Laura Dower

Laura Dower writes fiction and nonfiction for children, with a bibliography that ranges from original series to media tie-ins. She is especially associated with From the Files of Madison Finn, which follows a middle-school student through friendship changes, family adjustments, crushes, and school problems. Give Me a Break is the eighteenth regular volume in that sequence, published in 2005, and takes Madison and Aimee on a ski trip complicated by exclusion and shifting loyalties. Friends till the End occupies a different position: it is the third Madison Finn Super Special and takes place after the twenty-second main-series book, All Shook Up. Its end-of-year story brings Madison’s seventh-grade friendships, school projects, musical, and graduation concerns together. Dower has also created the Monster Squad, Palace Puppies, and Dessert Diaries books. Her long career in children’s publishing shows a preference for recurring ensembles, accessible humor, and conflicts grounded in the changing social world of school-age readers.