for reluctant readers.” Jamie S. Hansen, writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, echoed this sentiment: “The breezy style, short diary-entry format, and melodramatic subject matter will ensure popularity for this title, particularly with reluctant readers,” concluded the critic.
In Leaving Fishers, Haddix tells the story of Dorry, a teen whose life has been uprooted both geographically and economically. Suffering from diminished circumstances, Dorry has also found it difficult to make friends at her new school. When Angela, one of several attractive and friendly kids who congregate together, asks her to join her group at lunch, Dorry is eager to blend in. Her enthusiasm is not much diminished when she learns that these students are all part of a religious group called the Fishers of Men. She is introduced to their parties and retreats, and when pizza parties give way to prayer groups and retreats, Dorry becomes a member of the Fishers. Increasingly, the girl finds all her time taken up with the cult’s activities. Totally immersed in the group, she fears she will go to hell if she does not do everything she is told to do by Angela and her fellow adherents. Neglecting family and school, Dorry soon finds herself in the grips of the Fishers. Only when she discovers herself terrifying young babysitting charges with threats of hell if they do not convert is she able to shake off the bonds of the cult.
“Haddix gives a fine portrayal of a teenager’s descent into a cult,” wrote Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper, adding that Leaving Fishers is a “good read and an informative one for young people who are constantly bombarded with challenges to their beliefs.” In her Voice of Youth Advocates appraisal, Beverly Youree dubbed the novel “a definite page-turner, full of excitement and pathos” and concluded that “Dorry and readers learn that the world is neither black nor white, good nor bad, but shades of gray.” A Kirkus Reviews critic called Leaving Fishers “a chilling portrait of an insecure teenager gradually relinquishing her autonomy to a religious cult,” and went on to note that Haddix’s novel, “tightly written, with well-drawn characters,” is “in no way anti-religious.” “Haddix’s even-handed portrayal of the rewards of Christian fellowship and the dangers of a legalistic or black-and-white approach to religion” are, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, the book’s “greatest strength.”
The author sets several other novels, such as the mysteries Double Identity and The House on the Gulf, in the contemporary world. Praised by a Publishers Weekly contributor as “another suspenseful page turner,” Double Identity finds thirteen-year-old Bethany Cole worried. Her mom is constantly crying and her dad is acting unusually overprotective. Then, out of the blue, he drives her out to Illinois and leaves her at the home of Aunt Myrlie, with no explanation. Living with a relative she never knew, the teen is full of questions, and as she attempts to understand the strange behavior of the adults around her, a looming danger unearths family secrets that force Bethany to reinterpret her own life. “Haddix conveys Bethany’s dismay and fear through believable dialogue and thoughts,” the Publishers Weekly reviewer noted, while in Booklist Kay Weisman cited the author’s “carefully crafted, gripping prose” and her ability to smoothly introduce “secondary themes concerning cloning ethics and personal identity.” “Bethany’s courage and intelligence will win over readers,” concluded Claire Rosser in a Kliatt review of Double Identity.
Although twelve-year-old Britt is excited when her teenaged brother Bran announces that he has scored a house-sitting job that will let the family exchange their small apartment for a beach house during the summer, this is not the case as the events of The House on the Gulf play out. Suddenly, Bran seems rude and secretive, and Britt is determined to discover the reason for his change in behavior. Learning that Bran has only been hired to mow the lawn for the vacationing homeowners is only partial explanation, however, in a story with numerous twists and surprises, While noting that the novel’s complex plot “stretches credibility” at times, Britt’s first-person narration “makes riveting reading,” according to Booklist contributor Carolyn Phelan.
Among Haddix’s most popular books are those in her “Shadow Children” series. The series take place in a future dystopia à la 1984 or Brave New World, wherein a totalitarian regime strictly observes a two-children-only policy. In series opener Among the Hidden twelve-year-old Luke Garner is the third child of a farming family and is thus illegal. When the government starts to cut the woods around the family home to make way for new housing, Luke must hide from view, looking at the world outside through a small air vent in the attic. From this vantage point, he catches a glimpse of a shadowy figure in a nearby house and begins to suspect that this might be another hidden person like himself. One day he breaks into the seemingly empty house and discovers Jen. A hidden child with a tough exterior, Jen tells Luke about an entire subculture of hidden children that communicate via chat rooms on the Internet. He also learns about the repressive policies of the government. When Jen organizes a rally of other hidden children that ends in bloodshed and her death, Luke must finally make a decision as to how far he will go to defy the government in order to have a life that is worth living.
Critics responded positively to Haddix’s futuristic focus; a Publishers Weekly contributor cited “the unsettling, thought-provoking premise” in Among the Hidden that “should suffice to keep readers hooked.” Describing the novel as “exciting and compelling,” Susan L. Rogers remarked in School Library Journal that readers “will be captivated by Luke’s predicament and his reactions to it,” and Debbie Earl noted in Voice of Youth Advocates that Haddix presents a “chilling vision of a possibly not-too-distant future” in her “bleak allegorical tale.”
The “Shadow Children” saga continues in the novels Among the Imposters, Among the Betrayed, Among the Barons, Among the Brave, Among the Enemy, and Among the Free. Among the Imposters rejoins Luke as he adopts the alias Lee Grant and is sent to Hendricks School for Boys. The boarding school is a place of violence and fear, as terrified students quietly follow orders and newbies like Luke suffer nightly hazing at the hands of older boys. When he learns that some of his schoolmates, along with girls from a neighboring girls’ school, are meeting secretly in the woods to plot their escape, Luke decides to join the plotters in their dangerous plan. Brenda Moses-Allen, writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, wrote that Among the Impostors is filled with “tension and excitement.”
In Among the Betrayed readers revisit thirteen-year-old Nina Ida, a character introduced in Among the Impostors, as she is arrested by the government’s Population Police and charged with treason. An illegal third child, Nina faces death unless she agrees to help identify a group of third-born children, who range in age from six to ten. The focus returns to Luke in Among the Barons as he meets the wealthy family of the dead boy whose name he has taken and feels a strange connection with Smits, the younger brother of the real Lee Grant. Noting that the relationship between the two boys “is compelling,” a Publishers Weekly contributor concluded of Among the Barons that Haddix includes “enough cliffhangers and plot twists to keep readers hooked.”
The fifth installment in Haddix’s “Shadow Children” series, Among the Brave finds executions of third children increasing now that the leader of the Population Police heads the government. Hoping to rescue Luke from a bad situation, Trey joins Luke’s brother, Mark, but when Mark is captured he must turn to the adult-led resistance for help. “Once again, Haddix makes real how hard ordinary and not-so-ordinary actions would be” for her hidden heroes, Tina Zubak asserted in a School Library Journal review of Among the Brave, and in Booklist Phelan described Trey as “an interesting, sympathetic protagonist.”
Like Luke, third child Matthias bravely infiltrates the ranks of the Population Police, hoping to learn enough about their system to save his friends in Among the Enemy. Now a member of the Population Police, Luke realizes that his cover will be blown unless he follows murderous orders in Among the Free, and with that realization he initiates his planned rebellion against the murderous government forces. Writing that “Haddix’s storytelling hums along quickly,” Catherine Threadgill described Among the Free as “a light, easy read that delivers what it promises.” The novel’s “brisk, efficient pacing” fueled by “abrupt plot turns” has successfully “cemented Haddix’s strong following among both avid and reluctant readers,” according to Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson. An omnibus volume featuring tales from the series, Shadow Children Bind-Up, was released in 2009.
Like her “Shadow Children” series, many of Haddix’s books for teen readers are futuristic novels. Turnabout is set in 2085, in a world where pavement is made of foam rubber and society favors singles. At the heart of the novel is the question: “What if people could turn back the aging clock?” Haddix explores this question through characters Melly and Anny Beth, aged one hundred and 103 respectively. When readers meet them, the year is 2001 and Melly and Anny Beth are residing in a nursing home. As participants in an experiment to “un-age,” the two women are given PT-1, a drug in the Project Turnabout program that will reverse the aging process, allowing the participant to grow younger every year until they reach a self-determined perfect age. At that point, they will receive another injection which will stop the process. The only problem is that this second shot proves fatal, and now the members of Project Turnabout are doomed to continue “unaging” until they reach zero. The novel switches between the present and 2085 when Melly and Anny Beth have reached their teens. While they are desperate to find someone to parent them as they grow increasingly younger, a reporter has gotten wind of the project and is trying to contact Melly. Publicity would destroy any chance of privacy these refugees from age have, and now their challenge is to flee from unwanted exposure.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly described Turnabout as a “thought-provoking science fiction adventure,” adding that Haddix “keeps the pacing smooth and builds up to a surprising face-off.” Debbie Carton, reviewing the novel in Booklist, felt that the need for love and protection “is poignantly conveyed, as is the isolation of the elderly in society.” Carton also thought that the book “will provoke lively discussion in middle-school book clubs.” In School Library Journal Beth Wright commented that although the novel’s futuristic setting “is scarily believable,” the themes addressed in Turnabout will spark “thoughtful discussion about human life and human potential.”
Time travel of a different sort is the focus of both Found the first volume in Haddix’s “Missing” series, thirteen-year-old friends Jonah and Chip are both adopted. When both boys receive the same strange letter, warning them of an impending threat, they join together to solve the mystery and discover that their past is linked with that of many other teens who, as babies, had been fellow passengers on a mysterious aircraft that was discovered abandoned, with no adults on board.
Later volumes in the series include Sabotaged and Torn. In Sabotaged, Jonah and his sister Katherine are sent to rescue Virginia Dare of the Roanoke Colony. Booklist critic Cindy Welch noted that the author “skillfully weaves her story around a popular historical mystery,” while a Kirkus Reviews asserted that “Haddix concentrates more on the action, suspense and mystery in this book … than in previous installments.” Torn lands Jonah and Katherine aboard Henry Hudson’s ship bound for the Northwest Passage in 1611. “The story feels like real history, with believable characters and plausible events,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, adding that “it will likely spark interest in young readers.”
Memories of an alien past haunt fifteen-year-old Kira in Escape from Memory. When a successful attempt at hypnosis during a sleepover party unlocks visions of an exotic world and a mother very different from the woman raising her, the Ohio teen is determined to discover the truth behind these visions. Her quest takes her to Crythe, a small, Eastern European enclave of Roman descendants. Efforts to learn about her past soon draw Kira and her family into danger, in a story that Booklist contributor John Green described as “tightly plotted and Matrix-esque in its thought-provoking complexity.” “A startling and intricate thriller,” in the opinion of a Kirkus Reviews writer, Escape from Memory treats readers to an “exciting adventure, climaxing in a tense armed standoff.”
A versatile writer, Haddix has also crossed the genre boundaries on occasion, turning to fantasy in Just Ella and Palace of Mirrors and historical fiction in Uprising. Just Ella presents the aftermath of the Cinderella story, as the charmed young teen finds life in the royal palace stifling and hardly worth the lifelong love of Prince Charming. Another royal family figures in Palace of Mirrors, as fourteen-year-old Cecilia battles imposters and danger in her attempt to gain her rightful position as princess of the kingdom of Suala.
Sharing unfortunate circumstances, immigrants Bella and Yetta, along with friend Jane, watch their livelihood go up in flames during the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that is the focus of Uprising. The novel takes place amid the events leading up to the 1911 fire and in 1927 flashbacks in which the only one of the three to survive recalls the tragedy. Uprising was praised by Kliatt contributor Rosser as “a dramatic story, filled with all the elements we like: friendship, romance, bravery, and suspense.” Writing that Haddix’s “deftly crafted historical novel unfolds dramatically,” Renee Steinberg added in her School Library Journal review that the tale is made the more riveting due to “well-drawn characters who readily evoke empathy and compassion.”
Claim to Fame features sixteen-year-old recovering child star Lindsay Scott. Now living a secluded life, Lindsay suffered a nervous breakdown at age eleven as a result of both her stardom and a special ability to hear anything that is ever said about her from anywhere around the world. Claim to Fame follows Lindsay’s reintegration into society as she struggles to keep her past and her gift a secret.
Finding the resolution a bit too neat, a Publishers Weekly nonetheless found Claim to Fame “a thought-provoking story laced with themes of transcendentalism, self-centeredness, and the importance of human connectivity.” Likewise finding the conclusion “a bit far-fetched,” School Library Journal reviewer Tracy Weiskind predicted that “teens will like the brush with fame and her unique gift and will relate to her feelings of isolation.” A Kirkus Reviews critic described the novel as “a parable about finding the strength to confront fears. An intriguing and often exciting diversion for young readers.”
The Always War is another futuristic novel in which the United States is engaged in a second civil war that has been raging for more than seventy years. Fifteen-year-old Tessa struggles to stay hopeful, and she thinks she finds her hero when Gideon, a childhood neighbor, is honored for bravery. Ashamed of the deaths he has extracted, Gideon refuses the honor and runs away. Curious, Tessa follows him and ends up headed straight for enemy lines. “If hoping to grab a heartfelt connection, readers may feel sidelined, but plot turns will certainly keep them entranced,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Voice of Youth Advocates critic Kristi Sadowski asserted that “the plot is good, the story line is captivating, and there are certainly many opportunities for discussion.”
Game Changer features eighth-grade softball virtuoso KT Sutton. Her world is turned upside down when sports become the material that is graded at school, and all the students really care about is extra-curricular academic competitions.
School Library Journal critic Jamie Kallio was critical of Game Changer, writing: “Unfortunately, the plot never quite gels; the mechanics of the alternate reality will stretch even the imaginations of readers willing to suspend disbelief.” A Kirkus Reviews critic, on the other hand, felt that “Haddix’s insightful tale is a compelling blend of sports, action and mystery.” A Publishers Weekly concluded that “Haddix … pulls out a touching ending after a journey designed mostly to teach a lesson.”
In Full Ride, Becca Jones’s senior year is shaping up to be a disaster. Her father has just been convicted of white-collar crimes, and Becca and her mother have moved to another state where they hide their true identities. Given her mother’s low-paying job—and her newfound financial aid ineligibility thanks to her father’s conviction—Becca’s hopes of attending a good college seemed dashed. Worse, in order to secure early release, her father has released information to the authorities that places them in danger. In spite of the odds and the added dangers it might bring, Becca remains determined to get to college.
(open new2)With Revealed, JB and Jonah learn how Gary and Hodge have recruited Charles Lindbergh on their plans to abduct all children from the past and sell them as slaves to the future. A Kirkus Reviews contributor suggested that “this long and intricate conclusion should satisfy fans, but it’s not likely to win new ones.” Palace of Lies finds Princess Desmia seeking help from the neighboring kingdom, Fridesia, to rid themselves from the evil Madame Bisset. Writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, Vikki Terrile mentioned that “fans of the series may be interested in continuing the saga, but they will find little of the charm of the previous two books.”
In Redeemed, the Skidmore kids are brought to the distant future to help repair time in order to save the world. A Kirkus Reviews contributor claimed that it offered “a satisfying end to a long-running series.” With Under Their Skin, twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn discover their new step-siblings are secretly robots, which points to a much bigger problem. Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper described it as being “a crisp, intriguing, and thought-provoking tale that hits the bull’s-eye for its middle-grade audience.” In over Their Heads finds Nick and Eryn in the distant future as humanity’s best chance of making a comeback from the killer robots that destroyed much of the human race. Booklist contributor Cooper opined that “it is sometimes hard to keep the story straight, but there’s no stopping until the heart-pounding conclusion.”
With The Children of Exile, twelve-year-old Rosi grew up in idyllic Fredtown but was later returned to her biological parents elsewhere, leaving her shocked at the differences. In a review in Stone Soup, Alexandra Reynaud confessed: “I strongly recommend this book to science fiction lovers with a little bit of mystery mixed into it. This story is good for young adults. Both girls and boys will be cheering for Rosi along the way as she finds her freedom. I cannot imagine this story being written any better.” Children of Refuge follows teenager Edwy after having been returned home from Fredtown. A Kirkus Reviews contributor reasoned that “this is a topical thriller that brings heart and thought to the sci-fi genre.”
The Summer of Broken Things finds Avery following her father on a business trip to Spain, where she is forced to get to know Kayla and learn about her views on life. Writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, Amy Cummins commented that it “exemplifies the new social problem novel, nuanced and thematically complex in dealing with serious issues young adults face today.” In Children of Jubilee, Rosi, Edwy, and the other children formerly of Fredtown are enslaved by aliens and forced to dig up pearls until they bind together and free themselves. A contributor to Children’s Bookwatch called it “an impressively original, deftly crafted, intensely entertaining, and thoroughly engaging read from beginning to end.”
In The Strangers, sixth-grader Chess Greystone and younger siblings Emma and Finn find that their mother has left to be with their doppelgangers and try to set things right. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the novel as being “a high-stakes adventure full of teamwork with a multifaceted mystery and complex themes.” The Deceivers finds the Greystone siblings and their friend, Natalie, attempt to recover their mothers from their imprisonment in a parallel world. A Kirkus Reviews contributor labelled it “a perilous, high-action plot–with a cliffhanger.”
With Remarkables, eleven-year-old finds out that her troubled neighbors actually come from twenty years in the past. A Kirkus Reviews contributor stated; “Blending issues that matter to young adolescents with intrigue and a surprise ending, Haddix proves why she’s a master of middle-grade fiction.” In The School for Whatnots, Max goes looking for Josie when she disappears after fifth grade ends. Booklist contributor Emily Graham found it to be “a thought-provoking and thrilling exploration of what it means to be human.”
In The Secret Letters, Colin and Neveah find fifty-year-old letters about the friendship between Toby and Rosemary and go looking for them in real life after the letters mysteriously ended. Writing in School Library Journal, Marybeth Kozikowski lauded that “Haddix is in top form, weaving a complex tapestry of different genres, time lines, and generations of characters in a can’t-put-it-down novel.” Colin and Neveah return in The Ghostly Photos to figure out the mystery surrounding phoros of a young boy in a coffin. A Kirkus Reviews contributor acknowledged that there was “sleuthing aplenty but” pointed out that it was “more character- than conundrum-driven.” In Falling Out of Time, twelve-year-old Zola Keyser discovers that the life she has been living is not at all what it seems. A Kirkus Reviews contributor said that the novel offered “entertaining fan service, mostly–with a lightly tweaked premise, cast, and course.”
With Mysteries of Trash and Treasure, Colin uncovers some startling information about his past and his father that his mother tries to prevent him from learning. A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the story to be “tidy and upbeat.” In Moonleapers, middle schooler Maisie learns of her great-aunt Hazel’s moonleaper powers and how she is expected to gain these powers herself. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called it “a twisty if slightly uneven story celebrating the power of connection.”(close new2)
“With the myriad sources of stress and the remarkable suspense senior year can provide, it’s too bad Becca’s journey ends up feeling rather contrived,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly critic had a very different reaction, writing: “The disastrous turns that Becca’s senior year takes will rivet readers and perhaps even alleviate … stress.” Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Lisa Hazlett concluded: “While this plotline is telegraphed with a contrived resolution, it still features intrigue and tension and does not greatly mar this moving story.”
