Proficient children's author Robert Burch learned two important lessons early in life: "material possessions are not what matter" and "one must accept the good with the bad." In his eighteen successful books for children and one freely adapted version of a Danish story by Egon Mathieson, Burch has demonstrated the moral truth of the first paradigm and delighted readers with the witty implications of the second. His books are infused with his genial, optimistic view of life while maintaining a realistic, nonsentimental, serious, and moralistic approach.

His best books deal with the period of his own childhood--the Depression years in middle and northern Georgia--and the realistic details of country and small town life during this period come from his experience. His characters are usually in their early teens learning to confront successfully various crises and changes. His readers too are usually young adolescents, though Burch has written for...