If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

From the Newbery Honor-winning and New York Times-bestselling author comes a fast-paced, provocative book about two kids with an unlikely connection.

The Washington Post - Elizabeth Ward

Choldenko…has a spiky wit, an empathetic eye for kids' foibles and fears, an ear for their distinctive voices and an impressive range…While it treats issues of race, class and marital discord fearlessly, it's also one of the funniest they'll read this year.

Gennifer Choldenko was bused to a predominantly black junior high after attending a mostly white elementary school. “Everywhere I went,” she remembers, “I was first my skin color and then who I was. And I never forgot what that felt like. I think the seed of this book was planted in that experience.” She is the author of several children’s books, including the Newbery Honor and New York Times Book Review bestseller Al Capone Does My Shirts, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Children’s Book, and which also received the Sid Fleischman Humor Award. She lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.