Reviews, Awards, and Other Honors

Over 300,000 copies of Cornelia sold from bookstores and bookfairs across the country!

Featured Bestseller at Scholastic Bookfairs.

Chosen as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2007 and a book of Outstanding Merit by the prestigious Bank Street College of Education.

Selected as one of the Best of the Best Books of 2006 by the Chicago Public Library.

Nominated for the 2010 Grand Canyon Reader Award, the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award, and the Mark Twain Reading Award.

Los Angeles Times (Kid’s Reading Room):

“Beautiful, moving and humorous, this book will be cherished by anyone who reads it.”

School Library Journal (*starred review*):

“Cornelia is a fabulous read that will enchant its audience with the magic to be found in everyday life.”

Publishers Weekly:

“Blume is a writer to watch.”

Kidsread.com:

“Lesley M. M. Blume has woven a touching and humorous story within a story. Her unique approach, combined with her diverse and colorful characters, the variety of informative settings and the witty adventures within different cultures around the world, make this book a memorable and joyful experience.”

Kids Lit:

“This book is a charmer of a story ... wonderfully fresh and fun. Readers will feel their own spirits rise along with Cornelia’s.”

Booklist:

“[The] heroine of Blume’s first novel will remind readers of the protagonists in books by E. L. Konigsburg and Louise Fitzhugh.”

books4yourkids.com:

“Lesley M. M. Blume’s book is amazing, an instant classic with timeless writing.”

Bookslut:

“It’s impossible not to fall in love with the Somersets ... [who] have the kind of wild and wonderful adventures that girls of all ages would do well to hear more of. They meet Picasso, see the ghost of King Arthur, and strike a blow for women’s rights in England. They also aren’t afraid to be both physically brave and deeply intellectual.”

BookLoons:

“I highly recommend Blume’s debut offering for young (and old) adults ... it is a curiously uplifting and informative story of being loved and giving love in return, of the sadness and reality of losing friends, of independence, of a love of words and books, and of encountering different cultures.”

Little Willow:

“Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume is absolutely adorable. What a delightful book! I loved the story-within-a-story format and the descriptive writing. I could almost see Virginia’s eyes sparkle as she related her adventures to Cornelia. If it had been released fifteen years ago and I had found it at my local library, it would have become one of the titles checked it out and read repeatedly.”

The Reading Zone:

“This was a wonderful book, which I will highly recommend.  I loved all of the characters, and Blume does a wonderful job of making the setting, Greenwich Village, into a character, it seems.  I didn’t want to put this book down!  It captures the bookish 11-year old girl perfectly (I should know, I was one!), and the adventures of the Somerset sisters had me laughing out loud!  A beautiful book, and Blume is a new favorite of mine!”

The Wichita Eagle:

“An entertaining first novel ... Blume moves flawlessly from the plot of the present in New York City to stories of the past from around the world.”