Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, born January 4, 1933, in Anderson, Indiana, has been a storyteller and writer all her life. Phyllis and her siblings, Norma and John, were nourished in a storytelling tradition by their father, Eugene, a traveling salesman and by their mother, Lura Schield Reynolds, a schoolteacher. Although the family was poor, it had a small library which included Egermeier's Bible Story Book, a set of encyclopedias, and Grimm's Fairy Tales which were read over and over.

In How I Came to Be a Writer, Naylor says, "These were not just books to read, I'm afraid, but they were also our toys. The books became walls for doll houses, train tunnels and weights to hold bedsheets in place across the backs of chairs for playing train."

She relates that she never thought of becoming a writer while growing up because she knew the years of...