Nightscream · CC BY 3.0

Wrote across genres for both children and adults, best known for The Devil's Arithmetic, a novella about the Holocaust, alongside beloved works like Owl Moon and the Commander Toad series. She published more than 450 books over a six-decade career, collaborating extensively with her son Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to deliver the Andrew Lang lecture. Her final book appeared just weeks after her death in 2026.