My first professional writing about children's books was for School Library Journal, beginning my reign of terror with a letter to the editor about--my critics will love this--what I saw as excessive feminist ideology used in the SLJ review to bring down a book I had found awfully good, Sue Ellen Bridgers' Notes for Another Life. (Writers: when your publisher tells you not to respond to a bad SLJ review, listen to them, because it generally means you're just going to get hammered twice.) That letter led to some book reviewing, which led to SLJ's longtime EIC Lillian N. Gerhardt calling me in Illinois to see if I would take over their monthly young adult column, "In the YA Corner," which I went on to write through the early eighties.

Like Zena, Lillian was a product of the University of Chicago's Graduate Library School, but she left the leafy quadrangles of Hyde Park for a career in library journalism, first causing trouble at Kirkus, then taking SLJ from supplement status in Library Journal to becoming its own roaring, independent self. Lillian taught me about deadlines, about newsiness, and about the ALA political drama she enjoyed so avidly. (I've never been much of the fan of the last, but Lil also taught me how to drink Manhattans, so her lessons were imparted painlessly.) I can't drink Manhattans anymore (and how I miss saying "dry, and lose the fruit") but I'll always be grateful to Lillian for the great grounding in journalism she gave me. Thanks, Lil!