Frances Schoonmaker Books In Order

Publication Order of The Last Crystal Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Frances Schoonmaker is an award-winning author known for writing books for young adult readers and professional education books.

The author sees the writing that she does for young people simply as the extension of a career where she was serving them. Frances taught school for a dozen years before moving on to become a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. There she taught in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching and also served as the Director/Co-Director of the graduate-level teacher preparation program in childhood education.

She is the creator and the author of The Last Crystal Trilogy, which won several awards. Her book The Black Alabaster Box, the debut in the series, won her the Firebird Award for Historical Fiction. The Last Crystal won the 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery as well as the London Book Festival Award, the Midcrest Media Award, the Outstanding Creator Award, and The Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal for Historical Fiction.

Those that know her would now that she has a deep interest in books, family, people, travel, history, long walks, gardening and cats. She likes to blog about these things from time to time as well. Frances grew up on a farm in Western Oklahoma where her parents were school teachers and farmers. She grew up on a farm with her brothers, which gave them all plenty of chances to use their imaginations and explore. In the process, they learned about success, failure, hard work, and how to care for the world around them.

Each summer, her mother would order a box of library books from the Oklahoma State Library Commission. The author says that it would always be a great day when the books came and as soon as they finished a box, her mother would send for another one. Reading was a way that took them ‘around the world’, and Schoonmaker details how they always had a family story where a book would be read out loud to them nearly every night before bedtime.

When she was in college, Frances studied to become a teacher. She has taught nearly all the elementary school grades and gained some experience as a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York. There she taught women and men who were studying to work in education related jobs. Frances has worked with all types of global educators to support their effort to provide education to kids and young people.

Today she divides her time between Baltimore and Stratford-upon-Avon, spending quality time with her daughter and granddaughter in England whenever she can. There her daughter participated in a grad program at the Shakespeare Institute. She has worked in many different places in the world throughout the course of her career. For Frances, home is wherever her family is.

Frances says that writing fantasy set in particular historical periods has been a real challenge. Her historical research background was very helpful as the author looked into new work on the Great Westward Expansion, the World Wars, and the Chumash people who settled by the Pacific Coast of Southern California.

The Black Alabaster Box is the first book in The Last Crystal Trilogy by Frances Schoonmaker. If you have been keeping your eyes open for a great original new fantasy story to read, and you like historical fiction, this might be the perfect read for you.

The Santa Fe Trail had been quiet for over a year at the time that the Stokes Company set out to find California with the Willis family making up part of the company. Grace Willis is a young woman who doesn’t exactly want to be traveling and would like more than anything to have her safe and comfortable life back at home.

She’s learning to negotiate life in a wagon train but just as she is getting comfortable with it all she is suddenly abducted by fellow travelers and whisked away to Oklahoma Territory. Now she has to summon the strength within and figure out if she is going to give in to despair or find the courage to try and run away and look for her parents.

Grace is about to find some help in the last place that she looked. She might even find out that against all odds there really is such a thing as magic. Can a young child be able to make her way back to where she is supposed to be or is she up against more than she bargained for? Can Grace ever get back to her family or is she going to have to accept her fate and begin a new life, leaving the old one behind forever? Read the first book in The Last Crystal Trilogy to find out!

The Red Abalone Shell is the second book in The Last Crystal Trilogy by Frances Schoonmaker. If you thought that the first book in this trilogy was good, check out the second one and keep the fantasy and historical fiction brand of adventure going!

This is a great book to take with you on a trip or just read wherever you are in the mood to hunker down and escape. It’s rare that authors combine history and fantasy together, but Schoonmaker accomplishes it again with ease in this sequel for a read that will have you glued to this story from start to finish.

Set during early 20th century America and historically accurate, this book can be read in order or on its own as a stand alone. With lessons on bullying and including everyone, this is a great story that brings historical lessons to the forefront while also weaving a compelling story that fantasy and historical fiction fans alike won’t want to miss.

Check out The Red Abalone Shell by Frances Schoonmaker to follow along with every single word for yourself and don’t miss a single second of what this author has to say. Then continue the journey and complete the trilogy by picking up the third book in the series, The Last Crystal.