Peg Kehret

生卒: 1936 – 2025
国籍: 美国

生平与创作

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Margaret Ann Kehret (née Schulze; November 11, 1936 – December 7, 2025) was an American author, primarily writing for children between the ages of 10 and 15. After beating three types of polio at age 12, Kehret went on to become an author of children's, young adults', and adults' literature, winning over fifty awards throughout her career.

Background

Margaret Ann Schulze was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on November 11, 1936. She contracted polio at age 12 in 1949. She had each of the three types of polio: spinal, respiratory, and bulbar. She was paralyzed from the neck down and had a nine-month hospital stay. The experience changed Kehret's life, as she describes in her 1996 memoir Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Kehret made a complete recovery aside from lingering post-polio syndrome. She later graduated from Austin High School and then attended the University of Minnesota for one year. In 1955, she married Carl Kehret; they moved to California and adopted two children, Bob and Anne.

In 1970, the Kehrets moved to Washington. Carl died in 2004. Kehret had four grandchildren: Brett, Chelsea, Eric, and Mark. She had a great-grandson, Seth, who also lived in Washington. Kehret resided near Mt. Rainier National Park.

Kehret spent six weeks every spring and fall visiting schools across the country, but later had to cut these visits due to difficulties caused by post-polio syndrome. In addition to being a writer, she spent much of her life rescuing and caring for animals, including volunteering at the Seattle humane society for more than 25 years, inspiring many of her fictional works. Following her husband's passing in 2004, Kehret maintained her passion by continuing to foster cats. She also wrote a "Pet of the Month" column for her local newspaper alongside her volunteer work with animals.

Kehret died on December 7, 2025, at the age of 89.

Career

Before Kehret began writing children's books, she wrote plays, radio commercials and magazine stories. Her transition to writing for children stems from what she cites as the importance of children’s books: undoing negative effects left on children by mainstream media, movies, and video games and instead, teaching them empathy. She weaves character growth and age appropriate moral dilemmas into her forty-six works for middle school students, including four children's drama books.

Her work is divided into subgenres of memoir, natural disaster, animal, novel, and horror adventure books. One of her most famous memoirs is Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, in which she writes about her diagnosis and treatment in great detail. Her natural disaster novels include Escaping the Giant Wave and Earthquake Terror which use fictional stories to teach children on the dangers of natural disasters. Books inspired by her work with animals include Saving Lilly and her Pete The Cat trilogy. Some of Kehret's most popular novels are Stolen Children, Abduction!, and Runaway Twin. She wrote a Frightmares series consisting of eight books as well.

Awards and recognition

Kehret's books for young people have earned a wide readership and critical acclaim. Among her many honors are the Pen Center West Award in Children's Literature, the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and illustrators. Children's Choice Awards from 29 states, the Forest Roberts Playwriting Award, and the Henry Bergh Award from the ASPCA. Many for her books have been selected by the American Library Association for its Recommended Books for Reluctant Readers. In total, her books have won more than fifty state young reader awards.

Kehret's polio memoir received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, won the 1998 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award - annually determined by a vote of Vermont schoolchildren, and won the 1999 Mark Twain Readers Award - a similar annual book award determined by a vote of Missouri schoolchildren in grades 4 to 6. The award recognized four of her books from 1999 to 2012: Abduction!, Runaway Twin, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, and Stolen Children.

The Children’s Choices project allows 10,000 school children across the country to vote on newly published works that they enjoyed. The project is of a joint committee supported by the International Reading Association and The Children’s Book Council. Over 700 books, selected by publishers from books published in 2000, were evaluated in 2001. The 99 books with the most votes were selected to be the Children’s choices for 2001, one being Don’t Tell Anyone by Peg Kehret.

She was awarded the Charlotte Award sponsored by the New York State Reading Association for her work Stolen Children in 2010.