Barbara Claassen Smucker (September 1, 1915 – July 29, 2003) was an American writer, primarily of children's fiction, who lived in Canada from 1969 to 1993. She is the author of twelve books, including Underground to Canada (1977) which is still widely studied in Canadian schools and Days of Terror (1979) which won the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize. In 1988, she received the Vicky Metcalf Award for a distinguished body of writing.[1][2]
Born Barbara Claassen in Newton, Kansas,[3] she studied for a year at Bethel College and then went to Kansas State University where she received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1936. After graduation, she taught high school for a year and then worked as a journalist for The Evening Kansan-Republican. In 1939 she married Donovan Smucker, a Mennonite pastor and academic specialising in Christian ethics. They moved to Canada in 1969, where Donovan taught at Conrad Grebel College in Ontario while Barbara worked as a librarian, first as the children's librarian at Kitchener Public Library and then as the head librarian of Renison College (1977–1982). Most of her books were published while they were living in Canada. The couple returned to the United States in 1993, settling in Bluffton, Ohio. Donovan died in 2001. Barbara died two years later in the Mennonite Memorial Home at age 87.[1][4][5]
Books
1955: Henry's Red Sea; Scottdale: Herald Press
1957: Cherokee Run; Scottdale: Herald Press
1966: Wigwam in the City, illustrated by Gil Miret; New York: Dutton (published as Susan; New York: Scholastic Book Services)
1977: Underground to Canada, illustrated by Tom McNeely; Toronto: Clark, Irwin (published in 1978 as Runaway to Freedom: A Story of the Underground Railway, illustrated by Charles Lilly; New York: Harper)
1979: Days of Terror; Scottdale: Herald Press
1983: Amish Adventure; Scottdale: Herald Press
1983: CMBC Junior Boys Rescue Team; Self Published (5 copies made, unknown if they still exist)
1985: White Mist; Toronto: Clarke, Irwin
1987: Jacob's Little Giant; Markham, Ontario: Viking Kestrel
1990: Incredible Jumbo; New York: Viking
1996: Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt, illustrated by Janet Wilson; New York: Crown
1999: Selina and the Shoo-fly Pie, illustrated by Janet Wilson; New York: Stoddart Kids
