Mary Childs Jane (1909 - 1991)

Genre: Young Adult, Children's Literature

Children's mystery writer Mary Childs Jane was born in Needham, Massachusetts, and graduated from Bridgewater State Teachers College (Mass.) in 1931. Before her marriage to William Jane in 1937, with whom she had two sons, she taught in Pippapon, Kentucky (1931-1932), Chester, Massachusetts (1932-1935), and Needham, Massachusetts (1935-1937). She was a long-time resident of Newcastle, Maine.

Jane's specialty was writing mysteries for middle school age children. She knew, from her teaching experience, that many reluctant readers can be lead to reading with mysteries. Her books include:

• Mystery in Old Quebec (1955)
• The Ghost Rock Mystery (1956): When Janice and Tommy visit their Aunt Annabelle's guest house in Maine, they begin wonder if it's haunted.
• Mystery at Pemaquid Point (1957): While staying in a mostly deserted town in Maine, Elizabeth and her new friend Henry try to solve the mystery of the burnings and thefts, during a raging hurricane.
• Mystery at Shadow Pond (1958), set in Maine.
• Mystery on Echo Ridge (1959)
• Mystery Back of the Mountain (1960)
• Mystery at Dead End Farm (1961)
• Mystery Behind Dark Windows (1962)
• Mystery by Moonlight (1963)
• Mystery in Longfellow Square (1964), set in Portland, Maine
• Indian Island Mystery (1965), set in Maine
• The Dark Tower Mystery (1966)
• Mystery on Nine-Mile Marsh (1967)
• Mystery of the Red Carnations (1968)
• The Rocking-Chair Ghost (1969)
• Mystery in Hidden Hollow (1970)

She also edited, with Jessie Wheeler Freeman, Interior of a Question Mark: Poems by Israel Newman (1957). Newman (1884-1954) was a Maine psychotherapist. Jane was for several years president of the Poetry Fellowship of Maine.


Last Update: 06/04/2007

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