Winner of the National Book Award for young people's literature for her novel Homeless Bird, Gloria Whelan is a late bloomer as far as publication is concerned. Fifty-five years of age when her first novel, A Clearing in the Forest, was published, Whelan has made up for lost time with two dozen offerings in as many years. A versatile author of historical and contemporary fiction for children and young adults, as well as short stories and poetry for adults, Whelan is, according to Liz Rosenberg in the Chicago Tribune, "an accomplished, graceful, and intelligent writer."

Whelan told the National Book Award committee, "Books saved my life. . . . I think they save the lives of lots of children." As reported in a Booklist article by Renee Olson, that award committee felt that Whelan's tale of a thirteen-year-old Indian girl who is married and then quickly widowed was "told clearly and...