Sue Alexander (August 20, 1933 – July 3, 2008) was an American writer of children's literature. She authored 26 books for children as well as "scores of stories" for newspapers and magazines. She was also a children's book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. She was a charter member and advisory board member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, which established two awards in her name in recognition of her efforts to educate and mentor aspiring writers. Early life and education Sue Lynn Ratner was born in Tucson, Arizona, to Jack M. Ratner and Edith Pollock Ratner. Her family was Jewish. She had one younger brother. When she was a year old her family relocated to Los Angeles and when she was five they moved to Chicago. Sue Lynn was "small and uncoordinated for her age", and her mother encouraged her to spend her time reading. She became an avid reader, and also enjoyed telling over stories and making up stories to entertain herself and others. She studied at Drake University from 1950 to 1952, and then transferred to Northwestern University for one year. She originally planned to become a journalist, but while attending Northwestern decided to major in psychology instead. She dropped out of college in her senior year to get married, and gave birth to her first child, a son, in 1956. She divorced her first husband and moved back to Los Angeles, where her parents also lived. In November 1959 she remarried to Joel Alexander, with whom she had another son and a daughter. Writing career Her mother's death in 1967 prompted Alexander to "do something with my life that would have pleased my mother" and she began writing short stories for young readers. Her stories were published in the Los Angeles Times, Children's Playmate, Weekly Reader, and World of Disney, but she did not achieve success until the publication of her first book, Small Plays for You and a Friend, in 1973. She went on to publish 26 titles between 1973 and 2001. Her most acclaimed book was Nadia the Willful (1983), which depicts the grief of a Bedouin girl whose brother has died. Alexander developed the story out of her own distress over her younger brother's death and her father's unwillingness to discuss it. Lila on the Landing (1987), drawn from her experience growing up in Chicago, described the loneliness of a