A prolific writer, Haddix continues to entertain young readers and teens with entertaining and thought-provoking novels that are often difficult to put down. Her background in journalism helps fuel her meticulous, well-researched plots, allowing her to challenge older readers while also entertaining them. In fact, creating fiction that is able to engage children on its own merits is her primary goal as a writer. “Like the library programs where you read so many minutes and win a prize at the end of the summer,” Haddix commented in an interview in the Akron Beacon Journal, “I like seeing the emphasis on reading, but I’m almost afraid the more we push it, the more [young readers] will think of it like broccoli or spinach, that it doesn’t taste good or isn’t fun. I’d like to see them pick up a book and read it and not think ‘I’ve read for fifteen minutes.’ The more they read and begin to enjoy it, the more likely they are to continue.”
Indeed, many years into her career, Haddix has remained dedicated to writing great children’s literature. She wrote on her home page: “My kids are now teenagers, and I no longer have to worry that the sound of me typing at the computer might wake them up. But my criteria for what I write hasn’t changed that much. I know I have to write a story when the story keeps me awake at night, teases at the back of my brain all day, just won’t let me go. And that’s why I became a writer.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Akron Beacon Journal, November 2, 2000, interview with Haddix, p. E10.
Booklist, October 1, 1995, Mary Harris Veeder, review of Running Out of Time, p. 314; October 15, 1996, Jean Franklin, review of Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, p. 413; December 15, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of Leaving Fishers, p. 691; September 1, 1999, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Just Ella, p. 123; October 15, 2000, Debbie Carton, review of Turnabout, p. 431; April 15, 2001, Sally Estes, review of Among the Imposters, p. 1557; November 15, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Takeoffs and Landings, p. 565; May, 15, 2003, Ed Sullivan, review of Among the Barons, p. 1661; September 1, 2003, John Green, review of Escape from Memory, p. 114; February 15, 2004, Lauren Peterson, review of Say What?, p. 1059; May 15, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of Among the Brave, p. 1619; September 1, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of The House on the Gulf, p. 124; June 1, 2005, Jennifer Mattson, review of Among the Enemy, p. 1809; October 1, 2005, Kay Weisman, review of Double Identity, p. 58; June 1, 2006, John Peters, review of Among the Free, p. 70; September 15, 2007, Lynn Rutan, review of Uprising, p. 66; October 1, 2010, Cindy Welch, review of Sabotaged, p. 83; September 1, 2011, Cindy Welch, review of Torn, p. 116; August 1, 2012, Cindy Welch, review of Caught, p. 76; October 1, 2012, Heather Booth, review of Game Changer, p. 90; December 1, 2015, Ilene Cooper, review of Under Their Skin, p. 64; April 1, 2017, Ilene Cooper, review of In over Their Heads, p. 76; June 1, 2017, Debbie Carton, review of Children of Refuge, p. 102; January 1, 2020, Julia Smith, review of The Deceivers, p. 91; April 15, 2022, Emily Graham, review of The School for Whatnots, p. 56.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, November 1, 1995, Roger Sutton, review of Running Out of Time, p. 91; January 1, 1997, review of Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, p. 172; November 1, 1999, review of Just Ella, pp. 93-94; July 1, 2000, review of Turnabout, p. 402; September 1, 2001, review of Among the Impostors, p. 17; October 1, 2002, review of Among the Betrayed, p. 58; November 1, 2003, Elizabeth Bush, review of Escape from Memory, p. 105; April 1, 2004, Karen Coats, review of Say What?, p. 329; October 1, 2004, Timnah Card, review of The House on the Gulf, p. 75; November 1, 2005, Deborah Stevenson, review of Double Identity, p. 138; April 1, 2007, Hope Morrison, review of Dexter the Tough, p. 330.
Children’s Bookwatch, February 1, 2019, review of The Children of Jubilee.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1997, review of Leaving Fishers, p. 1532; July 1, 2001, review of Takeoffs and Landings, p. 938; May 15, 2002, review of Among the Betrayed, p. 733; August 15, 2003, review of Escape from Memory, p. 1073; January 1, 2004, review of Say What?, p. 37; August 1, 2004, review of The House on the Gulf, p. 741; September 15, 2005, review of Double Identity, p. 1027; November 15, 2006, review of Dexter the Tough, p. 1174; September 1, 2007, review of Uprising, p. 196; October 1, 2009, review of Claim to Fame; July 1, 2010, review of Sabotaged; July 1, 2011, review of Torn; October 15, 2011, review of The Always War; September 1, 2012, review of Game Changer; July 1, 2013, review of Risked; October 1, 2013, review of Full Ride; August 1, 2014, review of Revealed; February 1, 2015, review of Palace of Lies; July 1, 2015, review of Redeemed; February 15, 2017, review of In over Their Heads; June 15, 2017, review of Children of Refuge; February 15, 2019, review of Greystone Secrets; June 1, 2019, review of Remarkables; February 15, 2020, review of The Deceivers; January 1, 2022, review of The School for Whatnots; July 15, 2022, review of The Secret Letters; April 1, 2023, review of Falling Out of Time; August 1, 2023, review of The Ghostly Photos; August 15, 2024, review of Mysteries of Trash and Treasure; August 1, 2025, review of Moonleapers.
Kliatt, September 1, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of Escape from Memory, p. 8; September 1, 2005, Claire Rosser, review of Double Identity, p. 8; September 1, 2007, Claire Rosser, review of Uprising, p. 13.
New Moon Girls, May 1, 2015, “Living the Writer Life,” p. 29.
Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2001, review of Among the Imposters, p. 86; June 10, 2002, review of Among the Betrayed, p. 61; April 28, 2003, review of Among the Barons, p. 71; October 13, 2003, review of Escape from Memory, p. 80; January 26, 2004, review of Say What?, p. 254; December 19, 2005, review of Double Identity, p. 66; January 1, 2007, review of Dexter the Tough, p. 50; September 24, 2007, review of Uprising, p. 73; November 23, 2009, review of Claim to Fame, p. 57; October 10, 2011, review of The Always War, p. 58; September 24, 2012, review of Game Changer, p. 78; October 14, 2013, review of Full Ride, p. 62; July 11, 2016, review of Children of Exile, p. 68; February 4, 2019, review of The Strangers, p. 182; July 22, 2019, review of Remarkables, p. 203; November 27, 2019, review of The Strangers, p. 58; January 31, 2022, review of The School for Whatnots, p. 79; August 8, 2022, review of The Secret Letters, p. 63; June 23, 2025, review of Moonleapers, p. 51.
School Library Journal, August 1, 2001, B. Allison Gray, review of Takeoffs and Landings, p. 182; February 1, 2004, Susan Patron, review of Say What?, p. 113; March 1, 2004, Farida S. Dowler, review of Escape from Memory, p. 212; June 1, 2004, review of Among the Brave, p. 143; October 1, 2004, Saleena L. Davidson, review of The House on the Gulf, p. 165; November 1, 2005, Michele Capozzella, review of Double Identity, p. 136; August 1, 2006, Catherine Threadgill, review of Among the Free, p. 120; January 1, 2007, Catherine Callegari, review of Dexter the Tough, p. 97; September 1, 2007, Renee Steinberg, review of Uprising, p. 196; December 1, 2011, Lindsay Cesari, review of The Always War, p. 118; December 1, 2009, Tracy Weiskind, review of Claim to Fame, p. 118; July 1, 2010, Cheri Dobbs, review of Sabotaged, p. 88; January 1, 2013, Jamie Kallio, review of Game Changer, p. 108; November 1, 2013, Carrie Shaurette, review of Full Ride, p. 115; November 1, 2015, Michele Shaw, review of Under Their Skin, p. 95; February 1, 2018, Jill Heritage Maza, review of The Summer of Broken Things, p. 94; July 1, 2022, Marybeth Kozikowski, review of The Secret Letters, p. 57.
Stone Soup, February 1, 2018, Alexandra Reynaud, review of The Children of Exile, p. 22.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 1995, Ann Welton, review of Running Out of Time, p. 302, and Jamie S. Hansen, review of Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, p. 270; February 1, 1998, Beverly Youree, review of Leaving Fishers, p. 386; October 1, 1998, Debbie Earl, review of Among the Hidden, p. 283; December 1, 1999, Cynthia Grady, review of Just Ella, p. 346; August 1, 2001, Brenda Moses-Allen, review of Among the Imposters, p. 213; June 1, 2002, review of Among the Betrayed, p. 126; August 1, 2003, review of Among the Barons, p. 236; October 1, 2003, review of Escape from Memory, p. 324; August 1, 2004, review of Among the Brave, p. 230; October 1, 2005, review of Double Identity, p. 323; February 1, 2007, review of Among the Free, p. 487; December 1, 2011, Kristi Sadowski, review of The Always War, p. 512; December 1, 2012, Joanna Lima, review of Game Changer, p. 484; December 1, 2013, Lisa Hazlett and Twila A. Sweeney, review of Full Ride, p. 60; April 1, 2015, Vikki Terrile, review of Palace of Lies, p. 79; December 1, 2016, Rummanah Aasi, review of Children of Exile, p. 72; February 1, 2018, Amy Cummins, review of The Summer of Broken Things, p. 55.
ONLINE
Cincinnati Library website, http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/ (March 15, 2008), “Margaret Peterson Haddix.”
Cyansations, https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/ (October 1, 2017), Cynthia Leitich Smith, author interview; (October 1, 2024), Cynthia Leitich Smith, author interview.
Fantastic Fiction, http://www.fantasticviction.co.uk/ (March 15, 2008), “Margaret Peterson Haddix.”
From the Mixed-Up Files, https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/ (August 24, 2025), author interview.
Junior Library Guild, https://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/ (August 24, 2025), author interview.
Margaret Peterson Haddix website, https://www.haddixbooks.com (August 24, 2025).
Once upon a Twilight, http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/ (December 23, 2013), review of Full Ride.
Teachers Who Read, https://www.teacherswhoread.com/ (September 19, 2019), “Queen of Sci-Fi: Margaret Peterson Haddix.”
Wooster Blade, https://thewoosterblade.com/ (May 1, 2020), Rheanna Velasquez, “Q&A with Author Margaret Peterson Haddix.”
YA Books Central, https://yabookscentral.com/ (September 13, 2023), Connie Reid, author interview.
About the Author
When my daughter was in third grade, she brought home a list one day that described what everyone in her class wanted to be when they grew up. Most of the kids clearly picked the same jobs their parents held. But a few went for the fantastical. One kid said he wanted to be a spy; another was longing to be a professional dirt-biker; another saw himself as a future movie director. And I looked at that list and thought, “Yep, I’m with the dirt-biker and the spy.”
With my mother and little sisterWith my mother and little sister, when I was 6. I already had an older brother and a younger brother when my sister was born, and I was very, very happy to have another girl in the family.
As a kid, I also longed for a career that I didn’t actually believe real people got to do. The far-out, only-in-your dreams career I wanted was to be an author. All the grown-ups I knew were farmers (like my dad) or nurses (like my mom), teachers or dentists, housewives or grocery store clerks, etc., etc. The only authors I’d ever heard of were, well, just in books.
I grew up on a farm about halfway between two small towns: Washington Court House, Ohio, and Sabina, Ohio. I come from both a long line of farmers, and a long line of bookworms. When we went on family vacations, my parents were always saying things like, “Would you guys stop reading for a minute and look out the window? That’s the Grand Canyon we’re driving past!” But then my mom would laugh and say, “That’s exactly what my parents always said to me when I was a kid!” Now that I’ve made the same kind of comments to my own children (“Please put down Harry Potter for a moment! That’s the Pacific Ocean out there!”), it makes me wonder how far back this goes. How many of my ancestors, immigrating to America, had to admonish their kids, “Would you put down that book and look out? Don’t you want to see our new home?”
Our pony GingerWith all my siblings, on our pony Ginger. Since I grew up on a farm, we had lots of animals around. To answer the question a lot of kids ask seeing this picture: Yes, I realize I was wearing a winter coat but no shoes. I didn’t really see the point of shoes when I was 8.
The people I met in books always seemed very real to me: as a kid, I counted among my friends the whip-smart New York kids of E.L. Konigsburg books, Harriet the Spy, Anne of Green Gables, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Anne Frank, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Little Princess’ Sara Crewe, L.M. Montgomery’s Emily Byrd Starr, Beanie Malone, and many, many others. To me, it didn’t seem to be much of a step to go from loving books to wanting to create books of my own.
With our loyal dog, LassieWith our loyal dog, Lassie. We were not very original naming her, but she was a great dog.
But because I also read more practical information as well—my local newspaper, Time magazine, accounts of the Great Depression—I knew that I couldn’t be completely impractical about my career choice. So I hedged my bets a bit when I went off to college. I did major in creative writing, but I also majored in journalism (and history, just for fun). Except for the summer after my freshman year of college, when I worked as an assistant cook at a 4-H camp (which was lots and lots of fun), every job I’ve held since then has been related to writing in some way. During college, I worked on my school newspaper and had summer internships at newspapers in Urbana, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Indianapolis, Indiana. After college, I worked first as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana, then quickly moved back to Indianapolis to work as a newspaper reporter there.
I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but during those early years of my life I was also amassing things to write about. During high school, I acted in school plays; played flute and piccolo in the marching, pep and symphonic bands; sang in the school choir; worked on the school newspaper; ran track one year; competed on a school quick-recall team; served on the county junior fair board; and did volunteer work through my church and 4-H clubs. (Lest you think I was some multi-talented prodigy, I should point out that I’m a terrible singer, a terrible actor, and, as a runner, I’m really, really good at walking. One of the advantages of going to a fairly small school is that, if you’re not too afraid of making a fool of yourself, they’ll let you try just about any activity.) In college, one of the best things I did was spend a semester studying in Luxembourg, a small country nestled between France, Germany and Belgium. Living in a foreign country is a great way to force yourself to really think about, “Who am I?” “What shaped me as a person?” “Why do I believe what I believe?” “What do I want out of life?” “What shaped all these people I see around me?” “Why do they believe what they believe?” “What do they want out of life?”
Showing off my favorite Christmas presentsShowing off my favorite Christmas presents, the year I was 10: Louisa May Alcott books, All-of-a-Kind Family books, and A Little Princess. The nightgown I’m wearing was also a gift, made by one of my aunts. She was actually a great seamstress, but none of us knew then how weird the fashions of the 1970s would look decades later.
But it was being a reporter that really gave me the opportunity to meet lots of different people, in vastly different circumstances. It never failed to amaze me that I could sit down with people, and begin asking really, really nosy questions, and because I was from the newspaper, they would almost always answer. For most of my time as a journalist, I worked as a general assignment reporter, which meant that I could be covering a fire one day, a scientific breakthrough the next, a politician’s news conference the next. (Or, on really busy days, some combination of several vastly different events, all at once.) Somehow, for me, hearing so many different stories from so many different people–and witnessing so many different events–didn’t just inspire me to write it all down. It also inspired me to play with different plots and characters and settings in my head. Facts weren’t enough for me. I still also wanted fiction.
For anyone who doesn’t trust journalists, I should point out that I didn’t change any facts for the stories I wrote for the newspaper. But I would go home and also write different kinds of stories, ones based more on my own imagination and my sense that there could be some sort of higher truth than just “facts.” Still, it wasn’t always easy, after spending eight or nine or ten hours a day writing and reporting, to write some more in my time off-work. So during this time, I had a lot more ideas for fiction than I actually wrote down.
Happy to be a sixth grader.Happy to be a sixth grader. In my school district, this meant being at the top of the elementary school, not the bottom of any middle school or junior high.
It was also during this time that I got married. My husband, Doug, and I met in college, and he also went into journalism right after school. When he got a job as city editor of a newspaper in Danville, Illinois, it seemed like a big complication for my career. If I wanted to continue as a newspaper reporter, I knew I’d probably have to have my husband as a boss. This did not seem like a good idea. My husband and I agreed to see this complication as an opportunity: this would be my chance to concentrate on fiction. I took part-time jobs teaching writing at a community college and doing freelance business writing, but I also wrote Running Out of Time; Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey; and numerous short stories. While I was working on those, my husband and I also decided to start a family.
Like most writers, I went through an agonizing phase of submitting my work and collecting nothing but rejection letters for quite a while. For me, this phase lasted long enough that, by the time I sold my first two books (both at once, actually) our daughter, Meredith, was a year and a half old, and I was pregnant with our second child, Connor. Talk about feeling multiply blessed! Still, it was a little challenging to be a newly published author at the same time that I was becoming a new mother. For those first few years, I wrote only during my kids’ naptime, when I probably should have been napping myself. So I developed strict criteria for everything I wrote: it had to be exciting enough to keep me awake.
Showing hogs at the county fair as a teenager.Showing hogs at the county fair as a teenager. I don’t know many other authors who ever did this!
Since then, my life has changed quite a bit. My husband and kids and I moved from Illinois to Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, to Columbus, Ohio. My kids are now both grown up, and I no longer have to worry that the sound of me typing at the computer might wake them up. But my criteria for what I write hasn’t changed that much. I know I have to write a story when the story keeps me awake at night, teases at the back of my brain all day, just won’t let me go.
And that’s why I became a writer.
FAQ: https://haddixbooks.com/resources/faq/
Margaret Peterson Haddix
USA flag (b.1964)
Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. She graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing and history. Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois.
Awards: Edgar (2025)
Genres: Young Adult Fantasy, Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
New and upcoming books
September 2025
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Moonleapers
Series
Running Out of Time
1. Running Out of Time (1995)
2. Falling Out of Time (2023)
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Shadow Children
1. Among the Hidden (1998)
2. Among the Impostors (2001)
3. Among the Betrayed (2002)
4. Among the Barons (2003)
5. Among the Brave (2004)
6. Among The Enemy (2005)
7. Among the Free (2006)
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Palace Chronicles
1. Just Ella (1999)
2. Palace of Mirrors (2008)
3. Palace of Lies (2015)
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Missing
1. Found (2008)
2. Sent (2009)
3. Sabotaged (2010)
4. Torn (2011)
5. Caught (2012)
5.5. Sought (2013)
6. Risked (2013)
7. Revealed (2014)
7.5. Rescued (2014)
8. Redeemed (2015)
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Under Their Skin
1. Under Their Skin (2016)
2. In Over Their Heads (2017)
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Children of Exile
1. Children of Exile (2016)
2. Children of Refuge (2017)
3. Children of Jubilee (2018)
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Greystone Secrets
1. The Strangers (2019)
2. The Deceivers (2020)
3. The Messengers (2021)
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Mysteries of Trash and Treasure
1. The Secret Letters (2022)
2. The Ghostly Photos (2023)
3. The Stolen Key (2024)
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Novels
Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey (1996)
Leaving Fishers (1997)
Turnabout (2000)
The Girl With 500 Middle Names (2001)
Takeoffs and Landings (2001)
Because of Anya (2002)
Escape From Memory (2003)
Say What (2004)
The House on the Gulf (2004)
Double Identity (2005)
Dexter the Tough (2007)
Uprising (2007)
Claim to Fame (2009)
The Always War (2011)
Game Changer (2012)
Full Ride (2013)
The Summer of Broken Things (2018)
Remarkables (2019)
The School for Whatnots (2022)
Moonleapers (2025)
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Novellas and Short Stories
Thad, the Ghost, and Me (2011)
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Series contributed to
39 Clues
10. Into The Gauntlet (2010)
Margaret Peterson Haddix
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Born Margaret Peterson
April 9, 1964 (age 61)
Washington Court House, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation Author
Nationality American
Citizenship American
Education Miami University
Genre Young adult fiction
Subject Reading
Notable works
The Missing series
Shadow Children series
Spouse Doug Haddix
Children 2
Website
haddixbooks.com
Margaret Peterson Haddix (born April 9, 1964) is an American writer known best for the two children's series, Shadow Children (1998–2006) and The Missing (2008–2015). She also wrote the tenth volume in the multiple-author series The 39 Clues.[1]
Biography
Haddix grew up on a farm about halfway between two small towns: Washington Court House, Ohio, and Sabina, Ohio.[2] Her family was predominantly farmers and she grew up in a family of voracious readers. Some of her favorite books growing up included E.L. Konigsburg books, Harriet the Spy, Anne of Green Gables, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Anne Frank, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and A Little Princess.
She graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with degrees in English/Journalism, English/Creative Writing, and History. While in college, Haddix worked a series of jobs. She was an assistant cook at a 4-H camp, but almost every other job has been related to writing. During college, she worked on the school newspaper and had summer internships at newspapers in Urbana, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Indianapolis, Indiana.[2]
Haddix chose to pursue fiction writing after her husband, Doug, became a news reporter, because she did not want to be his employee.[3] Her previous work as a reporter inspired her to write fiction. After documenting a wide variety of topics, she wanted to create her own plots and characters. Haddix experienced a long period of having her writing rejected by publishers before her first two books were accepted in 1995 and 1996. Her first book was Running Out of Time, published when Haddix was pregnant with her second child, and her first child was one and a half years old.[4] Her second book, Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, followed shortly after. The School for Whatnots, written in 2022, is Haddix’s most recently published stand-alone book.[3]
Haddix has written more than 40 books for children and teenagers, including Running Out of Time, Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, Leaving Fishers, Just Ella, Turnabout, Takeoffs and Landings, The Girl with 500 Middle Names, Because of Anya, Escape from Memory, Say What?, The House on the Gulf, Double Identity, Dexter the Tough, Uprising, Palace of Mirrors, Claim to Fame, The Always War, Game Changer, the Shadow Children series, and the Missing series. She also wrote Into the Gauntlet, book 10 in The 39 Clues series. Her books have made New York Times Best Seller lists and American Library Association (ALA) annual book lists and they have won the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award and more than a dozen state reader's choice awards.[5]
The New York Times’ best-selling author currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, Doug, and are the parents of two grown children, Meredith and Connor.[3]
Bibliography
Running Out of Time series
Running Out of Time (1995)
Falling Out of Time (2023)
Shadow Children series
Among the Hidden (1998)
Among the Impostors (2001)
Among the Betrayed (2002)
Among the Barons (2003)
Among the Brave (2004)
Among the Enemy (2005)
Among the Free (2006)
The Palace Chronicles
Just Ella (1999)
Palace of Mirrors (2008)
Palace of Lies (2015)
The Missing series
Found (2008)
Sent (2009)
Sabotaged (2010)
Torn (2011)
Caught (2012)
Sought (E-book short story, 2013)
Risked (2013)
Rescued (E-book short story, 2014)
Revealed (2014)
Redeemed (2015)
The 39 Clues series
Into the Gauntlet (Scholastic Publishing, 2010), Book 10 in The 39 Clues series
Children of Exile series
Children of Exile (2016)
Children of Refuge (2017)
Children of Jubilee (2018)
Under Their Skin series
Under Their Skin (2016)
In Over Their Heads (2017)
The Greystone Secrets series
The Strangers (2019)
The Deceivers (2020)
The Messengers (2021)
Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series
The Secret Letters (2022)
The Ghostly Photos (2023)
The Stolen Key (2024)
Stand-alone novels
Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey (1996)
Leaving Fishers (1997)
Turnabout (2000)
Takeoffs and Landings (2001)
The Girl With 500 Middle Names (2001)
Because of Anya (2002)
Escape from Memory (2003)
Say What? (2004)
The House on the Gulf (2004)
Double Identity (2005)
Uprising (2007)
Dexter the Tough (2007)
Claim to Fame (2009)
The Always War (2011)
Game Changer (2012)
Full Ride (2013)
The Summer of Broken Things (2018)
Remarkables (2019)
The School for Whatnots (2022)
Awards
Year Organization Award title, category Work Result Refs
1997–1998 Maryland Library Association Black-Eyed Susan Book Award, Grade 6–9 Running Out of Time Won [6]
1998 Oklahoma Library Association Sequoyah Book Award, Young Adult Running Out of Time Won [7]
1998 Arizona Library Association Grand Canyon Reader Award, Intermediate Running Out of Time Won [8]
1998–1999 Maryland Library Association Black-Eyed Susan Book Award, Grade 6–9 Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey Won [9]
2000 Golden Sower Award Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey Won [10]
2004 Golden Duck Award, Eleanor Cameron Award Escape from Memory Won [11]
2004–2005 Triple Crown Awards Lamplighter Award Among the Betrayed Won [12]
2008 Ohioana Library Association Ohioana Book Award, Juvenile Literature Uprising Won [13]
2009 Buckeye Children’s and Teen Book Award Buckeye Children’s and Teen Book Award, Grades 3–5 Found Won [14]
2009–2010 Pennsylvania School Librarians Association Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Found Won [15]
2010 Salem State University Massachusetts Children's Book Award Found Won [16]
2010 Nēnē Award Found Won [17]
2011 Washington Library Association Sasquatch Book Award Found Won [18]
2010–2011 Louisiana Center for the Book Louisiana Readers' Choice Award Found Won [19]
Throughout elementary and middle school, I read nearly every title written by Margaret Peterson Haddix, so having the opportunity to sit down with my literary hero over coffee was naturally the best day of my life. When I met Margaret, she ordered an iced chai latte and immediately commented on the beautiful, summer weather that Ohio was producing. Everything about her screamed “author,” like the way she thoughtfully answered my questions, or the way she’d stop to think about her words and speak them in a calm, cool, and collected manner. She was humble, and loving, and cared deeply for the human spirit. “If kids are going through hard times themselves,” Margaret said, “I hope that this book can be healing for them to read.”
I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed speaking with Margaret, because getting to know more about her outlook on time travel, her Lego-piecing method for constructing a character, or the way she cares tirelessly for the middle school (and human) condition was just like reading one of her novels—remarkable.
Q: REMARKABLES explores the idea of taking time to live in the present moment rather than trying to recreate the past or focus too much on what could happen in the future; what inspired this theme? Has there ever been a time when you felt stuck in the past or too focused on the future?
A: It's important to stay mindful of the moment we’re in because that's where we really live; the past is over—you can't change it—and the future hasn't happened yet. You can certainly influence things about the future, but if all you're doing is living for the future, you're not ever savoring what you have in front of you. I don't think that's something that kids have as hard of a time figuring out as adults, but for both Charley and Marin, that's definitely an issue.
There was a time recently where I felt stuck in the past; I was very hurt over something that had happened with a friend, and I was having trouble letting it go. I kept holding on to these negative feelings. and it didn’t feel good. Not only was I upset with someone else, but I was upset with myself, constantly trying to figure out if I was acting “correctly.” Even after the fact, I kept second-guessing myself and wondering if I should have or could have handled things differently.
With Marin and Ashlyn for example, they both have a hard time deciphering what happened in their past, so a part of them is always living in that moment and trying to figure out what is really going on between them. They both needed to figure out what really happened in their friend circle before they could move on. We see Marin at the beginning of the story just dwelling on the past, and she needed to do that to digest her feelings and figure out how to move on. It’s important to learn from these types of experiences at this age because it can help you navigate friendship problems in the future. Middle school is a time in everyone’s lives where nothing seems to go according to plan; everyone’s going through massive changes, and everyone handles their emotions in different ways. Middle school age is brutal.
Unfortunately, the mistrials and mishaps of middle school are very common, and I used to think that when I was all grown up, that when I was an adult, I would have a lot more figured out than I did at that time of life. In the sense of navigating friendships, I do have more experience now than I did when I was a child trying to figure things out. But even recently when I felt “stuck in the past,” I was being melodramatic, and I needed to let things go… but I was still having a really hard time doing that.
In a way, writing this book was a way for me to ruminate on my past and propose new ways of handling difficult decisions. Writing can be a very helpful technique when you are going through a hard time or dealing with something unfavorable. Writing has helped me get through life, and I hope it helps others get past whatever they are stuck on. I really wish I could tell kids that yes, it might be hard now but when you get older, it all gets better, you’ll have it all figured out—but unfortunately, that’s not how it goes. None of us have it all figured out.
Q: Marin and her dad have such a fun relationship: they love to goof around with each other, they give advice to one another, and they care deeply for their family. Why was it important to create this relationship in your story? What was your inspiration?
A: I wanted Marin to have a solid relationship with her parents because she has really tough friend issues with Ashlyn, Kenner, and Charley. Marin’s trying to move to a new state and fit in, so I really wanted to give her one gift: amazing parents.
As I began writing Marin’s dad, he came to life; he’s dramatic, bold, funny, energetic, and a teacher that everyone adores. In some ways, he parallels my cousin of mine who is a teacher and in other ways, he reminds me of a minister I know who is a jolly teddy-bear-of-a-guy. I never base my characters off one person in my life, but rather I enjoy pulling bits of pieces from people that surround me. I think of it like a building one, giant Lego; I pull Legos from various kits and make one massive Lego creation—and that is Marin’s dad (and some of my other characters!).
Marin’s dad was an interesting character to write because he’s going through a hard time just like other characters in the book; he doesn't have a job lined up yet and he's trying to figure out who he is—he’s battling with his identity. Before the big move, Marin’s dad was a successful physical education teacher who loved his job, students, and colleagues, but now, he must learn to get his bearings in his new life—very similarly to Marin, Charlie, and Ashlyn.
While Marin loves her dad, she also challenges him from time to time. During middle school, kids for the first time start to see their parents as real people who have feelings and make mistakes—they’re not the fearless, indestructible, superheroes that we make them out to be in our heads. Marin starts to unravel this notion, that her dad is struggling with the move just like she is. Both characters empathize with each other, and they both remind themselves that they can do this! They will get through this difficult time—together!
Q: Marin and Ashlyn’s friendship resolution proves that forgiveness has a healing effect—for everyone involved. How do you hope your readers apply this lesson to their everyday life? Is there ever a reason to not forgive someone?
A: I hope that after reading this book, readers will see that talking about their emotions or working though difficult conversations is worth the extra effort. It would have been really easy for Marin and Ashlyn to never speak to each other again and just move on, call it “quits,” but talking about the hard stuff helped them get past it and helped them see that there was life left in their friendship. Ashlyn and Marin have such a solid base, and they had to remind themselves of that. Once they were able to sit down and have a conversation, they could start to see things from the other person’s perspective and forgive each other.
Is there ever a reason to not forgive someone? That’s the ten-billion-dollar question, isn’t it? I think that tiptoes up to theology more than anything else. I believe that there are terrible things that people do—things that are so egregious—and sometimes it’s not as simple as saying, “Okay, I forgive you” and then agreeing to move on. I’m thinking right now of a child who is in abusive home, like Charley, for example. You don’t want that child to live their life thinking that they need to keep dealing with these awful things that are happening at home. I think sometimes kids in these tough situations think to themselves, “Well, I’m supposed to forgive this person, so I guess I’ll just keep dealing with this…” and I don’t think that’s the right mentality in this case. Kids in an abusive home need help. There are ways to forgive an abusive parent without staying in that situation. Often, people get confused and think that when we forgive someone, we give them an excuse to keep treating us poorly, but that’s not the case. We can forgive and move on but not forget what has already happened.
Q: Charley often worries about becoming his father or acting like his father in the future; can our family’s past mistakes influence our future? If so, to what extent? Do you believe that we all have the power to choose our own fate?
A: We all have a starting point in our life, and for most people, it’s our family. We’re shaped immensely by our family and their views, but that doesn't mean we can’t choose how to act or react in situations. We all have different struggles or things that we’ll need to overcome because of the paths we’ve been set on in life, but we need to remember that we can get past these hardships. I would like to believe—or I hope for every child who is in a situation like Charley’s—that there is some trustworthy adult in their life, like Charley’s grandma. She is a great example of someone who is doing all she can to try and help Charley forgive his father and help him realize his own potential—that he is his own person and does not have to act like his father.
Q: At times throughout the story, both Marin and Charley have a hard time expressing their feelings. If your readers are having a hard time expressing their feelings, what advice would you offer them? Are there any resources that might be helpful or offer them support?
A: I always suggest finding a trusted adult that you can confide in and a friend that you can go to in times of need. Having friends at this age can be tricky, but they can offer support and listen to you when you need someone to talk to. On the flip side, it may be hard to have a friend that’s going through a difficult time when you’re young; you might not have all the answers, but no matter a person’s age, we can all help assure others that there’s a way to get through these tough times and maybe help them find the people or the resources they need. The world is moving in the right direction, encouraging people to destigmatize mental health and take an extra second to think about what could be going on in someone else's life. I really admire that more kids want to be there for each other nowadays.
If young readers or students are looking for help, librarians are a never-ending bucket of knowledge that can help people connect with the right resources!
Looking for a few resources to share? Please consult the following list for a few suggestions:
-On Our Sleeves: The Movement for Children’s Mental Health
-National Alliance on Mental Illness
-The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
-Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
-National US Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-4-a-Child (1-800-422-4453)
-National Youth Crisis Hotline: (800) 442-HOPE (4673)
Q: If you could time travel (to the future or past), what would you do/ where would you go/ who would you meet? Or would you decide to not time travel at all…?
A: That’s a challenging question! I’ve thought about this question for quite some time (I wrote a whole series of books dedicated to time travel!), and my answer is… that I just really don’t know.
*chuckles*
See, if you go back to the past and change things—hopefully for the betterment of our world—you never know what kind of unintended consequences there could be or what you might mess up. It’s a scary thing to think about! I guess I have some temptation to go back in time and see a loved one that is no longer here, but I bet that would terrify the person! Could you imagine if someone walked up to you and said that they were your great granddaughter from the future? They wouldn’t technically know who I was at this point in time, and they would be confused.
I also think that it could be pretty scary to go look at the future, because then you have the fear of knowing what lies ahead and that could take away from your time in the present. It’s a fascinating thing to think about, but I think I would be paralyzed if I truly had the option to time travel. I guess one “safe option” that comes to mind is going to the past and just observing, you know, seeing how things really were back then—merely for curiosity’s sake. We have written records, and then after a certain period we have recordings, but maybe we only see one perspective? If we went back in time to observe, maybe we could see more perspectives? But what if we went back in time and then tried to change things or how we saw them? See? I’m back to my original answer of being indecisive.
My definite answer is that I don’t really know.
Q: Why do you write primarily for a middle school audience? What about this age/ time in life interests you? How do you make difficult themes digestible for younger readers? Why is it important for you to write for this audience?
A: I feel called to write to this audience because when I was in middle school, books were so important to me. I was pretty shy kid, and when I went through some of my own friendship issues—I don’t know of anybody who doesn’t go through friendship issues during that time of life—I always felt like I had friends when I had my books. It was always such a pleasure for me to read, and it’s at this age that books can make a real difference in someone’s life. Books have such a capacity to encourage people to be empathetic by putting us in other people's shoes, and this time in a person’s life is so vital to their development and the piecing-together of their identity.
Selfishly, as a writer, books must be about change, because if everything stayed the same in a book, it’s a really boring book. Kids at this age are going through so many changes. and there’s so much that you can put on the page!
Q: What is your favorite book that you have written? What’s your favorite book in general? What book are you currently reading?
A: My books are like my children; I can’t pick a favorite—I don’t want to hurt their feelings! That would be too sad, so the answer is no, I don’t have a favorite book that I’ve written.
I also don’t have a favorite book in general either because it’s too hard to choose! For a while, my standard answer—for children’s books—was When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (there’s some time travel in the book!) As of recently, I’ve really enjoyed reading Front Desk by Kelly Yang, and I’m currently reading an middle grade book called Ruby Lost and Found by Christiana Li. It’s really good so far!
Q: If readers enjoyed REMARKABLES, what other books from your writings would you suggest they read?
If readers enjoyed the time travel aspect of the book, I would suggest they read The Missing series. If they liked the weird or strange nature of the book, or the kind of don’t-know-what’s-going-on feeling at the beginning of the story, I’d recommend they read The Greystone Secrets series. If they like stories about friendship, I think The School for Whatnots is a good pick!
Q: What’s next in your writing career?
A: I have my 50th book coming out on September 12, 2023—TODAY!—called The Ghostly Photos which is the sequel to The Secret Letters in the Mystery of Trash and Treasures series. I’m currently revising the end of the third book in that series—which will come out in the fall of 2024—and then I also have a proposal in for another series… I’m still waiting to hear about that one!
Q: What makes us humans so remarkable?
A: They have such potential and such a capacity for love. How remarkable!
REMARKABLES was a book offered in JLG’s Mystery/Adventure Elementary Plus category. If your readers are in need of new mystery or adventure books, we have you covered! Speak with a JLG representative today or start building your custom Book Box online!
Stay connected with Margaret Peterson Haddix!
Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Website
@haddixbooks
@HarperCollins
Career Achievers: Margaret Peterson Haddix on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author
Home » Career Achievers: Margaret Peterson Haddix on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author
By Cynthia Leitich Smith
In children’s-YA writing, maintaining an active publishing career is arguably an even bigger challenge than breaking into the field.
Reflecting on your personal journey, what bumps did you encounter and how have you managed to defy the odds to achieve continued success?
Oh, I did so many things wrong!
A lot of my struggles in the beginning were just about having the confidence to think that it was possible to be published.
And I was so green and stupid and ignorant, starting out. I think I expected everything to be easier after that—because then I would know what I was doing. And I certainly do know more than I did back then, but every book is like starting over, with its own challenges and struggles. And its own opportunities.
I think one thing that helped me was that I had worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor before writing my first book. That forced me to learn how to write (and edit) consistently and on deadline, and to have a thicker skin about people criticizing my work. (I’m not sure I ever developed a thick enough skin for journalism, but it gave me some perspective and definitely helped in the kinder world of children’s publishing.)
I was also very, very fortunate in many ways with things that weren’t exactly under my control. I worked hard (counting books that aren’t out yet, I’ve written 43 books in 26 years) but it was what I wanted to do. Some people want to be writers so they can say they’ve written a book, and some people want to be writers because they like to write, and I was lucky/blessed that it’s almost always been the writing itself that I’ve enjoyed most.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been plenty of days when I think all my ideas are stupid and I delete more than I write and I question whether I even know English and I wonder why I didn’t go into an easier field, or at least one where I could know for sure if I was doing things right, instead of endlessly flipping back and forth between multiple choices. (Should it be “and” here, or “but”? Or maybe “so”? Arrrgggghhhh!)
But overall, I am still just having fun. And I was lucky that my books (overall—not every single one) did well enough that I could just keep writing.
I was lucky that the agents and editors who pushed my career along were a lot savvier than I ever was about a lot of publishing issues. (The credit here goes mostly to Tracey Adams at Adams Literary and David Gale at Simon & Schuster, both of whom I’ve worked with the longest.)
Beyond that, I have been lucky with a lot of issues that affect a writing career in less obvious ways. I was lucky that I had health insurance through my husband. I was lucky that the emergencies/crises/day-to-day problems in my family and personal life were the type that could be handled alongside a writing career, instead of supplanting it.
