Nancy Willard, a versatile and prolific writer whose works for children include picture books, short story collections, novels, and a book of poetry, was born on 26 June 1936 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her father, Hobart Hurd Willard, was a university chemistry professor. Her childhood penchant for artistic and literary expression was encouraged by her family, to whom she frequently gave hand-bound, illustrated storybooks as gifts. Willard's mother, Marge Sheppard Willard, noted that she "was always drawing, writing, winning prizes.... In high school they let her draw instead of take gym." At age seven Willard had a poem published in a Unitarian church magazine, and as a high school senior she had a booklet entitled "A Child's Star" published as an insert in Horn Book's 1955 Christmas issue. Moreover, Bertha Mahony Miller, the editor of Horn Book, later sent Willard ten dollars and asked for permission to use one...