Nancy Garden's books for young people vary between the realistic and the fantastic. What Happened in Marston tells of racial problems in 1960s New York. Annie on My Mind is an examination of two girls and the discovery of their feelings for each other. Other volumes look at topics such as Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and Devils and Demons. "I write for young people because I like them," Garden once wrote in Contemporary Authors, "and because I think they are important. Children's books can be mind-stretchers and imagination-ticklers and builders of good taste in a way that adult books cannot, because young people usually come to books with more open minds. It's exciting to be able to contribute to that in a small way."

"I suppose the fact that I was an only child played a big part in my becoming a writer," Nancy Garden declares in an autobiographical...