Briana's Gift

Lurlene McDaniel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 5, 1944. She received a B.A. in English from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Before she started writing young adult books, she wrote a magazine column and promos and commercials at a television station. After her children were born, she turned to freelance advertising. When her son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 3, she attended a convention for diabetes and met up with the organizer who connected her with a publishing company specializing in children's books.

Her first book was Kickaroo: The Soccer Playing Kangaroo. She soon realized that writing picture books was not what she wanted to do, so she wrote Will Never Dance Again, about a girl who is diagnosed with diabetes. Thus began her career writing stories about teenagers who overcome life altering illnesses and the lessons learned. Her other books include Somewhere Between Life and Death, Too Young to Die, Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever, Six Months to Live, and The Year of Chasing Dreams. She received a RITA Award for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and three IRA-CBC Children's Choice Awards.

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