Born on April 4th, Johanna Reiss lived in Holland during the Holocaust. Because their family was Jewish, Ms. Reiss and her older sister were hidden by neighbors, the Oostevelds, for three years, until the wars were over. "I never thought of being a writer until my children were seven and nine. It struck me how free they were--compared to me, when I was their age. I wanted to write for them what my childhood was like: in Holland, with the Second World War going on, and the Germans wanting to kill the Jews. I hid in a tiny room and stayed there for close to three years until that war was over." The resulting books were The Upstairs Room, which was honored by the Caldecott committee in 1973, and the follow-up story, The Journey Back.
