E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1968, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View from Saturday. Among her other acclaimed books are Silent to the Bone, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, and The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.

This 1982 novel is the story of Bo Stubbs, about to launch a new life as the privileged stepson of a very rich man--but first he has to survive a month with his father, an itinerant camel-keeper who entertains at shopping malls and conventions around the country. T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit: First published in 1993, this is another story of a kid doing time in an unfamiliar, unconventional environment--in this case, Chloe is spending the summer with her aunt Bernadette, who drives a food service wagon in Florida.