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Norma Fox Mazer (1931–2009)

Author of Ten Ways To Make My Sister Disappear

38+ Works 3,811 Members 94 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Norma Fox Mazer was born in New York City on May 15, 1931. She studied at Antioch College and at Syracuse University. She contributed first-person articles to pulp magazines like True Confessions and True Story. Her first juvenile novel, I, Trissy, was published in 1971. She wrote more than 30 show more books during her lifetime including Dear Bill, Remember Me?, Summer Girls, Love Boys, and Other Short Stories, Silver, Out of Control, A Figure of Speech, and Good Night, Maman. She won numerous awards including a Newbery Honor in 1988 for After the Rain, an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1982 for Taking Terri Mueller, a Christopher Award, and an ALAN Award. From 1997 to 2006, she taught writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She died of brain cancer on October 17, 2009 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Norma Fox Mazer

After the Rain (1987) 462 copies
The Missing Girl (2008) 383 copies
Good Night, Maman (1999) 375 copies
When She Was Good (1997) 272 copies
Silver (1988) 259 copies
Taking Terri Mueller (1981) 144 copies
Girlhearts (2001) 138 copies
Babyface (1990) 117 copies
Out of Control (1993) 80 copies
Missing Pieces (1995) 73 copies
B, My Name is Bunny (1987) 64 copies
What I Believe (2005) 59 copies
A, My Name is Ami (1986) 58 copies
Downtown (1984) 57 copies
When We First Met (1982) 54 copies
Dear Bill, Remember Me (1983) 50 copies
I, Trissy (1971) 50 copies
Heartbeat (1989) 47 copies
The Solid Gold Kid (1977) 46 copies
Supergirl (1984) 44 copies
Up in Seth's Room (1979) 42 copies
Three Sisters (1986) 38 copies
Bright Days, Stupid Nights (1992) 35 copies
A Figure of Speech (1973) 28 copies
C, My Name is Cal (1990) 25 copies
E, My Name is Emily (1991) 25 copies
Waltzing on Water (1989) 22 copies
D, My Name is Danita (1991) 17 copies
Someone to Love (1983) 16 copies
Amizade 1 copy
Amor imposible (1985) 1 copy

Associated Works

Leaving Home: Stories (1997) — Contributor — 116 copies
Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls (1998) — Contributor — 110 copies
Night Terrors: Stories of Shadow and Substance (1996) — Contributor — 104 copies
The Color of Absence: 12 Stories About Loss and Hope (2001) — Contributor — 89 copies
Visions: 19 Short Stories (1987) — Contributor — 72 copies
Ultimate Sports (1995) — Contributor — 67 copies
Such a Pretty Face: Short Stories About Beauty (2007) — Contributor — 56 copies
Help Wanted: Short Stories About Young People Working (1997) — Contributor — 26 copies

Tagged

abduction (13) abuse (31) anthology (52) censorship (24) chapter book (39) children (14) children's (34) coming of age (27) death (40) family (88) fiction (289) friendship (37) girls (14) historical fiction (32) Holocaust (23) Janet's (13) kidnapping (40) mystery (25) Newbery (14) Newbery Honor (28) non-fiction (15) novel (30) own (24) paperback (15) poetry (14) poverty (16) read (54) realistic fiction (106) romance (15) school (12) short stories (136) sisters (54) teen (41) teen fiction (17) to-read (111) unread (15) WWII (26) YA (151) young adult (172) young adult fiction (40)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Mazer, Norma Fox
Legal name
Mazer, Norma Diane Fox
Other names
Fox, Norma Diane (birth name)
Birthdate
1931-05-15
Date of death
2009-10-17
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
New York, New York, USA
Place of death
Montpelier, Vermont, USA
Places of residence
Glens Falls, New York, USA
Montpelier, Vermont, USA
Jamesville, New York, USA
New York, New York, USA
Education
Antioch College
Syracuse University
Occupations
pulp fiction writer
young adult writer
creative writing teacher
Relationships
Mazer, Harry (husband)
Mazer, Anne (daughter)
Organizations
Vermont College of Fine Arts
Author's Guild
PEN
Short biography
Norma Fox grew up in Glens Falls, New York, surrounded by her mother’s extended family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. She decided to become a writer by age 12 or 13. She attended Antioch College briefly, but dropped out to get married in 1950 to Harry Mazer, with whom she had four children. Norma Fox Mazer began her literary career as a young mother. She and her husband wrote stories that were published in True Confessions, True Story, and other pulp fiction magazines. Within a few years, they started writing young adult novels, some of them together. Norma Fox Maser was one of the pioneering writers -- along with Judy Blume, Norma Klein, and a few others -- who defined the field of young adult literature in the 1970s. Her novels featured appealing young characters facing difficult situations, such as family separation and death. She wrote a total of 33 books and won many awards, among them a Newbery Medal, the Christopher Award, two Lewis Carroll Shelf Awards, an Edgar, and a National Book Award nomination. In 1997, Norma Fox Mazer joined the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, teaching writing for young adults and children in the MFA program. She also served as faculty chair. She also taught at the National Book Foundation summer writing camp. Norma and Harry lived for many years in upstate New York, commuting between Jamesville and New York City. She spent the final years of her life in Montpelier, Vermont.

Members

Discussions

Reviews

I remember a friend up the street lending me this book. It was great. I recall it had a super bright blue sky on the cover and these wild jungle type plants and the girl standing there in the middle.
 
Flagged
Kiri | 9 other reviews | Dec 24, 2023 |
Although the book deals with a tough subject material (incest) it handles it in a way that alerts teens to the dangers without overexposing them to it atrociousness.
 
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aberman | 2 other reviews | Sep 20, 2023 |
I bought this book on a lark, feeling nostalgic for the books I read as a pre-teen and remembering this one as one that my BF and I would sneak back and forth between us. That's almost all I remembered about it though and I expected it to be an eye-rolling what was I thinking? trip down memory lane.

Only it wasn't - eye-rolling - that is. It was first published in 1979, but once you get past a very few things that date the book (pay phones and the scandal of "living in sin") what's left is an incredibly relevant story about an intelligent 15 year-old-girl who knows what she wants, isn't afraid to assert herself and is stuck between the parents who are afraid she'll have sex too early and the boyfriend who is afraid she won't.

And you know what? The author does a brilliant job of illustrating the stereotypical expectations of both males and females and gives us not only a strong protagonist, but a strong male lead too, who screws up and learns from it.

The best part is the ending that respects the story. I don't think I ever read anything else from Mazer, but I wish my younger self had; I suspect I missed out.
… (more)
½
 
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murderbydeath | 1 other review | Jan 23, 2022 |
In my opinion, this book was 160 pages of buildup for a 20 page climax. So much of this book was dedicated to setting up what would happen and getting into who the characters were, but it got old after a while. It was just too much. The title is definitely misleading because very little of the book has anything to do with a missing girl at all. It took me ages to get into the story and the characters. I only continued to read because I knew that eventually something *should* happen based on the title. If I had known it would take 2/3 of the book, I would have left it on the shelf.… (more)
 
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Chinesa72 | 21 other reviews | Jul 28, 2021 |

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Statistics

Works
38
Also by
11
Members
3,811
Popularity
#6,649
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
94
ISBNs
270
Languages
9
Favorited
1

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