THE WINTER OF THE DOLLHOUSE

This captivating coming-of-age story is touching, funny, and beautifully layered, with a fairy-tale ending that only Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz could deliver.

On a gloomy November night, eleven-year-old Tiphany Stokes saves an old lady from collapsing in the street. An antique doll named Gretel watches them, longing for Tiph to rescue her from life in a shop window. Though none of these three characters realizes it, their worlds are about to change: Gretel will no longer be a precious prisoner. The old ladyis she a witch?will discover the secret hidden in her long-neglected dollhouse. And Tiphwhose parents rejoice that she is "never any trouble"will become a thief, a dog walker, an actor, and best of all, a friend.

Laura Amy Schlitz is the accomplished author of four previous middle-grade novelsA Drowned Maiden's Hair, the Newbery Honor Book Splendors and Glooms, The Hired Girl, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult Literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and Amber and Clay. She was awarded a Newbery Medal for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. Laura Amy Schlitz lives in Baltimore, Maryland.