Lois Lowry celebrates her birthday on March 20th. Lois was born in Honolulu and moved from Hawaii to Pennsylvania to Japan during her young life. She describes herself as a solitary child, loving to read, which developed in her a feeling for language and story. She wanted to be a writer from the age of eight. She received a B.A. from the University of Maine and her first book, A Summer to Die, was published in 1977. The story was a fictionalized retelling of the death of her sister. Lowry's books vary in content and style from the lighthearted Anastasia Krupnik series starring an irrepressible heroine to the suspenseful, unforgettable titles, Number the Stars and The Giver, both Newbery Medal Winners in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Lowry's experience as a journalist and photographer gave her an eye for detail and she likens writing to a choice of lenses and apertures.
Her recent books include Messenger, Gooney Bird and the Room Mother, and The Willoughbys.
"The writer, after all, utilizes focus in the same way that a photographer does. I can come in close on the details, open up to get it good and sharp, and blur the background into oblivion."
The cover photographs for Number the Stars and The Giver were of her own creation. Lois lives and writes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
