In addition to being part of a writing family that includes wife Norma Fox Mazer and daughter Anne Mazer, novelist Harry Mazer has received critical acclaim for his many young adult novels--including The Island Keeper, Cave under the City, and Who Is Eddie Leonard"--which illustrate the values of perseverance, self-esteem, and inner fortitude. Noting that, "despite their predicaments, Mazer's protagonists usually emerge morally victorious," Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers contributor Mary Lystad cited as Mazer's strength his depiction of the "emotional turmoil, the humor and pain" of adolescence. "His characters are resilient and strong," Lystad continued. "His endings emphasize compassion, understanding, resourcefulness, and honesty."

"A dream is made by real effort," Mazer once explained in an essay in Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS). Mazer was in his mid-thirties when he and his wife began to write every day; they wrote for the "women's true confessions" market...