Schlitz, Laura Amy (1955-…), is an American children’s author and librarian. Schlitz won the 2008 Newbery Medal for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (2007). The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the outstanding children’s book by an American.
In Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, Schlitz created a portrait of life in an English village in 1255. The book consists of 19 monologues and 2 dialogues spoken by young people from the ages of 10 to 15. The speakers represent the various levels of village society at the time. The author used both prose and poetry in her text and added historical notes in the margins.
Schlitz was born on May 28, 1955, in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated with a B.A. degree from Goucher College in 1977 and began working as a school librarian in Baltimore in 1991. Her first novel was a historical romance for adults called A Gypsy at Almack’s (1993). Schlitz wrote the novel under the name Chloe Cheshire. Schlitz’s other children’s books include A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama (2006), The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy (2006), and The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm (2007). She also wrote The Night Fairy (2010), The Hired Girl (2015), and Princess Cora and the Crocodile (2017). Amber and Clay (2021) is about two children in ancient Greece. Schlitz has also written several plays for young people.
