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Joyce Hansen is the author of children's novels that have been praised for their convincing depiction of black children in both contemporary and historical settings. Her first three novels, The Gift-Giver, Yellow Bird and Me, and Home Boy, portray the lives of inner-city children in New York City, while Which Way Freedom" and Out from This Place dramatize the experiences of young black slaves during the time of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. A former English teacher in New York City schools, Hansen strives for realistic settings in her books, in addition to authentic dialect and lively storytelling, as a way to reach out to young readers with positive messages of support and guidance. "I take writing for children very seriously," she once commented. "So many children need direction--so many are floundering. I write for all children who need and can relate to the things I write about--the importance of family, maintaining a sense of hope, and responsibility for oneself and other living things."
Hansen was born in 1942 in New York City and grew up in a Bronx neighborhood that provided many of the experiences in her first novel, The Gift-Giver.
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