Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1927–2014)
Author of The Egypt Game
About the Author
Zilpha Keatley Snyder was born in Lemoore, California on May 11, 1927. She received a B.A. from Whittier College in 1948. While ultimately planning to be a writer, after graduation she decided to teach school temporarily. However, she found teaching to be an extremely rewarding experience and show more taught in the upper elementary grades for a total of nine years. After all of her children were in school, she began to think of writing again. Her first book, Season of Ponies, was published in 1964. She wrote more than 40 books during her lifetime including The Trespassers, Gib Rides Home, Gib and the Gray Ghost, and William's Midsummer Dreams. She has won numerous awards including three Newbery Honor books for The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm and the 1995 John and Patricia Beatty Award for Cat Running. She died of complications from a stroke on October 08, 2014 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Associated Works
Dragons & Dreams: A Collection of New Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories (1986) — Contributor — 42 copies
Treasure Island Trek; Children's Author & Illustrator Festival Saturday Oct, 18, 1969 — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1927-05-11
- Date of death
- 2014-10-07
- Burial location
- Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery, Santa Paula, California, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Lemoore, California, USA
- Place of death
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Cause of death
- complications from a stroke
- Places of residence
- Ventura, California, USA
Sonoma County, California, USA
New York City, New York, USA
Marin County, California, USA - Education
- Whittier College (BA | 1948)
- Occupations
- teacher
young adult writer
children's book author - Awards and honors
- Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1970)
Newbery Honor (1968, 1972, 1973)
Members
Discussions
YA Fiction - boy rubs potion on shoulders & grows wings in Name that Book (March 2012)
Reviews
All Gib ever wanted was to be adopted, but life with a family isn’t quite what he thought it would be. Gib was sent to an orphanage when he was six years old, and with each year, he knows it becomes less likely that he will be adopted into a loving family.
Lists
Cats in Fiction (1)
Witchy Fiction (1)
1990s (1)
Tagged Runaways (1)
Girl Detectives (1)
Female Author (1)
Best Dog Stories (1)
Ghosts (1)
1980s (1)
Five star books (1)
1970s (4)
Newbery Adjacent (4)
Books with Twins (4)
1960s (5)
Elevenses (2)
Elementary Reads (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 53
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 13,449
- Popularity
- #1,726
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 243
- ISBNs
- 397
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 31
Nearby was Halcyon House, built in 1910 by a Mr. Harold Hutchinson. A magnificent summer house to behold, but it has been empty for a good number of years. The house is rumoured to have a number o tragic stories about it and its owners. Fenced off from access, only Ruben Flores the watchman/caretaker lives on the premises with his watchdog Lion, a large mastiff who has run of the property when Ruben goes into town. Both are deterrents to trespassing, except to Neely and Grub. Grub had made friends with Lion a couple of years back and this gave them access to the property, unbeknownst to Ruben.
This summer Neely and Grub would gain access to the mansion and discover some of the secrets and history, true and false, of the house and the family.
Neely and Grub’s access went from secret to known when the current owners moved back and Neely becomes friends with Curtis, the owners’ son. Curtis is a boy of big boasts and mood swings. At one point Neely is warned to keep an eye on her young brother. It seems some of these stories do have truth to them.
As some of the stories come to light, there is a bit of a chill. There is also the magic of an earlier time in the house that the children learn of. A happier time.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder is an award winning children’s author with a long list of books. I’ve read a number of them and enjoyed them all.… (more)