Described by School Library Journal contributor Gerry Larson as "markedly naive and impetuous in keeping with the conservative but changing tenor" of the 1950s, Jo is out of sorts: her friends are caught up in the latest Elvis Presley recording, leaving her to the company of a new boy in her neighborhood. In Turns on a Dime Karin’s necklace serves as a link, as it is passed down to Karin’s descendant Jo. When her mother is killed in a landslide, Karin is wracked by guilt over their relationship, but after wearing her mother’s goldstone necklace, the girl begins to dream of another, more deadly landslide and wonders if she is being given the chance to save lives.
Lawson’s novel trilogy that begins with Goldstone takes place in the early twentieth century, as twelve-year-old Karin rebels against her mother’s traditional Swedish clothing and customs.
Meeting a boy named Keung who is in search of a missing jade amulet, Jasmine disguises herself as a boy and aids Keung on his search, learning much about her own family history as well. Going back in time to 1880, she suddenly finds herself in Fraser Canyon, among the Chinese workers building the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the book, which is a combination of time-travel story and historical novel, twelve-year-old Jasmine loses track of her class during a visit to a museum in Victoria, British Columbia. Like The Dragon's Pearl, White Jade Tiger was inspired by Lawson’s research into Chinese Dragon lore. Emotionally distant for reasons Beth cannot understand, Chelsea begins to come out of her shell by playing a game of risks the children call the Danger Game. Fires Burning, published in the United States as The Danger Game, finds Beth, already pushed to her limit by younger brother Field, totally perplexed after her older cousin Chelsea is sent to spend the summer with them. In addition to her numerous picture books, Lawson has also written a number of novels for older readers, among them White Jade Tiger, Fires Burning, and the trilogy that includes Goldstone, Turns on a Dime, and The Ghost of Avalanche Mountain. In Too Many Suns, which Lawson published in 1996, the youngest of ten brothers desire to capture the sun in a painting, while the youngest of ten suns wishes he could shine without having to rotate his position in the sky with his nine older brothers. Loosely based on a folktale from the province of Sichuan, The Dragon’s Pearl tells the story of Xiou Sheng, a poor boy who lives with his mother.
Lawson’s picture book The Dragon’s Pearl was inspired by a trip she took to China. Her first published book, The Sand Sifter, was published in 1990 and would be followed within five years by six more picture books and two novels. Lawson loved writing ever since she first learned how to do it.
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