I was lucky that I’d grown up on a farm, and seen my father manage being self-employed with all its ups and downs and everything that’s good and bad about being your own boss, and so I had a good role model for that. (That farm background was also good because, no matter how much I can tie my brain into knots agonizing over some writing problem, this is still a much, much easier and more pleasant job than shoveling manure or many of the other chores I did as a kid.)
If you had it to do all over again, what—if anything—would you do differently and why?
It’s tempting to say yes, of course if I could go back, I would learn from my mistakes and do better the second time around. But there’s that lesson of time travel (which I’ve thought about a lot, having written an eight-book time-travel series): if you eliminate a problem, you might also eliminate all the good results.
I’d like to say that I would be less stressed and obsessive, but I’m not sure I can stop being that way going forward with my career, let alone going back. I think it’s a basic personality trait for me, and being stressed and anxious and slightly obsessive pushed me through the difficult parts of just about every single one of my books. There were a few years that were crazy because I’d over-committed and agreed to too many tight book deadlines, along with too much book-related travel, and it would have been wise not to have done that. But I’m not sure which book I would want to have not written.
I do wish I had not been so intimidated and shy the first, oh, let’s say ten to fifteen years of my writing career. I think I missed out on the opportunity to get to know a lot of interesting, thoughtful people in the publishing world back then, as well as a lot of wonderful educators, librarians, booksellers, and other authors.
The field and body of literature are always evolving. For you, what have been the stand-out changes in the world children’s-YA writing, literature and publishing? What do you think of them and why?
The biggest changes are because of the internet and social media, and now the ever-presence of smartphones. Like most technological advances, those are all mixed blessings.
In the early years, even when I was writing a book under contract, most of the time it felt like I was just playing around with my ideas on my own, in total isolation. And then I would go to a school or library or bookstore or conference, and it was always a little stunning to me: Wait, these people know my characters, too? And… they like them? Amazing!
In many ways it is wonderful now to be able to interact with readers (and others in the publishing world) over social media, and to get feedback on a regular basis. It’s not so wonderful when the feedback is negative or outright vitriolic (or abusive). I’ve read articles about how damaging it is to kids and teens to have so much of their self-esteem tied to an online world and the Pavlovian effect of seeking likes on social media. Adults should be able to keep perspective better, but I’m not sure it’s healthy for any of us.
If nothing else, social media and constant connectedness take a lot of time and energy. And among my other worries about society and the future, I worry that we’re all going to be reduced to having the attention spans of gnats, which of course would be terrible for the future of books.
The other big change recently is the emphasis on diversity in children’s books and the children’s book world, and I applaud the opportunity for everyone to learn more about one another, and for kids from a variety of backgrounds to see themselves more in books. And for authors who would have been automatically discriminated against in the past to get more attention.
I know we are a long, long way from an ideal situation, but I want to believe we are making progress. I am trying to listen and learn and read more widely myself.
What advice would you give to your beginner self, if that version of you was a debut author this year?
That’s a little mind-blowing to contemplate. I think, though, that I’d give the same advice for a first book or a fortieth, or for any career in general. Do your best with what you can control, and let go of what you can’t.
Of course you want your book to succeed, but understand that timing and luck can play a huge role; sometimes good books fail, and sometimes mediocre books succeed.
If your book is a success, of course rejoice and be happy, but remember that that success doesn’t actually define your worth as a person. And if your book fails (or just doesn’t live up to expectations), then of course mourn for that book and the impact you wanted it to have, but even more than with a success, don’t let that failure define your worth as a person.
Be glad if you have friends and family members who don’t know or care anything about your book, except for knowing and caring about you.
And have I managed to follow all that advice myself? Sometimes. Not always.
I could do better. I have managed to follow another part of the advice I’d give, which is to then focus on writing the next book.
What do you wish for children’s-YA writers (and readers), looking to the future?
This is a selfish wish, because I am a reader, too: I wish to see a lot more great books from other writers! And beyond that, I would wish for every kid to find at least one book (and hopefully many, many, many books) that speaks directly to him or her.
As a writer, what do you wish for yourself in the future?
I am still figuring that out!
Cynsational Notes
The Survivors Interview Series offers in-depth reflections and earned wisdom from children’s-YA book authors who have successfully built long-term, actively-publishing careers.
Queen of Sci-Fi: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Thursday, September 19, 2019
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I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to build a relationship with Margaret over the past few years in sharing her books with our ARC sharing group, #BookVoyage, and now having the privilege to interview her for Teachers Who Read.
I know most of us as educators are familiar with MPH through her Among the Hidden series - the series that brought science fiction to life in classrooms, the series that made children want to read and know more, the series that I know in the end I can turn to and it will ALWAYS work to get kids hooked.
One thing I want to share is that over the last few years she has came out with some of my favorite books. I truly don't know how she does what she does, how she produces so many stories in such a short amount of time. Her imagination is beyond inspiring and something that I would love to be one day in the future.
Her most recent of mine, Remarkables, is a stand alone book that I couldn't put down. It was a story with a lot of twists and turns. I loved finally getting to some of the mysteries throughout the book and getting answers. I found that I was really enjoying the unknown which is not something of the norm. This is a much toned down sci-fi book for MPH, but I still loved the magical realism placed throughout. I think students will relate to what Marin and Charley both feel on many levels, and Ashlyn and Kenner as well.
Then there is her new Greystone Secrets series that I seriously am obsessed with. It reminds me so much of a similar story line to Stranger Things (minus the monsters) that my students have devoured. The newest one comes out soon and I can NOT wait to get it into the hands of my students too.
As a 5th grade teacher, I definitely believe that her books are some of the best to read aloud - especially the start of series to get kids hooked AND to use them with all of the notice and note signposts!
Without further ado, here was our interview! :)
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself as an author and everyday person? What are your likes/dislikes?
A: Both as a writer and an everyday person, I love to read! (This is probably not surprising.) I also like movies a lot. As a kid, I was pretty much a disaster at sports and a total klutz, so it is kind of surprising that the older I get, the more I like activities like hiking, biking, and swimming. I also like to travel and see new places and meet new people. I like finding out about other people’s lives and viewpoints.
Dislikes: Being bored. Having to sit still for very long. Not having good answers to questions I’m curious about. Seeing people in pain when I don’t know how to help.
Q: When did you know you had a gift of writing?
A: I’m not actually sure that I “know” it even now. Writing is such a roller-coaster activity: even after writing professionally for more than twenty years, I still have spells when I feel completely incompetent just trying to string together a basic sentence. Other times, I do feel like there’s a gift involved. But it’s that the words or ideas come to me as a gift that I can share with others, not that it’s something I possess.
For me, the love of writing developed alongside my love of reading. Starting in about third grade, I fell in love with making up stories of my own, not just reading them. But at that age I was much better at making up stories and just telling them to a friend or my younger siblings out loud, rather than doing the work of writing them down.
Q: I personally know I have dubbed you as the “Sci-Fi Queen” as have many other book loving friends – how do you feel knowing you write science fiction in a way that gets readers hooked?
A: I love the idea of hooking readers on books in general, and on science fiction and speculative fiction in particular. I think this genre is particularly great for encouraging kids to stretch their imagination.
Q: Series seem to be something that you are primarily writing and then The Remarkables came out and it was a stand alone – how do you write multiple story lines at one time?
A: For most of my writing career, I’ve done a lot of bouncing back and forth between series and stand-alones. I really like that approach. In fact, with both of the long series I’ve done (the seven-book Shadow Children series and the eight-book Missing series) I always alternated between writing those series books with either stand-alones or a book from some other, shorter series in between each installment. I think it helped clear my brain—like a palate cleanser between books. Or, to mix my metaphors here, it’s like the fun of a sprint in between the long slog of a marathon. But I should also admit that I typically don’t write the same stage of multiple story lines at once. I usually only work on one first draft at a time, though it might be interrupted for the revision or proofreading of some other book.
Q; Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind The Remarkables?
A: That book had several inspirations. One of the major sparks was the fact that I, like Marin in Remarkables, made a dramatic move from Illinois to Pennsylvania at a time in my life when I was facing lots of changes anyway. In my case, I was an adult, not a kid, and I was 1) pregnant with my second child; and 2) about to have my first book published. Those were both happy changes, of course, but they were also fraught. My husband was also taking on a stressful, time-consuming new job, and we didn’t know a soul in our new town. I’d even agreed to move to that Pennsylvania town sight unseen, without having ever stepped foot there first. There were many, many ways all that could have gone wrong, and we owe lots of people who started out as strangers but became fast friends for helping us survive that phase. But soon after that move, on nights when I was getting up at all hours to nurse a newborn, I started paying rather distracted attention to a group of teenagers who appeared to live in a house across the street. Or rather, it seemed that at least one teenager lived across the street, and others drifted in and out on a rotating basis. I could never figure out who was a resident and who was a guest. I also never saw an adult who appeared to live at that house, though the teenagers were always friendly. They seemed like nice kids, but also… was “enigmatic” the right word? As a baby, my son was horrible at the whole sleep thing, and so I was seriously sleep-deprived for a good nine months. So as I was abstractly considering the question, “What’s the deal with our new neighbors?” all sorts of weird possibilities occurred to me. What if it was a top-secret spy ring? What if they were secretly superheroes—high school students by day, crime fighters by night?
For years—about twenty, in fact--the idea of a mysterious houseful of teenagers stuck in the back of my mind as a possible inspiration for a book someday. Then I hit another phase of my life when a lot of change was swirling around me: some good, some bad, all of them challenging. And, again like Marin, I wanted to embrace the happy changes and have things go well. But I was a little stuck obsessing about past hurts and past mistakes. Writing Remarkables was a way to move both Marin and me away from being stuck.
And when I figured out the explanation Marin and Charley discover for the mysterious houseful of teenagers in their neighborhood, I was so, so happy.
(Though I’m pretty sure it was not the same as the explanation for the real teenagers I knew all those years ago.)
Q: I also have students who are very into the Greystone Secrets series right now – where did the inspiration for that story line come from?
A: That inspiration goes back even farther—about thirty years! (This makes me sound like someone who really has to think for a long time to come up with a book. Sometimes it does take years; sometimes I start writing within days or weeks of getting a new idea.)
With the Greystone Secrets series, it took me decades to recognize the original idea as a book idea. I’d read a newspaper column about a woman who was totally freaked out hearing about three young children killed in a car wreck. The reason she freaked out so badly—even to the point that she stopped driving herself for a while—was because the kids who died were the exact same ages as her own children. And the two oldest kids had the exact same names as her two oldest. The third did not—but he had the same name she and her husband had decided to use if their third child had been a boy, instead of a girl.
The memory of that newspaper column stuck in my head as a cautionary tale—something horrible I actually tried not to think about, especially once I had kids of my own. No parent wants to think about the sad truth that sometimes children die. Then, rather randomly one day, I happened to remember that story and suddenly wondered: If that was so weird for the mother to know about something so awful happening to kids who had the same ages and nearly all the same names as her own kids… then how weird would it be for the kids to find out about something terrible happening to kids who are essentially their doppelgangers?
As soon as I flipped the idea around that way, I wanted to write about it. But I didn’t want my story to be about kids dying; I wanted the “something awful” to be something the kids could recover from—or be rescued from.
Q: How do you get started on your writing, and what advice would you give to middle grade students who are writing?
A: I am not terribly consistent in my approach. Sometimes I have pretty much everything about the story planned ahead of time, and I’ve made lots of notes to myself about how it should go. Other times, I have the seed of an idea in mind, and I’ve figured out an opening scene or two, but I feel like I need to take a leap of faith starting out; I just have to hope that as I go along the characters will take over and start acting and reacting and driving the story to its end. I often advise kids to think about what’s motivating their characters—there has to be something big and important driving the characters to do and say what they do and say. And those motivations also have to drive the plot.
A big piece of advice I would also give middle grade students is to be patient with yourself as a writer. (This is also advice I need to hear sometimes, even now.) It is so easy to get discouraged when the brilliant idea in your head comes out looking like nothing but a giant mess in your first draft. But it is perfectly fine to have a messy draft. Congratulate yourself for getting something down on paper. And don’t worry if it takes a while to figure out how to improve it.
Q: Can you describe your revision/editing process for students? Also, do you start writing on paper/computer/etc?
A: I do start writing the story directly on a computer, although when I am plotting and planning I often switch back and forth between making notes on paper and on a screen. I think switching up the formats helps sometimes to jog different ideas loose. I can be totally stuck staring at the screen, but if I switch to writing in a notebook—even if what I start out writing on paper is complaining, “This isn’t working! My characters won’t do anything I want them to!”—that often evolves into me figuring out what the problem is and how to proceed.
Even when I am writing a first draft, I always read over the past five or ten pages when I start each day and do at least minor revision/editing to warm up for writing new chapters. As I’m going along, I also keep a “fix” file of things I know I will have to go to back and attend to. Then, when I finish a draft, I read over the whole thing and make more notes about things to fix. I do a lot of revision before anyone else sees the manuscript. Then, after my editor has read it and made suggestions, I do a lot more.
Q: Future projects that you are currently working on?
A: The second Greystone Secrets book, The Deceivers, is finished and will come out in April 2020. I’ve also written the third book in that series, but still have a lot of revision left on it. (Even the title is up in the air right now.) At the moment, that book is on hold until my editor has had a chance to read it. In the meantime, I’m in the early stages of working on a new stand-alone that also doesn’t have a title yet.
Q: What else would you like teachers and young readers to know?
A: That I hope they will enjoy my books!
Q&A with author Margaret Peterson Haddix
by Rheanna Velasquez · May 1, 2020
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
As an author, how would you define the power of art?
Art has the power to uplift, inform, inspire, call to action, and—particularly with literature—arouse empathy. I don’t think society can survive without empathy, so I see that as especially important.
On a lighter note, art also has the power to entertain and provide an escape from a grimmer reality. Especially during challenging times, that’s valuable as well.
How has your relationship with storytelling evolved over time?
As a kid, I was mostly interested in storytelling for the stories themselves. In my early years as a writer, whenever I was asked, “What’s your goal for this book?” I would say, “Just to tell a good story.” It’s now been more than 20 years since my first book came out, and as I’ve heard from readers who grew up on my books, I am delighted when they tell me they learned to be brave because of my books, or that they chose their careers because of my books, etc. So I do think more about the messages embedded in my stories now. But, I think my first goal still has to be to tell a good story.
How has a piece from literature impacted you and why?
Until I was in seventh grade, I don’t remember reading any story without a happy ending. There might have been lots of adversity on the way to that ending, but the ending was happy. Then, in my seventh-grade literature class, we were assigned to read John Steinbeck’s “The Pearl,” and I remember being horrified at how unfair everything was in the story; it felt like the family at the heart of the story really had no chance. Later that same year, I read LES MISERABLES. Jean Valjean also faced a society where everything was stacked against him, but the themes of hope and love, and the power of redemption and second chances, are threaded throughout that story. I’m pretty sure I would find the book overwrought if I reread it now, but as a seventh grader I saw LES MISERABLES as the answer to my dismay over “The Pearl.” And, I think it helped shape my attitude toward both how to tell sad stories and how to deal with difficulties in life. I think it’s dishonest to pretend that there isn’t going to be misery for everyone at some point in their lives; it’s dishonest to tell stories where problems that are truly and painfully hard are too easily overcome. But, both in life and in stories, it’s important to look for and hold onto the glimmers of hope, the glimpses of light in the worst darkness.
Why do you believe people react differently to literature or to different works of art? What role do you believe literature plays in our lives?
Every reader brings different life experiences to any reading or viewing, so we all see through a different filter. If a piece of literature doesn’t speak to you, it may just be that you’re not the right audience. Or, it might be that it’s just not the right time in your life for it to be meaningful. But, it is a joy to see a piece of literature really connect with a reader. The right piece of art at the right moment can truly be life-changing.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
It is very important to have a diversity of voices telling stories, and it’s important to read a diversity of stories. Because we’re all seeing through different filters, I think it’s also important not to be too dismissive about stories that don’t speak to one reader, but are deeply meaningful for someone else. I wish for everyone that they find at least one book that speaks to them—ideally, I wish that everyone could find many books like that!
Interview with Margaret Peterson Haddix and Giveaway of her latest!
Thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to join us for this interview, Margaret. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions about your career and your latest release, The School for Whatnots.
The School for Whatnots
The School For Whatnots is another thrilling page turner for middle grade readers.
No matter what anyone tells you, I’m real.
That’s what the note says that Max finds under his keyboard.
Max’s best friend, Josie wrote the note. But what the note means is the mystery that lies at the heart of this novel..
Max and Josie have been best friends since kindergarten. But, things change the summer after their fifth grade year, when Josie mysteriously disappears, leaving the note behind. Josie had also whispered something to Max about “whatnot rules.”
But why would Max ever think that Josie wasn’t real? And what are whatnots?
As Max sets to uncover what happened to Josie—and what she is or isn’t—little does he know that she’s fighting to find him again, too. But there are forces trying to keep Max and Josie from ever seeing each other again. Because Josie wasn’t supposed to be real.
The School for Whatnots examines disparity, friendship and parental roles in wanting and teaching what is best, and right, for children.
I’d like to begin by noting that The School for Whatnots is your 47th book! Congratulations! Given your prolific publication history, what is your writing process? Do you write every day for hours on end? Do you work on multiple projects at once? Do you plot out your works, or let the characters take you where the story should go? What does a day in the life of Margaret Peterson Haddix look like? (I know that’s a lot, but I really want to know…J.)
Process? Wait—I’m supposed to have a process?
Obviously I’m joking here (a little). The truth, though, is that I’m not sure that I’ve followed the same process twice, and there’s not really any such thing as a “typical” day. That’s one of the things I like about writing—the variability. But I do often complain at the beginning of a new book, “I don’t know how to do this! Writing this book is totally different from any book I’ve ever written before!” At least I am a bit more patient than I used to be about knowing that it’s going to take me a while to figure everything out. Overall, I would characterize my approach as being a hybrid between plotting things out ahead of time and making everything up as I go along. With The School for Whatnots, I did a lot more “figuring it out as I write” than usual. I had a lot of fun doing that, but then I also hit some brick walls where I felt really stuck and even despaired of ever finding a way to the end. Not planning ahead much also meant that I had to do a lot more rewriting during the revision phase. But I think that was necessary with this particular book. Each book seems to have its own personality.
As for how my writing days usually go, I like being super-focused on writing in the morning when I am freshest, and then working on other things in the afternoon. But sometimes I am useless as a writer in the morning, and I just spin my wheels all day long. Other times I’m in the flow and suddenly realize I’ve written all day long—and avoided everything else on my to-do list. Mostly I try to work on only one book at a time, but I do sometimes weave in books at different stages—stopping in the middle of a first draft of one book, for example, to go back and revise a previous book when I get feedback from my editor.
As history has always been of great interest to you, and as a former journalist (is it possible to ever be a former journalist????), I know you go to great lengths to research time periods and locations in creating the worlds for your novels. Is there a time/location that you have found most fascinating in all your research?
The more research I do, the more I become fascinated with even the time periods/locations I originally find boring—which I think is a testament to the fact that the more you know about something, the more you want to know.
But I do have two time periods/locations I became particularly obsessed with while doing book research. One was Roanoke Island (in what is now North Carolina) during the late 1500s, a place and time period I focused on in the third book of the Missing series, Sabotaged. That was the site of what is billed as the first “permanent” English colony in North America—though everyone living there vanished within the first three years. I had learned about the Roanoke Colony as a kid, but then was intrigued to discover all the ways in which the history I’d been taught was either inaccurate or incomplete. I kept wanting to read and know more, even though there’s a lot about that era that can’t be known.
