Born: 1930
Ohio connection: Birth
Dayton
Barbara Hazen was born Barbara Shook, daughter of Charles Harman and Elizabeth (Foster) Shook, in 1930, in Dayton, Ohio. She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1951 and an M.A. from Columbia University in 1952. She married Freeman Brackett Hazen in 1956, and they had one child, Freeman Brackett, Jr., before they divorced in 1960. Barbara Shook Hazen worked as an editorial assistant in fiction and as poetry editor for Ladies’ Home Journal from 1952 until 1956. She worked as children’s book editor for Western Publishing Company from 1956 until 1960. She has been a freelance writer since 1960, and has written more than eighty books for children. Even If I Did Something Awful won the Christopher Award in 1981, and The Knight Who Was Afraid of the Dark won the Children’s Choice Award in 1990. Some of Hazen’s other juvenile titles are Mister Ed, the Talking Horse (on which the Mister Ed television series was based); Playful Puppy; What’s Inside?; Girls and Boys Book of Etiquette; Raggedy Ann and the Cookie Snatcher; Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter; I’m Glad to be Me; The Me I See; Two Homes to Live In: A Child’s-Eye View of Divorce; What’s Mine Is Mine: A Book About Sharing; Why Did Grandpa Die?; Why Are People Different?;and Growing Up Is Hard Sometimes. Some adult titles are Your Wedding Your Way; Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: Hints and Homilies for Happy Holidays; Pets, Pets: Hints, Tips, and Fascinating Facts; and The Very Best Name for Baby. Barbara Shook Hazen currently resides in New York City.
Awards:
Christopher Award, 1981, for Even If I Did Something Awful; Children’s Choice Award, 1990, for The Knight Who Was Afraid of the Dark.