No Map, Great Trip

Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman reflects on his childhood with his award-winning father, Sid Fleischman, and details his own path to becoming a writer in this memorable book that is part memoir, part travelogue, and part reflection on craft and creativity.

No Map, Great Trip is an excellent choice for aspiring authors, language arts classrooms, and fans of Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic.

Acclaimed author Paul Fleischman considers how growing up with a father who was an award-winning author helped to shape and inspire his own career. Paul and Sid Fleischman are the only father-son Newbery Medalists in history, and life in the Fleischman home was extraordinary. Readers will feel like part of the family in this humorous and aspirational chronicle.

Paul Fleischman is the author of the Newbery Award-winning Joyful Noise and the classroom classic Seedfolks , as well as many other acclaimed and beloved titles. His books are taught and performed in classrooms across the country.

Part memoir, part travelogue (young Paul travels from California to New Hampshire by himself), part writing book, and part reflection on art and creativity, this inspirational book includes black-and-white photographs, as well as writing tips and prompts just right for budding authors. No Map, Great Trip is a great gift for young writers, language arts teachers, and fans of Jack Prelutsky's Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry and Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook.

About the Author

Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California in a house with a printing press, a grand piano, a shortwave radio, and his father children"s author Sid Fleischman. Playing recorder in early music consorts led to his books of verbal duets I Am Phoenix, Joyful Noise (winner of the 1989 Newbery Medal), and Big Talk. His novels built from monologues include Bull Run , a 16-character account of the Civil War's first battle, and Seedfolks the chronicle of the first year of a Cleveland community garden. His interest in theater inspired his young adult novels Mind's Eye, Seek , and Breakout , all of which revolve around the spoken word.

His historical fiction includes Saturnalia and The Borning Room. He's written nonfiction and picture books as well, including Time Train, Weslandia, and Sidewalk Circus. Alongside the Newbery Medal, he's won a Newbery Honor Book, the Scott O"Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the PEN West Literary Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and most recently was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. He makes his home in the village of Aromas, California.