The other time period/topic I became obsessed with was the women’s suffrage movement in the early 1900s, which I researched for my book, Uprising. Based on what I’d learned in school, I thought the suffrage movement was all about Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the middle of the 1800s, then nothing happening for about seventy years, and then suddenly in 1920, women were allowed to vote. However, so much happened in those seventy years that didn’t make it into the history textbooks I had as a kid, and I was in awe of the suffragists who struggled so hard during those last twenty years or so before getting to vote. In some cases, they even risked their lives for it. Uprising focuses on the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, but it also deals with the strike that preceded the fire—a strike where wealthy women trying to get the right to vote sided with poor immigrant women seeking rights as workers. It was such a fascinating juxtaposition, and, at least for a short while, the women involved felt connected by their gender even though they were very divided by their social class. I wanted to go back in time and interview all the women who took part in that strike!
I know authors are often asked by children which is your favorite book you’ve written. As an adult, I want to know which characters have found a special place in your heart?
Can I say, “All of them”? I know that’s not really a good answer. But I have to care deeply about my main characters to want to write about them. Josie and Max from The School for Whatnots are definitely among the characters I’ve loved the most. They were both so real to me from the very beginning, and I wanted so badly for them to work through their challenges—even though I as the author was the one throwing those challenges at them.
I love reading author’s notes, searching for what inspired the story. You offer in The School for Whatnots that this story stemmed from what you witnessed in the disparity of school districts and the disadvantages of the children who attend schools with fewer resources. Could you please elaborate for the benefit of our readers?
That was not the initial spark for the book, but it was an important factor. I began thinking about Whatnots at a time when I was doing a lot of school visits. When I started out as an author decades ago, it felt like most of the schools I visited were middle class. More recently (in the years leading up to the pandemic), it began to feel like I only went to schools where kids were either very rich or very poor. (I think this was partly because rich schools could afford author visits on their own, and poor schools could get grants.) At both types of schools, the kids were great—so bright, so curious, and so full of insightful questions about my books. But I noticed a huge difference in how the kids were treated, based on their socio-economic backgrounds (and, sometimes, their race.) A kid could ask a question at one school and be praised for his innovative thinking; the same question at a different school would lead to a kid being scolded for being disruptive and not staying on topic. This is a huge generalization, and I truly do not mean to call out educators here—I worked for a while as a substitute teacher and I know that it is impossible to teach anyone much of anything if there aren’t a certain number of rules. Educators have very hard jobs, no matter what. But it was distressing to me that the main message some kids seemed to be getting from school was, “Sit down and shut up—you’re nothing but a nuisance” while other kids were being encouraged to think and explore, and given every resource and encouragement to do so. I want all kids to have access to a good education, and the chance to live up to their potential.
So that was in the background of my thinking about Whatnots. I am okay with kids reading this book and seeing it only as a story about friends. But if it also makes them think more about wanting all kids to have a fairer shot at success, that’s great, too.
Congratulations on the Kirkus starred review for The School for Whatnots. The reviewer offered that your work is “An intriguing novel that highlights social class disparities and the importance of friendship.” Could you share a little bit about the friendship between Max and Josie?
When Max and Josie meet in kindergarten, they just get each other right away. Everybody should have a friend like that at some point in their life—and hopefully lots and lots of friends like that. But kindergarteners grow up, and as kids change, their friendships do, too. Max and Josie face very unusual challenges to their friendship, but I think most kids on the cusp of middle school can relate to looking at a long-term friend and suddenly wondering, “Who is this person, really? Are we still friends? Should we be?” Max and Josie are just so loyal to each other that they are convinced they can overcome any challenge for the sake of their friendship. But their friendship is not perfect, and one of my favorite parts of the book is the section where the narrator pretty much says, “You know how I’ve been telling you only the good parts of Josie and Max’s friendship? Well, all this other stuff happened, too. And they’re still great friends. Being good friends doesn’t mean nothing bad ever happens—it just means that the friendship includes being able to forgive and get back to treating one another well after the problems.”
Along with the disparity in school districts, a theme in the novel is bullying, or rather, protecting from bullying at all costs. What messages were you trying to convey to your audience on this important issue?
I’ll answer with a story: When my son started kindergarten, he came home every day complaining about the boy he had to sit with on the bus. Let’s call this kid Mark, even though that wasn’t actually his name. That first week of school, Mark kept poking my son in the side during the bus ride; when I told my son to tell Mark, “You need to keep your hands to yourself,” it didn’t help. At the start of the second week, I had every intention of asking the bus driver to put my son or Mark in a different assigned seat. But I hesitated, because I didn’t want to be “that” mother. It was a five-minute bus ride—I could just imagine the bus driver telling me that I was being ridiculous. It’s a good thing I hesitated, because when my son came home from school on about Day 8 and I asked, “Did Mark bother you on the bus today?” my son’s answer was something like, “What are you talking about? We’re friends now.” Mark became the kid who was always over at our house, and he and my son were inseparable; when Mark and his family moved away at the end of that school year, my son and I were both distraught.
Now, that story does not address situations that are truly bullying. It also could have been a different story if it’d been a boy picking on a girl, or a child of one race picking on a child of a different race. But it’s so hard for parents to tell sometimes about situations that are borderline. I found out later that Mark was the fourth of five children, and he was used to rough-housing with older brothers—apparently the actions that my son perceived as annoying and painful were actually meant as offers of friendship from the very beginning. I’m glad my son and Mark ultimately figured out how to get along without any adults intervening. I definitely believe that adults need to intervene in some situations, and again, I don’t want to downplay the fact that bullying can be a very serious issue. But parents do their kids a true disservice if they try so hard to protect their kids that they don’t ever allow their kids to be in situations where they might make mistakes, where they might be hurt, where they themselves might unintentionally hurt others—or where, while rebounding from problems, they might learn how to interact with others in a healthy way. As much as we parents would like to, we can’t wrap our kids in bubble wrap and protect them from every risk and every potential pain. And it can undermine kids to even try to do that. This is a more important message for adults than for kids, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing for kids to realize that adults can make mistakes, too.
I loved many of the sentiments in the text, but especially this line, “Was it possible to want to be hovered over and want to be left alone—both at the same time?” I think this sentence reflects the intended audience perfectly…wanting to be cared for and cuddled, but at the same time, not bothered, as the desire for independence sets in. Do you have any favorite lines from this book?
I so enjoyed writing this book from the perspective of the snarky narrator—or maybe I should say, “poignantly snarky narrator.” I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that she’s had more experience with life as a fifth grader than most people get. So it was fun to slip in lines like, “From the vantage point of the last day of school, summer always looked endless.” And then, near the end of the book, “But there’s something about the last day of summer that makes everything seem uncertain. It makes you feel like anything could end.” Those are sensations I remember vividly from being a kid myself; that’s how the cycle of the school year felt then.
In December, Publisher’s Weekly featured a story on the long-awaited sequel to your first novel, Running Out of Time. I know that you have written books that you expected to be stand-alone novels yet became one of a series. Will The School for Whatnots be the first in a series?
I don’t have any plans to write a sequel to The School for Whatnots. But I’ve learned to never say never—I also didn’t have any plans to write a sequel to Running Out of Time for the first 25 years or so after it came out!
Finally, what other new Margaret Peterson Haddix books can we look forward to reading soon?
I have another book coming this year that I am also very excited about: The Secret Letters, which will be the first book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure trilogy. It’s due out September 20. The Secret Letters is about two kids whose parents run rival junk removal companies. When Colin and Nevaeh discover hidden shoeboxes full of letters that two other kids wrote to each other about fifty years ago, it sets them on a path toward solving three different mysteries—with an unexpected connection to Colin and Nevaeh themselves.
And then after that, the Running Out of Time sequel, which is called Falling Out of Time, will come out in the summer of 2023.
Thank you, Margaret, for spending time with us here at From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors, and for offering a complimentary copy of The School of Whatnots to one of our readers.
Enter the giveaway for a complimentary copy of The School for Whatnots below, note only residents of the United States, please.
Author Chat with Margaret Peterson Haddix (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Ghostly Photos), Plus Giveaway ~ US ONLY
September 13, 20233 Comments
Written by Connie Reid, Site Manager and Staff Reviewer
Posted in Authors, Giveaways, Interviews, News & Updates
Today we are very excited to share an interview with author Margaret Peterson Haddix (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Ghostly Photos)!
Read on to learn more about the author , the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm in Ohio. As a kid, she knew two girls who had the exact same first, middle, and last names and shared the same birthday—only one year apart—and she always thought that was bizarre.
As an adult, Haddix worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor in Indiana before her first book, Running Out of Time, was published. She has since written more than forty books for kids and teens, including the Greystone Secrets series, the Shadow Children series, the Missing series, the Children of Exile series, and lots of stand-alones. Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio, where they raised their two kids. You can learn more about her at www.haddixbooks.com.
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About the Book: Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Ghostly Photos
New York Times bestselling middle-grade thriller author Margaret Peterson Haddix returns to the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series as Colin and Nevaeh unravel a mystery from the 1930s and explore the emotions associated with death and dying.
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~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
The biggest inspiration has to stay secret because talking about it would be a major spoiler. But another huge inspiration was talking with a friend whose parents owned a funeral home when she was a kid. She and I both grew up living in the middle of “the family business” (I grew up on a farm) and we found lots of parallels there, with the whole family always being expected to pitch in to help, day and night. But I have cozy memories of things like cuddling little baby pigs brought into our house to stay warm, whereas she has memories of knowing there was almost always a dead body in her house. Her stories helped me see what Ree’s life would be like in The Ghostly Photos.
Another inspiration for The Ghostly Photos was, not so surprisingly, ghostly photos! I’ve had reason to look through lots of old family photos recently, and the way old pictures age kind of makes everyone in them look like ghosts.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
I usually struggle with titles. (That’s an understatement—I am really having to work hard not to whine, “They’re so HARD! Sometimes IMPOSSIBLE!”) Many times, I feel like I spend almost as much time figuring out the three or four words of the title as I spend writing the thousands of pages in the book itself. That was definitely the case with the first book in this series, The Secret Letters. I tried out about fifty different titles on that one—and then I had to figure out the series title, too! But with Ghostly Photos, I knew as soon as I started thinking about the book what I wanted the title to be.
YABC: Which character gave you the most trouble when writing The Ghostly Photos?
Ree, a.k.a, Serena, a.k.a…. well, I won’t go into any other confusing identity. Ree shows up in the first chapter of The Ghostly Photos as a rather mysterious character who asks Nevaeh and Colin to prove that the pictures she shows them aren’t pictures of a ghost—and that the new house Ree has just moved into isn’t haunted. And did she happen to mention that her new house is also a funeral home? Colin and Nevaeh are understandably puzzled by Ree’s odd behavior from the start. And I was, too! It took me a while to figure out why Ree was acting so secretive. Even once I understood Ree’s motivations, I had to decide how and why she would start trusting Nevaeh and Colin enough to let them in on more of her secrets.
YABC: Colin and Nevaeh have different attitudes about ghosts from the start. Which character’s viewpoint do you agree with?
Both! Like Colin, I am intrigued by thinking about the possibilities. But like Nevaeh, I’d rather not have to worry about being haunted by any scary creature coming back from the dead.
YABC: Is there a ghost? Are the photos Ree shows the other two kids truly proof of a haunting?
Now, that I can’t tell you! For many reasons—it’s not just that I don’t want to spoil the book!
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
Soon after I realized that part of the book was going to be set in a funeral home, it occurred to me that someone important was going to have to die, and Colin and Nevaeh would have to go to a funeral. I fought that idea for a long time, and my first few ideas for who was going to die made me really, really worried. I wanted to protect all my beloved characters! (The person who does die ended up being the right person for many reasons, but that death really complicated my plans for the book and the series. I had to re-plan everything, from that point forward.)
And then, after all that, it was a challenging scene to write. Funerals are always hard, but I know that I react to them differently now as an adult than I did as a kid. And, of course, people react differently depending on their relationship to the dead person and/or to the survivors. So I had to put myself completely in Colin and Nevaeh’s shoes to write the funeral scene realistically. Their personalities made it a very unconventional “funeral,” but it felt so real to me that I started crying as I wrote. It felt like I was crying for Colin and Nevaeh in all their innocence, and for kid readers who may or may not have experienced losing a loved one yet. But I knew I was also crying about losses of loved ones of my own in the past–and losses I know are coming. And, if I want to get truly profound, I was also crying for how hard it is to be human in general, and to know that death is a part of life.
Still, I wanted the funeral scene to ultimately be a comforting one, for both my characters and my readers. (And maybe for myself, as well.)
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from The Ghostly Photos?
Honestly, I would be happy just to have kids read and enjoy it—it’s okay if they don’t take away any profound messages. But if they do find a message here, one that is near and dear to my heart is the idea of connecting with other generations. Colin doesn’t know anything about any relative but his mother, and Nevaeh is lucky enough to be surrounded by so much family that she takes a lot of it for granted. But Ree has always had an amazing relationship with her Grandma Hal, and even as she’s dealing with the sadness of watching her grandmother struggle with a difficult disease, she’s also continuing to learn important lessons from that relationship.
Writing this book, I got to weave in bits and pieces of history from the Great Depression and (in a much smaller way) from World War II and the 1950s. Earlier in the series, in The Secret Letters, I let Nevaeh and Colin learn about what it would have been like to grow up in the 1970s. It was a lot of fun for me to look back at those eras and think about what has and hasn’t changed over the years. I hope readers are equally intrigued. And if they are then inspired to ask their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., about their own pasts, that would be wonderful.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
Can I tell you about two of them? Coincidentally, they have similar titles: Ruby Lost and Found, by Christina Li, and The Museum of Lost and Found, by Leila Sales. (Apparently I am very into lost and found things right now?) I loved Christina Li’s book because, like The Ghostly Photos, it deals with a girl grappling with a beloved grandmother’s memory loss. Ruby’s situation is very different from Ree’s, but like Ree, she is steadfast in wanting to take care of her loved ones, even as she makes a lot of mistakes.
Leila Sales’s book is about a girl who finds an abandoned museum, and then she and her brother and some friends make it their own—a place to memorialize important things they’ve lost (or, perhaps, found). I loved the quirky main character, Vanessa, and I loved the way her view of what she’s lost (and found!) keeps changing, the more she tries to hold onto—or sometimes, to destroy—certain artifacts and friendships. This is a book I would have read again and again and again when I was a kid trying to figure out my own friendship problems.
YABC: What advice do you have for new writers?
Be patient with yourself and your writing. This is actually advice I need to be given even now, even after dozens of published books (The Ghostly Photos is my 50th!) and decades of writing. I had a kid writer ask me just this summer, “Have you ever been really excited about an idea, and then you get a little bit into it, and you lose your way and you feel like giving up?” I said, “Yes—all the time!” Because that’s just part of the process. It’s natural to want writing to always be as quick and fun as that first burst of inspiration, when everything about your idea seems brilliant. But a brilliant idea that turns into a horrifying bad first draft isn’t a sign of failure; it’s just a sign that you aren’t finished yet. And there can also be joy in the meticulousness of rewriting. That stage of writing is just more like a marathon than a sprint, and it’s good to remember that.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
That’s easy—the third and final book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series! The Stolen Key will come out in the fall of 2024, and it continues Colin and Nevaeh’s adventures. It also pulls them far outside their small town of Groveview (time for a road trip!), and it gives Colin a chance to solve the big mysteries that he’s wondered about his entire life: What happened to his father? Why does Colin’s mother say Colin is better off not remembering him?
The Stolen Key is now mostly done except for a little final editing/proofreading/tweaking. So now I’m turning my attention to a new series, tentatively to be called The Moon Leapers. I’m very excited about that project, too!
Book’s Title: Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Ghostly Photos
Author/Illustrator: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Release Date: September 12, 2023
Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s / Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN-10: 0063089815
ISBN-13: 9780063089815
Genre: JUVENILE FICTION/Mysteries & Detective Stories
Throw Back Thursday: Margaret Peterson Haddix on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author
Home » Throw Back Thursday: Margaret Peterson Haddix on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author
Cynsations is celebrating its 20th anniversary by switching to a quarterly publishing schedule, featuring in-depth interviews and articles. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm!
Congratulations to Margaret Peterson Haddix on the publication of The Stolen Key, the third book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series (Quill Tree, Sept. 2024). From the publisher’s website:
Colin has spent all summer solving mysteries with his friend Nevaeh. But they’ve only ever dealt with other people’s mysteries—ones that are safe for Colin to think about. He’s still stuck on the mystery surrounding his own father, who his mother refuses to talk about and he can’t remember meeting.
Then one morning Colin finds a shoebox on his porch with a note on top: “Your father wanted you to have this.” Inside the box is a key. This new clue makes Colin even more determined to find out the truth about his dad and why his parents split up when he was a baby. Colin and Nevaeh begin investigating Colin’s father in a quest that takes them from eerie storage units to lock-lined bridges to, strangely, secrets in Nevaeh’s family.
But the closer they get to connecting the clues, the more trouble awaits them. A serious accident leaves Nevaeh’s family reeling—and Nevaeh racked with guilt. And digging into Colin’s father’s past may lead Colin and his mom into even more danger. Can Colin and Nevaeh solve the mystery before it’s too late?
Take a look back at Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s interview with Margaret Peterson Haddix from 2017 about thriving as an actively publishing children’s-YA author, part of the Career Achievers series.
Career Achievers: Margaret Peterson Haddix on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author
By Cynthia Leitich Smith
In children’s-YA writing, maintaining an active publishing career is arguably an even bigger challenge than breaking into the field.
Reflecting on your personal journey, what bumps did you encounter and how have you managed to defy the odds to achieve continued success?
Oh, I did so many things wrong!
A lot of my struggles in the beginning were just about having the confidence to think that it was possible to be published.
And I was so green and stupid and ignorant, starting out. I think I expected everything to be easier after that—because then I would know what I was doing. And I certainly do know more than I did back then, but every book is like starting over, with its own challenges and struggles. And its own opportunities.
I think one thing that helped me was that I had worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor before writing my first book. That forced me to learn how to write (and edit) consistently and on deadline, and to have a thicker skin about people criticizing my work. (I’m not sure I ever developed a thick enough skin for journalism, but it gave me some perspective and definitely helped in the kinder world of children’s publishing.)
I was also very, very fortunate in many ways with things that weren’t exactly under my control. I worked hard (counting books that aren’t out yet, I’ve written 43 books in 26 years) but it was what I wanted to do. Some people want to be writers so they can say they’ve written a book, and some people want to be writers because they like to write, and I was lucky/blessed that it’s almost always been the writing itself that I’ve enjoyed most.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been plenty of days when I think all my ideas are stupid and I delete more than I write and I question whether I even know English and I wonder why I didn’t go into an easier field, or at least one where I could know for sure if I was doing things right, instead of endlessly flipping back and forth between multiple choices. (Should it be “and” here, or “but”? Or maybe “so”? Arrrgggghhhh!)
But overall, I am still just having fun. And I was lucky that my books (overall—not every single one) did well enough that I could just keep writing.
