Zibby Oneal (nee Elizabeth Bisgard) was born on March 17, 1934 in Omaha, Nebraska. She came from a nuclear uppermiddle class family; she has an older sister, her father was a doctor and an amateur painter, and her mother a homemaker and an avid book reader. Oneal always loved books and wanted to be a writer even before she could read. She attended Catholic girls' schools in Omaha, attended Stanford as an English major from 1952 to 1955, then finished her degree at the University of Michigan and earned a B.A. in 1970. Oneal has been writing since she was very young, and she wrote her first children's book, entitled War Work, in 1971. But she received wide recognition in 1980 after writing The Language of Goldfish. This was her first young adult novel and the book she considers the favorite of all her published works. The Language of Goldfish...