After a circuitous route, she's a 'real live author'

For example, her 1991 novel, "Stepping on the Cracks," which won the prestigious Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, focuses on two children who at first demean but later sympathize with a neighborhood youth who refuses to serve in the military because of his pacifist beliefs. The novel is set during World War II.

"She has a really remarkable record of pleasing the critics and the young readers," said Zena Sutherland, a retired professor of children's literature at the University of Chicago and children's book reviewer. "She is dependably good. There are no hackneyed formula plots in her books."

Mrs. Sutherland believes Mrs. Hahn's stories are so popular with young readers because of the writer's sensitivity to the fact that children and teens "are very aware that there is pain as well as joy in childhood."

A tall, lanky woman who revels in talking about her writing, the author sees her success this way:

"I'm simply addicted to writing. I find it compulsive. Once I get a story going I can't let go. I really get into the characters."