I was lucky that the agents and editors who pushed my career along were a lot savvier than I ever was about a lot of publishing issues. (The credit here goes mostly to Tracey Adams at Adams Literary and David Gale at Simon & Schuster, both of whom I’ve worked with the longest.)
Beyond that, I have been lucky with a lot of issues that affect a writing career in less obvious ways. I was lucky that I had health insurance through my husband. I was lucky that the emergencies/crises/day-to-day problems in my family and personal life were the type that could be handled alongside a writing career, instead of supplanting it.
I was lucky that I’d grown up on a farm, and seen my father manage being self-employed with all its ups and downs and everything that’s good and bad about being your own boss, and so I had a good role model for that. (That farm background was also good because, no matter how much I can tie my brain into knots agonizing over some writing problem, this is still a much, much easier and more pleasant job than shoveling manure or many of the other chores I did as a kid.)
If you had it to do all over again, what—if anything—would you do differently and why?
It’s tempting to say yes, of course if I could go back, I would learn from my mistakes and do better the second time around. But there’s that lesson of time travel (which I’ve thought about a lot, having written an eight-book time-travel series): if you eliminate a problem, you might also eliminate all the good results.
I’d like to say that I would be less stressed and obsessive, but I’m not sure I can stop being that way going forward with my career, let alone going back. I think it’s a basic personality trait for me, and being stressed and anxious and slightly obsessive pushed me through the difficult parts of just about every single one of my books. There were a few years that were crazy because I’d over-committed and agreed to too many tight book deadlines, along with too much book-related travel, and it would have been wise not to have done that. But I’m not sure which book I would want to have not written.
I do wish I had not been so intimidated and shy the first, oh, let’s say ten to fifteen years of my writing career. I think I missed out on the opportunity to get to know a lot of interesting, thoughtful people in the publishing world back then, as well as a lot of wonderful educators, librarians, booksellers, and other authors.
The field and body of literature are always evolving. For you, what have been the stand-out changes in the world children’s-YA writing, literature and publishing? What do you think of them and why?
The biggest changes are because of the internet and social media, and now the ever-presence of smartphones. Like most technological advances, those are all mixed blessings.
In the early years, even when I was writing a book under contract, most of the time it felt like I was just playing around with my ideas on my own, in total isolation. And then I would go to a school or library or bookstore or conference, and it was always a little stunning to me: Wait, these people know my characters, too? And… they like them? Amazing!
In many ways it is wonderful now to be able to interact with readers (and others in the publishing world) over social media, and to get feedback on a regular basis. It’s not so wonderful when the feedback is negative or outright vitriolic (or abusive). I’ve read articles about how damaging it is to kids and teens to have so much of their self-esteem tied to an online world and the Pavlovian effect of seeking likes on social media. Adults should be able to keep perspective better, but I’m not sure it’s healthy for any of us.
If nothing else, social media and constant connectedness take a lot of time and energy. And among my other worries about society and the future, I worry that we’re all going to be reduced to having the attention spans of gnats, which of course would be terrible for the future of books.
The other big change recently is the emphasis on diversity in children’s books and the children’s book world, and I applaud the opportunity for everyone to learn more about one another, and for kids from a variety of backgrounds to see themselves more in books. And for authors who would have been automatically discriminated against in the past to get more attention.
I know we are a long, long way from an ideal situation, but I want to believe we are making progress. I am trying to listen and learn and read more widely myself.
What advice would you give to your beginner self, if that version of you was a debut author this year?
That’s a little mind-blowing to contemplate. I think, though, that I’d give the same advice for a first book or a fortieth, or for any career in general. Do your best with what you can control, and let go of what you can’t.
Of course you want your book to succeed, but understand that timing and luck can play a huge role; sometimes good books fail, and sometimes mediocre books succeed.
If your book is a success, of course rejoice and be happy, but remember that that success doesn’t actually define your worth as a person. And if your book fails (or just doesn’t live up to expectations), then of course mourn for that book and the impact you wanted it to have, but even more than with a success, don’t let that failure define your worth as a person.
Be glad if you have friends and family members who don’t know or care anything about your book, except for knowing and caring about you.
And have I managed to follow all that advice myself? Sometimes. Not always.
I could do better. I have managed to follow another part of the advice I’d give, which is to then focus on writing the next book.
What do you wish for children’s-YA writers (and readers), looking to the future?
This is a selfish wish, because I am a reader, too: I wish to see a lot more great books from other writers! And beyond that, I would wish for every kid to find at least one book (and hopefully many, many, many books) that speaks directly to him or her.
As a writer, what do you wish for yourself in the future?
I am still figuring that out!
Cynsational Notes
Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. She graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing and history. Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois.
She has since written 50 books for kids and teens, including Running Out of Time; Double Identity; Uprising; The School for Whatnots; the Greystone Secrets series; the Shadow Children series; the Missing series; The Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series; and The Palace Chronicles. She also wrote Into the Gauntlet, the tenth book in the 39 Clues series. Her books have been honored with New York Times bestseller status, the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award; American Library Association Best Book and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers notations; and numerous state reader’s choice awards. They have also been translated into more than twenty different languages.
Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio. They are the parents of two grown kids.
Cynthia Leitich Smith is an acclaimed, NYTimes bestselling author of more than 20 books, winner of the 2024 Southern Miss Medallion for Outstanding Contributions in Children’s Literature, 2024 Texas Literary Hall of Fame inductee, and the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Reading Rockets named her to its list of 100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know.
Her titles include Hearts Unbroken, winner of an American Indian Youth Literature Award; the anthology Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories For Kids, which was an ALA Notable Book and winner of the Reading of the West Book Award; an Indigenous Peter Pan retelling titled Sisters Of The Neversea, which received six starred reviews; and the YA ghost mystery Harvest House, which is one of five Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. Her 2024 middle grade releases are Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem (Blue Stars #1), a Junior Library Guild selection, also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami and a road-trip novel titled On A Wing And A Tear. Both books have received three starred reviews.
Cynthia is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins and was the inaugural Katherine Paterson Chair at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Texas.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson REVEALED Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 2 ISBN: 978-1-4169-8986-8
This apparently final installment of the Missing series plunges Jonah into a quandary: The villains Gary and Hodge have begun their master plan to steal all the children from history and sell them in the future, with the help of Charles Lindbergh. The action kicks off when Charles Lindbergh snatches Jonah's sister, Katherine, from their living room. Time agent JB takes Jonah and family friend Angela to a "time hollow" where they can monitor events, but soon they find themselves clinging to the outside of Lindbergh's plane as he flies across the Atlantic in 1927. They escape and begin an investigation of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932, eventually learning how Gary and Hodge have drawn the aviator into their scheme. The safety of time itself depends on Lindbergh's and Jonah's choices--and JB, Angela and Jonah's parents have all been "un-aged" into 13-year-olds. Jonah finds himself dragged to and fro in time, always fearful that he will destroy its flow. Haddix bogs the narrative down with explanations of the workings of time travel, and the story lacks the usual repartee between Jonah and Katherine, un-aged back to infancy. Still, if readers can unravel the mechanisms of time well enough to understand the ins and outs of the story, they finally will learn who Jonah really is. This long and intricate conclusion should satisfy fans, but it's not likely to win new ones. (Paranormal suspense. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: REVEALED." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2014. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A376818141/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5a180c8a. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson PALACE OF LIES Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $17.99 4, 7 ISBN: 978-1-4424-4281-8
Haddix continues the series that began with the alternate "Cinderella" Just Ella (1999) with a story about a different princess.Princess Desmia, raised as the true princess of Suala, now rules with 12 other princesses, each raised similarly and separately. When a fire destroys their palace, apparently killing most of the other princesses, Desmia finds herself in the clutches of the evil Madame Bisset. Escaping, she finds her true sister, Janelia, along with a troupe of ragged boys who look to Janelia as their Mam. Desmia decides she must somehow travel to neighboring Fridesia to find friends Ella and Jeb, so with Janelia and two boys, Herk and Tog, she sets out surreptitiously across an open landscape that terrifies the sheltered young woman. Desmia strives to conquer her fears and to quell the princess training that constantly tells her she's superior, gradually coming to see her new friends as equals. Finally arriving at the Fridesian palace, she meets the terminally handsome but reputedly stupid Prince Charming, whom she must convince of the truth of her tale. Haddix keeps the plot suspenseful even as she delves into Desmia's new insights, providing plenty of entertainment along with some advice for life. Readers who enjoyed the earlier books will find plenty to like here, as the book even adds a hint of romance for Desmia. A welcome return to the Just Ella universe. (Fantasy. 12-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: PALACE OF LIES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2015. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A399321920/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=260daa20. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Palace of Lies: The Palace Chronicles. Simon Pulse, 2015. 368p. $17.99. 978-1-4424-4281-8.
Raised in the palace of Suala to believe she is the true princess, Desmia is still adjusting to having twelve sisters who were each also raised to believe they are the true princess. Because they were all raised in secret, however, they do not have Desmia's experience with court intrigue, treachery, and manipulation, and before she can coach them in navigating her world, a shocking fire destroys the palace and possibly everyone Desmia has grown to care about.
The third of Haddix's The Palace Chronicles is burdened with a weak plot and the frequently whiny narrative voice of Desmia, a difficult heroine to root for. Her repeated ruminations about how untrustworthy everyone may be and her treatment of the new family she discovers after she has been kidnapped make her seem selfish and paranoid, even when the reader takes into account her years of being sheltered and manipulated by the palace advisors. An injury that requires her to be carried for most of her rescue mission and a full-fledged panic attack once she is out under open skies could have made her seem more sympathetic but instead do the opposite. When Desmia and her entourage finally arrive at the neighboring kingdom, the plot against them is unraveled so quickly and so neatly it seems like an afterthought. Fans of the series may be interested in continuing the saga, but they will find little of the charm of the previous two books.--Vikki Terrile.
Terrile, Vikki
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
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Terrile, Vikki. "Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Palace of Lies: The Palace Chronicles." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 38, no. 1, Apr. 2015, p. 79. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A409832387/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7261a94c. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Ellie interviewed Margaret when she spoke at the local library--here they are together at right!
Ellie: What is your favorite part of being an author'
It depends on the day. Sometimes my favorite thing about being an author is doing interviews like this where I get to meet interesting kids and librarians and travel all over. Sometimes my favorite part is that I get to just make stuff up and keep playing make-believe even though I'm a grownup and most people don't get paid to just make stuff up. Sometimes my favorite part is playing around with words because words are very powerful and a lot of fun to play with. And sometimes my favorite part is just that I get to be my own boss.
Who is your favorite female character and why?
My first favorite character is Jessie from Running Out of Time because she is very much a "I may fail, but I'm going to do my best!" girl. I felt like she was helping me through the book, since it was my first book and I didn't know what I was doing. My second favorite would be Jen in Among the Hidden because she is also very strong and determined. My third favorite would probably be Katherine in The Missing series. When I started writing that series, I thought she was going to be an annoying kid sister, but then she seemed to elbow her way in and say, "Now, wait a minute. My brother and his friends need my help."
What was your favorite book when you were a girl?
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
I had a lot of books I really loved. One of my favorites was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I read a lot of old books that had belonged to my mother and grandmother, such as Little Women and Anne of Green Gables and The Little Princess.
What do you do if you get writer's block?
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The first time I try is to make myself keep writing, and even if I think what I'm writing is really bad, I tell myself to "just keep going. You can always go back and revise it." And that's the really good thing about writing. Even if what you've written is really bad, you can fix it before anybody else has to see it. If that doesn't work, I'll get some exercise, which helps my brain work a bit better; or I'll do something really boring, which helps me figure out what to do.
Do you think being a woman changes how you write and the subjects you write about?
I think it does. I like to write about strong girls who take their fate into their own hands and try to help other people.
Have any women in your life inspired characters in your books?
Yes, broadly speaking--I kind of steal characteristics from real people I know and mix and match and put them together. I was thinking about one of my aunts as I was writing one of the main characters in Uprising. She's someone who is very determined who'll fix something if she thinks it's wrong.
Advice for girls aspiring to be authors?
Read a lot, start writing now, experiment with different types of writing, such as making up stories, writing poetry, playing around with words, and keeping a journal. Also, pay attention to things around you and think a lot.
Quick Picks!
We d love to see your book reviews! Send yours at NewMoon.com/for-girls. Online members can gab about books and recommend them anytime. Here's a recent review by Natasha, 11, California.
The Hero's Guide books, by Christopher Healey (Storming the Castle, Saving Your Kingdom, Being an Outlaw), are so funny. And some parts relate to real life problems, such as friendship and sexism. My favorite character screams at her friend, "You just can't handle a woman who can take care of herself." Another amazing character, Lila, is about our age and the best thing ever. I recommend these books to anyone!
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 New Moon Girl Media
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"Living the writer life." New Moon Girls, vol. 22, no. 5, May-June 2015, p. 29. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A412409939/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8a32ccbb. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson REDEEMED Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 8 ISBN: 978-1-4424-9756-6
Instead of the past, the eighth and final installment of the Missing series takes the Skidmore kids into the far distant future, where they will try to repair time and save the world. In this installment, readers see the action through the eyes of a new character: Jordan, Jonah's twin brother, who was rescued from 1932 earlier. The two twins don't know each other, having grown up in different times, and each resents the other. Jordan, especially, can't understand that Jonah and Katherine, with their experience in time travel, ought to be calling the shots as the trio advances into the future, and he often disrupts Jonah's well-laid plans. Complicating things further is the fact that their parents have been "un-aged" into 13-year-olds--the same age as Jonah and Jordan--although they retain their adult memories and still act like parents. Jordan also finds himself trapped with the notorious Second, the genius nemesis who has nearly wrecked all of time--and now it's up to him to save all of time. Haddix keeps events complicated, even resorting to Venn diagrams to explain things at one point early in the story. It all appears to come together nicely at the end, with loose ends tied up and everything explained, but the journey to that satisfying resolution will keep young readers working to figure it all out. A satisfying end to a long-running series. (Science fiction. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: REDEEMED." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2015. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A419698431/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5edb6e02. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
ADDIX, Margaret Peterson. Under Their Skin. 320p. S. & S. Jan. 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781481417587. LC 2014036962.
Gr 4-7--Twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn question their mom's claim that their lives won't change much after she remarries. How can that be when they'll be moving to a new house and they'll have two stepsiblings who will live in the house but whom their mom claims the twins will never have to meet? At first, Nick and Eryn have natural curiosity regarding their stepsiblings, Ava and Jackson, but before long their speculations turn into an all-out quest for answers. Something doesn't quite add up, and the twins conjecture there may be a more sinister explanation for secrecy. What Nick and Eryn uncover is so far out of the realm of their imagination, they cannot fathom their discovery. Ava and Jackson appear to be robots, and if that isn't puzzling enough, it appears their mom and possibly much of the human race may be as well. The siblings make it their mission to uncover the truth, and along the way, they realize they all may be in mortal danger. In true Haddix fashion, the story ends with a cliffhanger that will leave readers clamoring to find out what happens next in the series. VERDICT Haddix offers a gripping blend of science fiction, suspense, and mystery, taking middle graders and teens on a fast-paced ride that will interest even the most reluctant reader.--Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA
Shaw, Michele
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Shaw, Michele. "Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Under Their Skin." School Library Journal, vol. 61, no. 11, Nov. 2015, pp. 95+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A433878060/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8b6eaa6a. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Under Their Skin.
By Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Jan. 2016. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (9781481417587). Gr. 4-7.
Twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn aren't terribly surprised when their mother informs them she is getting remarried; she and Michael have been dating for several years. Moving to a new house won't be so bad, since they will go to the same school, and they will still alternate weeks at their father's house like always. But when she tells them that to ease the transition they won't be I meeting their new stepsiblings, Ava and Jackson, Nick and Eryn's curiosity is piqued, and they can't stop devising plans to get in touch with the new kids. When they finally figure out where Ava and Jackson live, they see something that shocks them to their core. The book's underlying secret is well thought-out, supplying explanations while still building tension. The major question readers will want answered is the one Nick and Eryn want answered, too, and when it's revealed at the end of this first of a two-book series, it raises the already high tension level through the roof. Haddix, author of the Missing series, does a particularly fine job of catching the nuances of both kids and the adults, each with their own agendas. A crisp, intriguing, and thought-provoking tale that hits the bull's-eye for its middle-grade audience.--Ilene Cooper
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association
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Cooper, Ilene. "Under Their Skin." Booklist, vol. 112, no. 7, 1 Dec. 2015, p. 64. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A437058985/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9c11f2a7. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Under Their Skin. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016. 3iip. $16.99. ISBN: 9781481417587. Grades 4-7. Ever since twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn could remember, their parents had been divorced. Friendly, both involved in the twins' lives, they traded them back and forth once a week - until Mom announced she and her boyfriend of two years, Michael, were getting married. As if that wasn't enough, they were buying a new house, too, so no one had to live in a house peopled with the memories of another family life.
The really shocking fact, though, was Michael had two kids, also twelve, that he had never mentioned before and that Nick and Eryn were not going to be allowed to meet. Ever. Apparently, something about the twins meeting Michael's kids scared the adults. Something was wrong here, and the twins were determined to discover what the secret was. How bad could it be? Imagine their shock to discover the secret affected the entire human race....
Sepahban, Lois. Paper Wishes. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016. i8ip. $16.99. ISBN: 9780374302160. Grades 3-7. Ten-year-old Manami has lived on Bainbridge Island in Washington her whole life, until the 1942 bombing of Pearl Harbor turns everything upside-down. Fearing spies among the Japanese-Americans living near the US coast, the government forces families to move to inland prison camps. It's bad enough to have to move from the Washington coast to the California desert, but Manami has to leave Yujiin, the family dog, behind.
Devastated by all her losses (Yujiin, her school and friends, her older siblings who are still in college) and sick of the terrible living conditions, Manami stops talking. Drawing picture after picture of Yujiin, she throws them over the barbed wire fence every day, hoping they will bring him back. But he doesn't come, and conditions at the internment camp worsen. Will their family--their life - ever be whole again? Includes an author note and a list of resources for more information.
Smith, Dan. My Friend the Enemy. Chicken House, 2014. 279P. $17.99.ISBN:9780545665421. Grades 4-7. The war in 1941 in Europe seems far away from the English village twelve-year-old Peter and his new friend (a tough-as-nails girl named Kim) live in, despite the bombing runs that often dump bombs on the countryside. Then, one day they see a German plane come down in flames nearby, and they decide to sneak out at night to scavenge for souvenirs. What they find is even more exciting: a German airman who parachuted out of the plane and is injured.
Should they turn him in to the village adults (many of whom want his blood), or should they hide him and help him recover? It's what they both hope German villagers would do if Kim's brother or Peter's dad were injured and alone in a German village. But how much trouble will they be in - will the airman be in - if they're caught? Includes brief war timeline in front.
Spradlin, Michael P. The Enemy Above: A Novel of World War II. Scholastic Press, 2016. 240P. $16.99. ISBN: 978054585782-6. Grades 4-7. Twelve-year-old Anton and his Jewish family and neighbors, fearing the coming Gestapo, hide in a local cave, where the absence of water means dangerous night runs to obtain it and the threat of possible discovery and capture. When a vicious Nazi major bent on advancement spots the water bearers, he and his soldiers follow them back to the hiding place and capture Anton's elderly grandmother and a neighbor woman and child.
