Several students clearly wanted to wish Schlitz "congratulations," though a few had trouble spelling such a long word. An occasional stray consonant, such as a "P," leapt the fence, wandered in where it didn't belong and had to be crossed out with a firm hand.
"For someone who doesn't have children, she's incredibly insightful about what's going on in a child's head," said her friend Judith Schwait, who works in publications at Park School and is Daniel's mother.
Betsy Leighton, the lower school principal, said the same qualities that Schlitz brings to her writing make her a passionate and insightful advocate for children.
"When a child is having trouble, sometimes we seek a perspective from an outside staff member," Leighton said. "Laura always has something useful and valuable to say. More often than not, she's right on the mark."
Schwait's 18-year-old son Daniel, a 12th-grader, has known Schlitz since he was 3 years old, and the two have become close friends.
"She's like no one else I've ever known," said Daniel Schwait, who discovered before he was in second grade that he and Schlitz share a passion for opera.
"We would swing on the swings and sing arias from The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute," he says. "Laura would sing in Italian, and I would sing sounds that sounded like Italian to me."
Schlitz's novel is characterized by that quirky sensibility. Not only does it have an unconventional structure, it has footnotes - unheard of for a children's book, though they are some of the most delightful aspects of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! The selection surprised some who expected the Newbery Committee to gravitate, as usual, toward more traditionally styled fiction.
But Newbery Committee chairwoman Nina Lindsay called granting the medal to the monologues easily a "rock-solid decision."
"What makes it fabulous is the language she uses to bring these characters alive," Lindsay said, praising Schlitz's use of varied poetic forms and literary styles, leavened with humor.
She added that the awards committee was impressed that Schlitz had transformed the book form from a sedentary pursuit by encouraging young people to read aloud, perform and play-act with others.
"It comes to life as you start reading it," Lindsay said.
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But the end, it's like a pageant of characters."
