Mary Stolz was born on March 24, 1920 in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied at the Teachers College of Columbia University and the Katharine Gibbs School before going to work at Columbia as a secretary. She suffered from debilitating arthritis and wrote her first book during a long convalescence. To Tell Your Love was published in 1950.
She wrote more than 60 children and young adult books during her lifetime including Ready or Not, Some Merry-Go-Round Music, Leap Before You Look, The Leftover Elf, Emmett's Pig, A Dog on Barkham Street, Cider Days, Ivy Larkin, and The Edge of Next Year. In a Mirror won a Child Study Children's Book Award and The Bully of Barkham Street won a Boys' Club Junior Book Award. Belling the Tiger and The Noonday Friends were named Newbery Honor books. In 1982, she received a George G. Stone Recognition of Merit Award for her entire body of work. She also wrote one adult novel entitled Truth and Consequence. She died of natural causes on December 15, 2006 at the age of 86.
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