Anton, sent into hiding just in time, watches in horror as they shoot the neighbors and threaten his grandmother. His mother is dead, his father and brothers are involved in the war (and maybe also dead), and Bubbe [Yiddish for "grandmother"] is all the family he has left. He can't let them take her! But what can he do armed only with daring, courage, a can of rusty nails and a fistful of rocks? You'd be surprised....
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
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Winslow, Betty. "War stories." Teacher Librarian, vol. 43, no. 5, June 2016, p. 30. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A457693543/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=923e2aa4. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Children of Exile
Margaret Peterson Haddix. Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4424-5003-5
In this trilogy opener, Rosi and her younger brother, Bobo, are two of many children raised by Fred-mamas and Fred-daddies in Fredtown, a place of equality and harmony. After an agreement is struck, the children are forced to return home to their actual parents. At 12, Rosi is one of the oldest children, charged with protecting the others, including her estranged friend Edwy, who believes the Freds are just as fake as the Enforcers who take them away. When the children reach their real home, Rosi finds life unbearable under cruel parents and extreme poverty, despite the help of a missionary. When Edwy and Rosi work together to determine what happened to the charred buildings and maimed citizens of their new town, they discover severe inequality and a bias against their bright green eyes. Much as in Under Their Skin (2015), Haddix seems to be telling one story before pivoting sharply amid major revelations that shake up everything Rosi knows. Though the messaging isn't subtle, Haddix gives readers lots to mull over regarding conflict, justice, and prejudice. Ages 10-up. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
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"Children of Exile." Publishers Weekly, vol. 263, no. 28, 11 July 2016, p. 68. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A458915412/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6025168e. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Children of Exile, Book 1. Simon & Schuster, 2016. 304p. $17.99. 978-1-4424-5003-5.
Twelve-year-old Rosi has spent her entire life away from her real parents. She, her brother, and the other children from her hometown were brought to Fredtown--a utopian community ruled by equality and harmony--as infants, to be kept safe and sheltered from violence. When the Fred-parents abruptly inform the children they will be returning home to their biological parents, the children are forced onto an airplane heading to a foreign place and to strangers. The children's real home is the antithesis of their clean, warm Fredtown. Rosi finds her new life unbearable, but she and Edwy, a peer of same age, work together to uncover the mysteries of their hometown and their parents. After a series of shocking revelations, Rosi begins to question everything that she has known.
Children of Exile is a fast-paced, science fiction series opener that seamlessly blends dystopian elements with mystery and suspense. Young readers will immediately identify with Rosi's frustration with being on the cusp of childhood innocence and not quite a teen. While she is naive about the environment that now surrounds her, her quiet strength and nurturing skills allow her to be a role model to the younger children. There are many thought-provoking themes sprinkled throughout the book (prejudice, adoption) without being heavy handed. Haddix brilliantly sets up her new series with fast-paced action, plot twists, and effective chapter endings that will keep readers glued to the page. The book does not end with a cliff-hanger, although readers will be desperately seeking answers and wanting to continue Rosi's perilous journey. --Rummanah Aasi.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
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Aasi, Rummanah. "Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Children of Exile, Book 1." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 39, no. 5, Dec. 2016, pp. 72+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A474767986/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b7b6da70. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson IN OVER THEIR HEADS Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $16.99 4, 11 ISBN: 978-1-4814-1761-7
Far in the future, a family of robots and humans tries to survive in this sequel to Under Their Skin (2016).Centuries ago the human race was wiped out by killer robots. Nick and Eryn, white, human twins who have been raised by robot parents from frozen embryos, are part of the new generation intended to replace robots and re-establish the human race. But Ava and Jackson are robot children (who present white), illegal now that human children have returned. The four are bound together by complicated pairings and repairings among their parents. They have all taken refuge in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, where they meet Lida Mae, who claims to be descended from a Pilgrim and a Shawnee chief and to live in isolation there with her family. Lida Mae says she wants to help. When Jackson and his father need to go to town for spare parts, he gives himself superpowers so that he can escape the police. Those powers will come in handy when the group encounters something in the cave that they did not expect and learn that Lida Mae is not what she claims to be. Haddix delivers her beleaguered-family-against-the-world plot (familiar from other series) in multiple perspectives, alternating the third-person narration among the four principals. Lida Mae's Kentucky holler-style vocabulary veers toward the extreme ("you'uns" crops up), but she does add some local color and style. Patented Haddix adventure. (Science fiction. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: IN OVER THEIR HEADS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A480921792/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c48de529. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
In Over Their Heads.
By Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Apr. 2017. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (9781481417617). Gr. 4-7.
In Under Their Skin (2015), twins Nick and Eryn learned a shocking secret about the nature of their soon-to-be stepsiblings: they're robots. Now they, Ava and Jackson, and both sets of parents are on the run, out in the woods, trying to conceal the fact that almost everyone in the world over the age of 12 is a robot. At the worst possible moment, they run into an odd child, Lida Mae, whose family has been existing out of the loop for decades. Is she human or robot? Whose side is she on? Those are just two of the many questions that come at the kids like snow in a blizzard. In fact, they do find themselves in a blizzard--and that's the least of their problems. As in the previous book, there are cliff-hangers in every chapter, and the tension builds to a fever-pitch conclusion. Indeed, so much comes at the reader, it is sometimes hard to keep the story straight, but there's no stopping until the heart-pounding conclusion.--Ilene Cooper
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An author tour ought to help keep Haddix's considerable fan base on the hook for this series.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
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Cooper, Ilene. "In Over Their Heads." Booklist, vol. 113, no. 15, 1 Apr. 2017, pp. 76+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491488007/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=66294654. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Children of Refuge. By Margaret Peterson Haddix. Sept. 2017. 272p. Simon & Schuster, $ 17.99 (9781442450066). Gr. 4-8.
Fans of Children of Exile (2016) won't be disappointed in this sequel: it's just as thoughtful, swift-paced, and cleverly plotted. Haddix further develops characters by changing the narrator to outspoken Edwy, a contrary rascal who has always teased Rosi for her prim and proper ways. The end of the first title had Rosi and two younger children trying to escape from a violent outbreak in Cursed Town; here we begin with Edwy being smuggled into Refuge City, where he lives with an older brother and sister he didn't know existed. The plot twists are multiple, exciting, and completely logical, and seeing Rosi through Edwy's eyes brings to light additional facets. Edwy finds he's constantly worried about and desperately missing Rosi, so he uses his often negative character traits (lying, stubbornness, aggression) to find and win allies that will help him save Rosi and the children. An excellent dystopian adventure for tweens that avoids graphic violence while bringing up issues of social justice and prejudice. The cliff-hanger ending guarantees another title in the series. --Debbie Carton
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An author tour should help keep Haddix's latest series highly visible to its dedicated audience.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
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Carton, Debbie. "Children of Refuge." Booklist, vol. 113, no. 19-20, June 2017, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A498582851/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=960da0d3. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson CHILDREN OF REFUGE Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 12 ISBN: 978-1-4424-5006-6
Teen Edwy is sent away by his newly found birth parents and smuggled into a futuristic city. This sequel picks up where Children of Exile (2016) left off in the devastated city of Cursed Town, to which the children of bucolic Fredtown were returned. Now, however, the narrative jounces tautly along through the voice of rebellious Edwy instead of naive Rosi. Having been home for about 24 hours he's not thrilled to be manhandled away to live with siblings he didn't know existed in the thronged Refuge City. It takes Edwy some time to learn what Rosi did in the first book: that the Fred-parents are actually well-meaning aliens who took all the children of Earth away from the warring humans. The more Edwy understands about the deal brokered with the aliens, the more worried he becomes about Rosi back in Cursed Town. His sister, Kiandra, brilliant at hacking, shows Edwy footage of Rosi's beating
in the market and reports that she has escaped from jail. He becomes desperate to get to her before the aliens called Enforcers do. Racial lines are blurred in this future, though skin and eye color are oft mentioned, exploring both tribalism in its many forms and the no lesser crime of turning a blind eye. This is a topical thriller that brings heart and thought to the sci-fi genre. (Science fiction. 11-16)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: CHILDREN OF REFUGE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A495427659/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=739f796b. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
HADDIX, Margaret Peterson. The Summer of Broken Things. 400p. S. & S. Apr. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781481417648.
Gr 7 Up--Avery Armistead and Kayla Butts are an unlikely pair. Avery, a privileged snob, wishes only to spend the summer at soccer camp with her best friends. When her dad cooks up a scheme to bring her along on an extended business trip to Spain, Avery desperately pleads to stay home. Without the bonds made at soccer camp, how will she be in the "right" crowd when she starts school in September? When her dad explains further that they're bringing along Kayla, a family friend, Avery fights even harder. Despite her protestations, the trip moves forward and she grudgingly finds herself in Spain with Kayla, a girl who is definitely not from the "right" crowd. In Spain, they learn just how intricately their fates are intertwined and are forced to truly look at themselves for the first time. In the hands of a less seasoned author, this story (told in alternating chapters by Avery and Kayla), might have felt simultaneously unlikely and cliched. In Haddix's able hands, however, it proves a compelling coming-of-age novel. Readers will be drawn into both protagonist's lives, rooting for Avery to learn an ounce of empathy and for Kayla to gain confidence in the same measure. Both characters develop past their initial caricatures and when the drama and action pick up closer to the book's end, readers will find themselves quite satisfied. VERDICT A strong choice for most YA shelves.--Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, NJ
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Maza, Jill Heritage. "HADDIX, Margaret Peterson. The Summer of Broken Things." School Library Journal, vol. 64, no. 2, Feb. 2018, pp. 94+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A526734083/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f6d63249. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The Summer of Broken Things. Simon & Schuster, April 2018. 400p. $17.99. 978-1-4814-1764-8.
4Q * 4P * M * J * S
Sixteen-year-old Kayla Butts's life changes after her summer in Spain as a companion to fourteen-year-old Avery Amisted and her father. After a childhood friendship, Kaylas and Avery's lives went in different directions. Avery's privilege keeps her far from Kayla, who is not economically advantaged and whose father cannot speak or move after an injury confined him to a Veterans Administration facility. Midway through the novel, Avery discovers a secret: Kayla's mother served as the surrogate mother for Avery because Avery's mother could not have children.
Chapters alternate the first-person perspectives of Kayla and Avery. Initially the more prominent of Haddix's co-protagonists, Avery is a spoiled and selfish character who will irritate many readers, but Haddix realistically presents her growth. Avery ultimately moves from anger to appreciation at being born through a gestational carrier. Avery tells Kayla's mother, "Thank you for helping my parents the way you did. And me. I wouldn't be here without you." The novel weaves themes of social issues of surrogacy, divorce, economic class, disability, and health crises. Haddix effectively portrays Anglo-American teens who learn from traveling abroad. Kayla's experience in Spanish immersion leads her to the goal of becoming a translator for a nursing home. With a vivid sense of the Madrid setting, Haddix incorporates Spanish language usage and achieves verisimilitude through historical, geographic, and cultural details. Also commendable is the way Kayla's Christian faith comes through as part of her character. The Summer of Broken Things exemplifies the new social problem novel, nuanced and thematically complex in dealing with serious issues young adults face today.--Amy Cummins.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
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Cummins, Amy. "Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The Summer of Broken Things." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 40, no. 6, Feb. 2018, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A529357113/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b4baf790. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
The Children of Exile by Margaret Peterson Haddix; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: New York, 2015; $17.99
Have you ever had a hard decision deciding between two books to read? I started in the bookstore holding two precious books. My mother's eyes stared down at me expectantly, wanting me to just pick a book and leave. I looked this way and that and finally made the decision to pick the book, The Children of Exile. This book's back cover really intrigued me. After reading it, my mind was filled with questions: Why were the children sent to Fredtown? What type of people were in Fredtown? And just like that, I became absorbed in this book by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It is an amazing book about staying strong and standing up for your differences.
In this book, the protagonist is a twelve-year-old girl named Rosi. Ever since she was born, her brother Bobo and she had been sent off to a faraway place called Fredtown. In Fredtown, there were no arguments and everything was resolved by talking it through. One day Rosi, her little brother Bobo, and all the other children of Fredtown were told that they were going to be sent back to their original homes where they would meet their birth mothers and fathers. Rosi has to take care of all the children and fight for what is right. In this action-packed story, nothing is unthinkable.
One of the important themes in this book to me is to speak up and do what is right. When Rosi comes back to her real home, she realizes the ways are different. Many things require a fight when they could be resolved calmly. For example, having lost their children for six years, the real parents want them back very badly. As soon as the plane from Fredtown lands, the parents bang on plane doors and windows making a loud racket. Rosi and the other children become even more scared. Rosi had imagined a calm line of parents waiting peacefully and welcoming their children with kindness and love. She had not expected this.
My favorite part in this book is in the middle. This is when Rosi's real parents take Bobo and her to church. Then, when the preacher preaches, he talks about how their town had finally got all of its children back. He said that the Fred parents were evil and were thieves who stole their children. While saying this, Rosi was having a hard time keeping her mouth shut; she wanted to speak up and say how kind, loving, and caring the Fred parents were. Finally, when Rosi couldn't contain herself, she spoke up. All of the parents stared at her as if she was crazy, but she kept going. Rosi is a very brave girl and fought for what is right. I absolutely loved her character in the book.
I connected this to my piano class. In piano there is something called sight-reading. Sight-reading is when you are given a piece of music, and you have to play it without mistakes. When I tried to sight-read one of the pieces, it seemed really hard for me. One day I looked at the front cover of the sight-reading book and saw it said for level 7.I remembered I was testing for level 4, but never brought up the fact that the book was level 7. My piano teacher realized soon enough that the book wasn't the right level. Once I got the level 4 sight-reading book, it seemed much easier to me. After reading the book The Children of Exile, 1 think that if I had been brave and spoke up like Rosi, then the problem of my sight-reading book might have been resolved earlier.
I strongly recommend this book to science fiction lovers with a little bit of mystery mixed into it. This story is good for young adults. Both girls and boys will be cheering for Rosi along the way as she finds her freedom. I cannot imagine this story being written any better. Once you pick up the book The Children of Exile you will not be able to put it down so BEWARE!
Reviewed by
Alexandra Reynaud, 13
Portland, OR
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Children's Art Foundation
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Reynaud, Alexandra. "The Children of Exile." Stone Soup, vol. 46, no. 2, Feb. 2018, pp. 22+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A547622001/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b8af873b. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Children of Jubilee
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 4th floor, New York, NY 10020
www.simonandschuster.com/kids
9781442450097, $17.99, HC, 320pp, www.amazon.com
Since the Enforcers raided Refuge City, Rosi, Edwy, and the others are captured and forced to work as slave labor on an alien planet, digging up strange pearls. Weak and hungry, none of them are certain they will make it out of this alive. But Edwy's tech-savvy sister, Kiandra, has always been the one with all the answers, and so they turn to her. But Kiandra realizes that she can't find her way out of this one on her own, and they all might need to rely on young Cana and her alien friend if they are going to survive. An impressively original, deftly crafted, intensely entertaining, and thoroughly engaging read from beginning to end, "Children of Jubilee" by Margaret Peterson Haddix is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to school and community library YA Fiction collections for science fiction fans ages 10 to 18. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Children of Jubilee" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99).
Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Midwest Book Review
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"Children of Jubilee." Children's Bookwatch, Feb. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A578047785/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=00ba393c. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
* The Strangers: Greystone Secrets #1
Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-283837-7
In Ohio, the Greystone kids--responsible Chess, math-savvy Emma, and excitable Finn--have established a pleasant life with their mother years after their father's death. Until, that is, the day they find their mother weeping and wan over a news story about three kidnapped Arizona children--children who have not only the same birth dates and unusual names as the siblings but also a mother who looks uncannily similar to their own. After their mom disappears on a "work trip" the very next day, the Greystones receive a cryptic farewell and a coded letter that makes them wonder if they're connected to the kidnapped children. It's up to all three to crack the code and search out answers using nothing but who they are and what they already know. In a satisfying third-person narrative that alternates between the children's experiences, Haddix (the Children of Exile series) portrays the complex anxieties and internal lives of close, eating family members grappling with a single set of extraordinary circumstances--separately and together. A secret-stacked, thrilling series opener about perception, personal memories, and the idiosyncrasies that form individual identities. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
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"The Strangers: Greystone Secrets #1." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 5, 4 Feb. 2019, p. 182. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A575752792/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=41edb92c. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson GREYSTONE SECRETS Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's Fiction) $17.99 4, 2 ISBN: 978-0-06-283837-7
When their mom goes missing, three siblings chase her to a parallel world to reunite their family in this first of a new series by Haddix (Children of Jubilee, 2018, etc.).
Sixth-grader Chess Greystone and his younger siblings, Emma and Finn, discover their widowed mom in shock when they arrive home from school one day. A startling news broadcast has reported the kidnapping of three children who, against all odds, share their exact same first names, middle names, and birthdays. If that weren't unsettling enough, the next day their mom insists she must leave on a sudden business trip. The Greystone siblings realize something is horribly wrong when they find their mom's phone and laptops left behind at their house. With the help of new friend Natalie Mayhew, in whose mother's care they find themselves, they follow a trail of clues and secret codes to an alternate world that connects their mom's sudden disappearance to their missing doppelgangers. Maintaining suspense from the beginning to the cliffhanger ending, Haddix builds momentum with short chapters that shift among the three third-person perspectives of the Greystone children. Along with an exciting science-fiction mystery, the story touches on real-world topics such as divorce, grief, abusive relationships, government corruption, and transitioning from elementary to middle school. Apart from background characters, the cast is predominantly white, with the possible exception of Natalie, whose mother is cued Latinx.
A high-stakes adventure full of teamwork with a multifaceted mystery and complex themes. (Science fiction. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: GREYSTONE SECRETS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A573768617/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7ae6a43d. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson REMARKABLES Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 24 ISBN: 978-0-06-283846-9
Eleven-year-old Marin discovers her "new" neighbors are from 20 years ago.
Light science fiction and plenty of mystery abound when her mother's job takes Marin and her family from Illinois to small-town Pennsylvania. The preteen worries about losing old friends and making new ones, but not for predictable reasons. An unexpected opportunity allows Marin--and readers--to learn how fear, bullying, and secrets poisoned her former friendships. The second and larger mystery, which also drives the plot, occurs when Marin, scouting out her new neighborhood, notices several teenagers appear and suddenly vanish. Charley, who's lived next door with his grandmother since his parents' substance use made it hard to care for him and his brothers, has seen them, too. Dubbing these mysteriously vanishing teens the Remarkables, Charley believes that they are time travelers from the past and include his father and the girlfriend his father may have accidentally killed. In this tightly woven, stand-alone story, Marin and Charley set out to identify the Remarkables, stop the accident that claimed one of them, and hopefully keep Charley's father from succumbing to addiction. In the process, the author seamlessly combines elements of both mysteries while also raising ethical dilemmas about changing the past. Most characters, including Marin and Charley, are default white, but some of the Remarkables are kids of color.
