Lowry, Lois (nee Hammersberg)

1937 – She was born on the 20th day of March this year in Hawaii, United States.

1939 – She and her family moved from Hawaii to Brooklyn, New York.

1942 – Her father was deployed to the Pacific during World War II. Lowry’s father served on a hospital ship called HOPE and on the island of Tinian during the war.

1948 – She and her family moved to Tokyo, Japan where her father was stationed.

1950 – She attended Curtis High School on Staten Island.

1952 – She entered Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she finished high school.

1954 – She entered Brown University this year.

1956 – She married to Donald Lowry, a naval officer, at the age of 19.

1962 – Her sister Helen who is three years older died this year at the age of 28.

1972 – Her children became older Lowry found time to complete her degree in English literature from the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

1977 – She wrote A Summer to Die which was published in this year and divorced her husband at the age of 40.

1979 – She began her “Anastasia” series of books with Anastasia Krupnik, the story of a precocious and quirky ten-year-old girl (based, in part, upon Lowry’s own daughters) who wants to be a writer.

1980 – She published her most autobiographical work, Autumn Street.

1986 – She writes seven sequels to this book including Anastasia Has the Answers in this year.

1990 – She has been awarded the Newbery Medal for Number the Stars.

1991 – She also published Anastasia at This Address in this year.

1994 – She has been awarded the Newbery Medal for The Giver, her most famous and controversial work.

1995 – Her son Grey was killed in the crash of his fighter plane this year.