Research and Written by Annie
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Indiana on January 4, 1933. She spent most of her childhood waiting until she could read. She enjoyed listening to people read stories to her. In first grade she had trouble reading, she just couldn't make sense of it. She would try to figure out the words by looking at the pictures, but that didn't work all of the time. However, by the time she reached fifth grade “writing books” was her hobby.
Phyllis likes to write about things that have happened to her. At sixteen her first book was published in a church magazine. In college she was able to pay her tuition by writing stories. After she got her Bachelors degree, she decided she wanted to write more than anything else. She gave up graduate school for writing.
After she married, she lived in West Virginia with her husband. Phyllis admits that she has fallen in love with West Virginia. Some of her books even take place in West Virginia, like the Shiloh series. She has written over seventy-five books. Among the awards she has received are the Newbery Award and the Edgar Allen Poe award. This was a great honor to Phyllis.
She and her husband are the parents of two grown sons, Jeff and Michael. They now live in Bethesda, Maryland.