Irene Hunt says, "Words have always held a fascination for me, causing me to be teased often as a child when I used them lavishly without having the slightest idea of their meaning. The wish to write pages full of words, to make them tell the stories that I dreamed about, haunted me from childhood on." Writing, however, was not easy for her. She devoted thirty years of her life to teaching before she found it possible to put those words on paper and produce one of the finest books in the field of children's literature, Across Five Aprils (1964).

Hunt's books have received much critical acclaim. Across Five Aprils was the sole runner-up for the highly coveted Newbery Medal in 1965; Up a Road Slowly (1966) won the award in 1967. In 1966 Across Five Aprils was recognized with the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, which is given to books considered "worthy to...