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Liesl Shurtliff

Born:
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Shurtliff currently resides in Chicago.

Biography: Liesl Shurtliff grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. She studied Music Dance Theatre at Brigham Young University. After she had her first child, she started writing.


Awards:
  • """Rump"""
  • -- Utah Beehive Award Nominee
  • -- New Voices Title, Association of Booksellers for Children, 2013
  • -- Best Children's Book, American Book Council, 2013
  • -- Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers, Kid's Indie Next List, 2013
  • -- Nerdy Book Club Award, 2013
  • -- Young Adult Book Award, International Reading Association Children's, 2014
  • -- Finalist, Texas Bluebonnet Award, 2014
  • -- Mock Newbery Winner, Anderson�s Bookshop, 2014
  • -- Children's Book of the Year, Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College, 2014
  • -- Children�s Book Award Finalist, State of Georgia, 2015
  • -- Bluegrass Award Finalist State of Kentucky, 2015
  • -- Nene Award Finalist, State of Hawaii, 2015
  • -- Sunshine State Book Award Finalist, State of Florida, 2015
  • -- Golden Sower Master List, State of Nebraska, 2015
  • -- Sequoyah Children's Book Master List, State of Oklahoma, 2015
  • -- Young Readers Master List, Rebecca Caudill, 2016
  • -- Young Reader's Choice Award Finalist, State of Louisiana, 2016
  • -- ILLINOIS READS Selection, Illinois Reading Council, 2015
  • """Red"""
  • -- Bestseller, New York Times, 2016
  • -- Starred Review, Shelf Awareness, 2016
  • -- ILLINOIS READS Book Selection, Illinois Reading Council, 2018
  • """Time Castaway: The Mona Lisa Key"""
  • -- ILLINOIS READS Book Selection, Illinois Reading Council, 2020

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Mystery

Primary Audience(s): Children; Young adult readers

E-Mail: liesl@lieslshurtliff.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LieslShurtliff
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lieslshurtliff/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LieslShurtliff
Website: https://lieslshurtliff.com/


Selected Titles

Grump
ISBN: 1524717045 OCLC:

Yearling; Reprint edition May 7, 2019

Ever since he was a dwarfling, Borlen (nicknamed "Grump") has dreamed of visiting The Surface, so when opportunity knocks, he leaves his cavern home behind.

At first, life aboveground is a dream come true. Queen Elfrieda Veronika Ingrid Lenore (E.V.I.L.) is the best friend Grump always wanted, feeding him all the rubies he can eat and allowing him to rule at her side in exchange for magic and information. But as time goes on, Grump starts to suspect that Queen E.V.I.L. may not be as nice as she seems...

When the queen commands him to carry out a horrible task against her stepdaughter Snow White, Grump is in over his head. He's bound by magic to help the queen, but also to protect Snow White. As if that wasn't stressful enough, the queen keeps bugging him for updates through her magic mirror! He'll have to dig deep to find a way out of this pickle, and that's enough to make any dwarf Grumpy indeed.

Jack :
ISBN: 9780553552416 OCLC: 905343111

Fans of Adam Gidwitz and Chris Colfer will give a GIANT cheer for this funny fairytale retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk!All work and no play makes Jack extremely bored. And when Jack gets bored, he makes mischief. It's not that he's bad; he just longs for adventure--and there's nothing adventurous about toiling day and night to grow yucky green stuff. Adventure finally arrives one day in the form of giants, and soon Jack is chasing them to a land beyond the clouds, with his little sister, Annabella, in tow. The kingdom of giants is full of slugs the size of sheep, venomous pixies as tall as grown men, and a chatty cook with the biggest mouth Jack has ever seen. There's giant fun to be had, too: puddings to swim in, spoons to use as catapults, monster toads to carry off pesky little sisters. ... But Jack and Annabella are on a mission. The king of the giants has taken something that belongs to them, and they'll do anything--even dive into a smelly tureen of green bean soup--to get it back.

Red :
ISBN: 9780385755863 OCLC: 953597759

Followed by a wolf, a huntsman, and a porridge-sampling nuisance called Goldie, Red embarks on a quest to find a magical cure for her ailing grandmother--

Rump :
ISBN: 9780307977960 OCLC: 781277865

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 2013.

In a magic kingdom where your name is your destiny, 12-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone's joke. But when he finds an old spinning wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into gold. His best friend, Red Riding Hood, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she's right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse. To break the spell, Rump must go on a perilous quest, fighting off pixies, trolls, poison apples, and a wickedly foolish queen. The odds are against him, but with courage and friendship -- and a cheeky sense of humor -- he just might triumph in the end.

Time Castaways: The Forbidden Lock
ISBN: 0062568213 OCLC: 1136964902

In this action-packed conclusion to the Time Castaways series from Liesl Shurtliff, New York Times bestselling author of Rump, it’s up to the Hudson kids to defeat Captain Vincent once and for all.

Time Castaways: The Mona Lisa Key
ISBN: 0062568132 OCLC: 1016934024

When Matt, Ruby, and Corey Hudson discover their subway train is actually a time-traveling eighteenth-century frigate captained by a mysterious pirate, they are thrown into a series of adventures that offer cryptic clues about their past and their future.

Time Castaways: The Obsidian Compass
ISBN: 0062568183 OCLC: 1082452659

Mateo, Ruby, and Corey Hudson have lost their friend Jia to the villainous Captain Vincent’s clutches, and now they’re determined to bring her back to safety. But the Hudson kids don’t have a way to time-travel without the Obsidian Compass, until Mateo figures out the secret component to get his own homemade compass working. Soon the whole family—plus their wacky neighbor, Chuck, and his rusty orange bus, Blossom—are swept up in another epic journey. With their own time-traveling vehicle and some help from history’s most famous young markswoman, Annie Oakley, the Hudsons think they’re prepared to sneak onto the Vermillion. Unbeknownst to them, Captain Vincent already knows they’re coming. In fact, he’s counting on it…

 

 

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