Children's book author Joan W. Blos died on October 12. She was 89. She wrote historical novels and picture books. Her best known title was A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 (Scribner), which in 1980 won the Newbery Medal and National Book Award. An advocate for children's literacy, she also taught at the University of Michigan and Bank Street College of Education.
