Jean Fritz, the Newbery Honor-winning author of Homesick, is best known for her engaging and enlightening nonfiction for young readers, including What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, and Shh! We're Writing the Constitution. She was honored with the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature by the New York State Library Association, and won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her career contribution to American children's literature.

The accolades speak for themselves:"Fritz draws the readers into scenes from her youth in the turbulent China of the mid-twenties. One comes to appreciate the generous affection of her nurse/companion Lin Nai-Nai, the isolating distance in her mother's grief over losing a second child, the dynamics of a suffering population venting its hostility on foreigners, and most of all, the loneliness of a child's exile from a homeland she has imagined constantly but never seen....A remarkable blend of truth and storytelling." --Booklist, starred review"An insightful memory's-eye-view of her childhood...Young Jean is a strong character, and many of her reactions to people and events are timeless and universal." --School Library Journal, starred review"Told with an abundance of humor--sometimes wry, sometimes mischievous and irreverent--the story is vibrant with atmosphere, personalities, and a palpable sense of place." --The Horn Book"Every now and then a book comes along that makes me want to send a valentine to its author. Homesick is such a book....Pungent and delicious." --Katherine Paterson, The Washington Post