Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974) was a popular and prolific writer of children's and young adult fiction.

One of her projects was a collection of regional novels about children across the United States. The series includes her most famous work, Strawberry Girl, about a girl in Florida; Blue Ridge Billy, about a North Carolina youth living in rural Appalachia; Bayou Suzette, etc.

She won the annual Newbery Medal for Strawberry Girl in 1946.

Early life

Lois Lenski was born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14, 1893. She was the fourth of five children born to Richard C. H. Lenski, a Prussian-born Lutheran clergyman and theologian, and Marietta Young Lenski, a Franklin County, Ohio native, who was a schoolteacher before her marriage. When Lois was six, her family moved to the small town of Anna, Ohio, west of Springfield, where Richard Lenski was called to be a pastor (2). For the next twelve years, Lenski’s life centered around her schooling and family activities, including drawing, photography, reading, sewing, and gardening (2). Journey into Childhood, Lenski’s autobiography, published in 1972, documents her memories of her early life in a small Mid-western rural community at the turn of the century. Of that life, Lenski stated, “Life in a small town in Ohio before the First World War was simple, sincere and wholesome… I am glad to have been a child in the horse-and-buggy days, and to have known and felt the joys of real peace and security.” (3)