Sonia Levitin survived a difficult childhood to thrive as an award-winning children's author whose books treat difficult questions of faith and morality. Born to Jewish parents in 1934 amid the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany, she soon fled with her family to the United States. There she grew up in poverty but went on to gain a college education and fulfill her girlhood dream of becoming a writer. After being honored by the Jewish Book Council of America in 1970 for her autobiographical first novel, Journey to America, she earned further awards for a wide variety of books, including the Western No-Return Trail, the murder mystery Incident at Loring Groves, and the refugee story The Return.

In the years before Levitin was born, her parents had become prosperous members of the German middle class. Her father earned a living as a skillful tailor and businessman and the family enjoyed such comforts...