Trivia

Writer of popular fiction for young readers. Her first of 30 books was titled "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit".

Received her BA and MA in education from Montclair State College in New Jersey.

She originally studied nursing at Montclair State College in New Jersey on the recommendation of her mother but switched to train as a teacher as she did not excel in Science and eventually she earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education and became a junior high school teacher. After being injured in two automobile accidents, she decided not to postpone her ambition to write any longer and wrote her first book.

She suffered a heart attack on June 9, 2004 and never recovered.

She was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Metuchen, New Jersey, USA with her brother Barry and her garment worker father and her mother who was a nurse.

She won the Children's Choice award given jointly by the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council.

While in college she met poet John Ciardi. She became his children's baby-sitter, and he became her mentor. Her first picture book, Barfburger Baby, I Was Here First, is due out in 2004.