Born in New York and sometimes called "the Studs Terkel of American teens" Janet Bode at first earned a living as a teacher in Germany, Mexico, and Florida. She also worked for the Girl Scouts of America. After a brutal gang rape, she turned to writing as a form of therapy. Once she began writing, she did not shy away from any topic, from sibling relationships to rape and death. Many of her books resulted from talking with teens about their problems. Bodes fourteen books for teenagers have received twenty-six major awards from the National Council for Social Studies, the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, and others. Bode died of breast cancer on December31, 1999, at the age of 56.