Blending issues that matter to young adolescents with intrigue and a surprise ending, Haddix proves why she's a master of middle-grade fiction. (Suspense. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: REMARKABLES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587054394/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=99114bee. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Remarkables
Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06283846-9
Marin, 11, is looking forward to a fresh start when she moves from Ohio to Pennsylvania with her parents and infant brother--and away from the friends with whom she's abruptly fallen out. While exploring the woods behind the family's new home, she becomes entranced by a group of nine teenagers in a nearby yard who seem to vanish as she watches. Marin doesn't know what to think until she meets Charley, a neighbor being raised by his grandmother. Charley can also see the enigmatic group, which he calls "the Remarkables," and theorizes that they are figments of the past from 20 years ago, just before the occurrence of a tragedy with personal ramifications for Charley's family. As the mystery of the Remarkables deepens, Marin and Charley learn about the detrimental and far-reaching consequences of guilt and, slowly, with pain and joy, find a way to move forward. As ever, Haddix plots her satisfying mystery with careful touch points and reveals. But it is her smart exploration of the past's legacy and sensitively painted family dynamics--from Marin's exhausted but joyful parents to Charley's difficult family story--that makes this story remarkable. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams. Adams Literary. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
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"Remarkables." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 29, 22 July 2019, p. 203. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A595252273/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1633b96c. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
The Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1)
Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-283837-7
In Ohio, the Greystone kids--responsible Chess, math-savvy Emma, and excitable Finn--have established a pleasant life with their mother years after their father's death. Until, that is, the day they find their mother weeping and wan over a news story about three kidnapped Arizona children--children who have not only the same birth dates and unusual names as the siblings but also a mother who looks uncannily similar to their own. After their mom disappears on a "work trip" the very next day, the Greystones receive a cryptic farewell and a coded letter that makes them wonder if they're connected to the kidnapped children. It's up to all three to crack the code and search out answers using nothing but who they are and what they already know. In a satisfying third-person narrative that alternates between the children's experiences, Haddix (the Children of Exile series) portrays the complex anxieties and internal lives of close, caring family members grappling with a single set of extraordinary circumstances--separately and together. A secret-stacked, thrilling series opener about perception, personal memories, and the idiosyncrasies that form individual identities. Ages 8-12.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"The Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 48, 27 Nov. 2019, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A607823330/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8e9dedaa. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
The Deceivers. By Margaret Peterson Haddix. Illus. by Anne Lambelet. Apr. 2020.448p, HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, $17.99 (9780062838407). Gr. 5-8.
It's time to dust off your memory of Greystone Secrets: The Strangers (2019) because this sequel picks up right where it left off. Though Haddix peppers in enough reminders to jog most readers' memories, those new to the series should definitely start at the beginning. The three Greystone siblings (Chess, Emma, and Finn) and their friend Natalie are desperately trying to crack the code that will help them save their mothers from the hostile parallel world where they are imprisoned. A breakthrough lands the kids in "Other-Natalie's" house--the parallel world mirrors much of the protagonists' world, including the people living in it--on the eve of a large political soiree, leaving them little time to stage a rescue and figure out whom in this world they can trust. Readers will have a ball scurrying through the secret passageways as the tense caper unfolds, but Haddix also gives plenty of page time to the kids' inner musings. Thus readers are ensured a rich mystery-adventure that will activate their brains and sense of empathy. --Julia Smith
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
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Smith, Julia. "The Deceivers." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2020, p. 91. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613203074/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=88bc0ba2. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson THE DECEIVERS Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's Fiction) $17.99 4, 7 ISBN: 978-0-06-283840-7
Four kids rush to rescue their families from the clutches of a tyrannical government in an alternate dimension.
In series opener The Strangers (2019), siblings Finn, Emma, and Chess escaped the parallel world into which their mother disappeared, but they still failed to reunite their family. During their desperate flight from danger, the Greystone siblings' friend Natalie Mayhew lost her mother there, too. Their only path between worlds, a lever stuck to the wall of the Greystones' basement, broke. Now all four kids must work together to reopen the tunnel to a dangerous dystopia and decipher the secret code that Kate Greystone left for her children to solve. This sequel never slows in pace, thrusting the characters into new, treacherous mysteries. In this sequel, Haddix explores themes of honesty and love as the children compare their experiences to those in the alternate universe. Natalie struggles with her relationship with her parents, who are divorced in one world and married in the other. The third-person perspective shifts chapter by chapter among the characters; the Greystone kids present white, and Natalie is biracial, with a Mexican mom and white dad. At times, the setting is logistically disorienting, such as the maze of secret passages and the multilevel glass-roofed event space somehow hidden behind a curtain in the basement of Natalie's house in the alternate world.
A perilous, high-action plot--with a cliffhanger. (Science fiction. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: THE DECEIVERS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613750743/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d1d1dce4. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson THE SCHOOL FOR WHATNOTS Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $17.99 3, 1 ISBN: 978-0-06-283849-0
Two 11-year-old children fight to preserve their friendship against the wishes of an unethical company.
Maximilian J. Sterling was born into wealth with billionaire parents who wanted to protect him from greedy people and show him he had value outside of his riches. Josie experienced loss the moment she entered the world: Her mother died in childbirth, leaving her to be raised in poverty by her grieving father, whose only wish is that she have more opportunities than he did. Each parent makes a deal with a petite woman dressed all in black from the Whatnot Corporation--the company responsible for creating well-behaved android children that allow rich kids to thrive in controlled environments. Max attends a school where he is surrounded by whatnots--and Josie, who is pretending to be a whatnot so that she may receive a better education than her father could afford. Life goes according to plan until Josie and Max find out the truth behind the Whatnot Corporation, leading them to unravel a mystery that has them confronting the true meaning of friendship and reconciling the inequalities the company has prospered from and contributed to. The omniscient narrator and strong pacing will keep readers engaged and racing to the end. Meanwhile, the well-rounded characters will elicit empathy and inspire discussion of systemic socio-economic inequalities. Max and Josie are White; there is some racial diversity among side characters.
An intriguing novel that highlights social class disparities and the importance of friendship. (Mystery. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: THE SCHOOL FOR WHATNOTS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A688199649/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1843a14b. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
The School for Whatnots
Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-283849-0
Born into different circumstances on the same night, two middle schoolers encounter their respective upbringings' mysteries in Haddix's (the Greystone Secrets series) class-conscious thriller. Though Maximilian J. Sterling's billionaire parents celebrate his birth with a lavish fireworks display, they soon fear that Max "will never know the difference between the beauty of his own soul and the appeal of all his money," and determine to raise him alongside androids proviced by the Whatnot Corporation. After Josie's mother dies at an overwhelmed charity hospital just after childbirth, meanwhile, the girl's bereft father takes a deal offered by a veiled woman: in exchange for greater educational opportunities than he can afford, Josie will live alone at a whatnot school, "pretending to be a robot pretending to be a child." Eleven years later, having been fast friends with Max since kindergarten, Josie makes a comment about "whatnot rules" and leaves a handwritten note for Max: "No matter what anyone tells you, I'm real." Though the book's look at structural socioeconomic privilege largely skips over considerations of intersectional bias, and frequent narrative asides interrupt the action's flow, strong interpersonal relationships and twisty plotting will draw readers into this quick-moving buddy novel that focuses on connection and generations' opportunities to unlearn their programming. The protagonists read as white; secondary cast members read as Black. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Mar.)
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"The School for Whatnots." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 5, 31 Jan. 2022, p. 79. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A693466586/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=49d1a69b. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
The School for Whatnots. By Margaret Peterson Haddix. 2022. 304p. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, $17.99 (9780062838490). Gr. 4-7.
Max and Josie are best friends from vastly different worlds. Max, born to billionaires, obliviously attends an exclusive school with a fleet of students known as Whatnots, modern androids capable of flawless human imitation, thus sparing him from interacting with cruel or greedy children interested only in his wealth. Josie is secretly the only other human child in Max's class, allowed to attend the superior school with the promise of an excellent education if she can keep up the robotic ruse. Max is devastated when Josie seemingly disappears after fifth grade, but she leaves behind a perplexing note: "No matter what anyone tells you, I'm real." A bewildered Max sets out to uncover the truth and find his way back to his best friend, but the stakes are higher than he could possibly imagine. The incredibly intriguing premise is happily matched by compelling text, treating readers to some truly terrific twists and a touch of fairy tale. Fast-paced chapters are punctuated by humorous "narrator's asides," though it quickly becomes clear that the narrator isn't quite as omniscient as it originally appears. This engaging introduction to socioeconomic disparity in education, health care, and transportation delves even deeper into the complexity of friendship and the impossibility of perfection. A thought-provoking and thrilling exploration of what it means to be human.--Emily Graham
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Graham, Emily. "The School for Whatnots." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2022, p. 56. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A702054519/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3e5ed172. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson THE SECRET LETTERS Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $17.99 9, 20 ISBN: 978-0-06-283852-0
In the small town of Groveview, Ohio, two 12-year-olds solve a mystery.
Colin's and Nevaeh's families approach the business of material possessions from opposite directions: Colin's single mom, who's so minimalist his friends think the family is poor, runs Possession Curation, a company dedicated to helping people declutter their lives. Nevaeh comes from a large, loving family; her father, the self-proclaimed Junk King, never met scrap he wouldn't keep until he could sell it. One day, Colin finds a box of letters dated 1973-77 and written by someone named Toby to a certain Rosemary hidden in his mother's client's attic. In the first letter in the shoebox, Toby pleads with Rosemary not to hate him. Meanwhile, Nevaeh helps her dad open a long-locked self-storage unit and finds it empty when it should have been full of antiques. Gradually, in third-person narratives that alternate between the two White tweens, Colin and Nevaeh meet, become friends, realize that their families share a history, and solve the entwining mystery of their finds. Haddix writes with her usual smooth skill in this series opener, weaving in an interesting theme about possessions and what they mean to different people. Nevaeh longs for Colin's clean home, while Colin finds persistent beauty in the things his mother discards. Though the mystery they solve relies heavily on coincidence, it's credible, as are all of Colin's and Nevaeh's actions. The characters are real and inviting, and the emotions ring true.
Fast-paced and enjoyable. (author's note) (Mystery. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: THE SECRET LETTERS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A709933179/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=34cb4d33. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
* HADDIX, Margaret Peterson. The Secret Letters. 368p. (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: Bk. 1). HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. Sept. 2022. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780062838520.
Gr 4-6-Two sets of friends, separated by 50 years, are the heart of an engrossing historical fiction and mystery tale. In modern-day Groveview, OH, Colin and Neveah discover shoe boxes of letters written by Toby and Rosemary who lived there in the 1970s. The letters reveal details of Toby and Rosemary's close friendship which came to a dramatic and mysterious end. Intrigued, Colin and Neveah begin a search for clues to find out what happened to the old friends--and possibly reunite them. Their search uncovers long-buried family secrets and the surprising ways people's lives are connected. Readers will be invested in Colin and Neveah's burgeoning friendship as they grow to understand and support each other despite a big obstacle: their parents operate rival junk-removal businesses in the same town. Even worse, Neveah's dad suspects Colin's mom in the puzzling disappearance of valuable antiques he had hoped to sell. The solution to that second mystery seamlessly integrates the history of the modern women's rights movement into the character-driven narrative. It also brings the novel to a satisfying end and sets up Colin and Neveah's future as detectives. Master storyteller Haddix is in top form, weaving a complex tapestry of different genres, time lines, and generations of characters in a can't-put-it-down novel. VERDICT A winning start to a new series and a first purchase for all middle grade collections. --Marybeth Kozikowski
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Kozikowski, Marybeth. "HADDIX, Margaret Peterson. The Secret Letters." School Library Journal, vol. 68, no. 7, July 2022, pp. 57+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A708597789/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3ac3ee72. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson FALLING OUT OF TIME Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $18.99 5, 30 ISBN: 9780063251618
The daughter of a character from Running Out of Time (1995) discovers that she's a victim in a similar swindle.
Setting her sequel a generation later but returning to the same family, villain, and even Midwestern locale, Haddix sends 12-year-old Zola Keyser--who thinks she's living with her mother, Hannah, in a utopian 2193 in which all social and environmental problems have been solved and a benign AI named Sirilexagoogle answers every need and question--on a shocking journey of discovery. She gets a handwritten (!) note on actual paper (!) pleading for help. As it turns out, Zola is not only wrong about the date by 170 years, but learns that she's an involuntary tester of experimental technology whose every (public) moment is being watched by crowds of invisible spectators. Worse yet, the Futureville attraction in which she lives is being kept up by the trapped, half-starved residents of a counterpart settlement, a nightmarish place supposedly devastated by unchecked war and climate change. Haddix's premise and plotline are strong on raw appeal, so fans of the original story who are primed to cheer for Zola will be more pleased than those dissatisfied by the author's hand-wavy approach to plausibility or fussy details. The main cast reads White; names and physical descriptions cue some diversity in the supporting cast.
Entertaining fan service, mostly--with a lightly tweaked premise, cast, and course. (Fiction. 9-13)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: FALLING OUT OF TIME." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A743460736/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b7e52f7b. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-283852-0
Two white 12-year-olds from rival small-town Ohio junk-removal families bond over a historical mystery in this accomplished series starter by Haddix (The School for Whatnots). Though introverted Colin Creedmont privately finds beauty in castoff objects, he dreads spending the summer helping his single mom, owner of Marie Kondo-esque business Possession Curation, clean out houses. Meanwhile, self-possessed Nevaeh Greevey, youngest child of the competing Junk King, longs for pristine possessions, and is similarly unexcited to join the family business. Colin's attic discovery of a shoe-box full of letters written in the 1970s leads him to Nevaeh, and the duo bond while searching for the corresponding letters. Reading the missives offers the pair a tantalizing glimpse at a previous era, and as Colin and Nevaeh eagerly research period references such as the Equal Rights Amendment and Happy Days, they resolve to track down the letters' authors, while Nevaeh surreptitiously puzzles through a crime that could implicate Colin's mother. Brief third-person chapters alternate between the duo's experiences, building momentum through a gently feminist undercurrent while conferring character depth via the tweens' affection for the letter writers and their own opposing views on objects from the past. An author's note further contextualizes the 1970s details discussed. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Sept.)
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"The Secret Letters (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 33, 8 Aug. 2022, p. 63. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A715674341/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3f501e32. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson THE GHOSTLY PHOTOS Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $19.99 9, 12 ISBN: 9780063089815
Old photos of a boy in a coffin lead two young Ohio gumshoes into a web of secrets.
A mystery involving a possibly haunted funeral home owned by a newly arrived family puts the nerves as well as the investigative skills of outgoing Nevaeh Greevey and shy, cerebral Colin Creedmont to the test in this sequel to The Secret Letters (2022). Not only does a complex tale dating back decades ultimately come to light in long-hidden letters, news stories, pictures, and keepsakes, but the plot features spooky rummaging through the funeral home's cluttered attic and a graveyard visit. There's also a familial connection, as the parents of both amateur sleuths run house-clearing operations--formerly as rivals with very different ideas of what constitutes "junk" and now in a contentious partnership. But since Haddix focuses largely on her protagonists' thoughts, reactions, and attitudes in shaping the narrative, her tale has a distinctly introspective turn--particularly after Colin learns something about the father he's never met. Readers seeking a meaty mystery solved by clues and deduction will find one, but it sometimes takes second fiddle to developments within and between members of a mostly white cast. The blended family that moves into the funeral home is implied to be multiracial. One elderly source of information exhibits clear signs of dementia, which the author discusses, along with funeral customs and other relevant topics, in a lengthy afterword.
Sleuthing aplenty but more character- than conundrum-driven. (Mystery. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: THE GHOSTLY PHOTOS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A758848939/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=06bcb6d5. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson MYSTERIES OF TRASH AND TREASURE Harper/HarperCollins (Children's None) $19.99 9, 10 ISBN: 9780063089860
A mysterious package left on the doorstep holds literal and figurative keys to a preteen sleuth's shadowy past in this series closer.
Detective skills gained in their two previous cases prove useful to Colin and his partner and best friend, Nevaeh. Haddix pitches the pair into an investigation that, despite Colin's mother's resolute stonewalling, uncovers some shocking facts about his recently deceased and previously long-absent father. Fueled by a credible mix of anger at being apparently abandoned and a yearning just to know what happened and what his dad was like, Colin's inner odyssey makes up the emotional core of the story. But Haddix weaves in a substantial and increasingly suspenseful caper featuring clues found in documents and stored possessions, cold evidence trails to follow, startling revelations of both past misdeeds and unexpected family connections, and (to raise the stakes even more) a stash of money massive enough to put lives in danger. Some clues seem contrived, and the author repetitively makes use of characters asking themselves or others strings of questions. Still, events work out in ways that are both nonviolent and healing, as do certain issues that have formed a continuing theme through the trilogy involving the families of both young leads. Colin and Nevaeh read white, separate members of the supporting cast are Black and Latine, and one of Nevaeh's brothers is cued as neurodivergent.
Tidy and upbeat.(Mystery. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: MYSTERIES OF TRASH AND TREASURE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804504586/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a208e343. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Moonleapers (Moonleapers #1)
Margaret Peterson Haddix. Quill Tree, $19.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-0-0633-9256-4
White-cued middle schooler Maisie feels like she's the only one of her classmates who doesn't own a smartphone. Though Maisie is excited to unexpectedly receive a phone from her mother, the tween is puzzled by the gift's origins: The device once belonged to Maisie's ill great-aunt Hazel, who wanted Maisie to have it despite their not having seen each other in years. When the tween learns that her parents must care for Hazel during the summer, the family leaves Ohio for Hazel's Maryland gated community home, where Maisie babysits her rambunctious younger siblings while her parents are busy. Maisie's only forms of entertainment are Hazel's pets, Cat the Great and Little Dog, and the odd texts and nursery rhyme-themed riddles that Maisie receives from an anonymous sender. It soon becomes apparent that Hazel has passed along more than an old cellphone. She was a Moonleaper, a time traveling spy, and Maisie must now take up the mantle and leap into Hazel's past to change hergreat-aunt's--and the world's--future. A slow-moving buildup gives way to ample tension and suspense as Maisie jumps through time. Haddix (The Stolen Key) forefronts depictions of Hazel's childhood during the Great Depression and WWII in this potent series-opening adventure about one person's power to change the world. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Sept.)
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"Moonleapers (Moonleapers #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 272, no. 25, 23 June 2025, p. 51. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A845443541/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d226e51f. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson MOONLEAPERS Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (Children's None) $19.99 9, 16 ISBN: 9780063392564
In this duology opener, strange text messages and a mysterious old book lead a preteen to a startling revelation.
When 12-year-old Maisie gets her first phone, she's initially thrilled, even if it is a hand-me-down from Great-Aunt Hazel. But then her parents share disappointing news: She and her family must move from Ohio to Maryland for the summer so her mother can help Hazel, who's moved into a nursing home, while Maisie babysits her two obnoxious younger siblings. When mysterious texts begin to arrive from an unknown number containing riddles for Maisie to solve, she's confused and frustrated.The Guide for Moonleapers, a mysterious book her great-aunt has also left her, contains blank pages, which is just as annoying. But as Maisie slowly starts to piece together the puzzle, she discovers an incredible secret: As a moonleaper, or time traveler, Great-Aunt Hazel helped save the world by changing history--and she's planned for Maisie to follow in her footsteps. Connecting with both the future and the past, Maisie must help change the world before time runs out for her great-aunt. Disjointed time travel episodes and overly explained plot points drag down this first installment, but Haddix's unique talent for conveying the middle-grade voice shines through nevertheless. Main characters present white.
A twisty if slightly uneven story celebrating the power of connection. (author's note)(Science fiction thriller. 8-12)
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"Haddix, Margaret Peterson: MOONLEAPERS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A849502980/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3cc4e74d. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.