Mary Downing Hahn

Mary Downing Hahn (born December 9, 1937) is an American writer of young adult novels and a former school librarian. She is known for books such as Stepping On The Cracks and Wait Till Helen Comes.^[1] She published her first book in 1979 and has since written over 30 novels.^[2][3] Her novel What We Saw was published in September 2022.^[4]

Mary Downing Hahn
Born	(1937-12-09) December 9, 1937 (age 87) Washington, D.C. (or College Park, Maryland, sources vary), U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Young adult fiction including ghost, horror, mystery stories

Personal life

The daughter of Kenneth Ernest Downing (an automobile mechanic) and Anna Elisabeth Sherwood (a teacher), Mary Downing married William E. Hahn on October 7, 1961 and was divorced in 1977. They had two daughters. She married her second husband, Norman Pearce Jacob (a librarian) on April 23, 1982.^[5]

She suffered a major stroke at the age of 44.^[6]

Books

The Sara Summer (1979) Time of the Witch (1982) Daphne's Book (1983) The Jellyfish Season (1985) Wait Till Helen Comes (1986) Following the Mystery Man (1988) Tallahassee Higgins (1988) December Stillness (1988) The Doll in the Garden (1989) The Dead Man in Indian Creek (1990) The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster (1991) Stepping on the Cracks (1991) The Wind Blows Backward (1993) Don't Give Up the Ghost (1993, contributor) Time for Andrew (1994) Look for Me by Moonlight (1995) The Gentleman Outlaw and Me–Eli (1996) Following My Own Footsteps (1996) As Ever, Gordy (1998) Anna All Year Round (1999)

Promises to the Dead (2000) Anna on the Farm (2001) Hear the Wind Blow (2003) The Old Willis Place (2004) Janey and the Famous Author (2005) Witch Catcher (2006) Deep and Dark and Dangerous (2007) All the Lovely Bad Ones (2008) Closed for the Season (2009) The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall (2010) Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls (2012) Where I Belong (2014) Took (2015) One for Sorrow (2017) The Girl In The Locked Room (2018) Guest: A Changeling Tale (2019) The Puppet's Payback: And Other Chilling Tales (2020) The Thirteenth Cat (2021) What We Saw (2022) The Ghosts of Fulton Arms (2024)

Awards

• Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Stepping on the Cracks (1992)
• Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Closed for the Season (2010)^[7]

State awards

Wait Till Helen Comes (1986)

• Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington)
• Rebecca Caudhill Young Readers' Book Award (Illinois)
• Young Hoosier Award (Indiana)
• Iowa Children's Choice Award
• Maud Hart Lovelace Award (Minnesota)
• Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)
• Volunteer State Book Award (Tennessee)
• Texas Bluebonnet Award
• Utah Children's Book Award
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (Vermont)
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award

The Doll in the Garden (1989)

• Georgia Children's Book Award
• Mark Twain Award (Missouri)
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award

The Dead Man In Indian Creek (1990)

• Colorado Children's Book Award
• Maud Hart Lovelace Award (Minnesota)
• South Carolina Children's Book Award
• Utah Children's Book Award
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award

Stepping on the Cracks (1991)

• Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)
• South Carolina Children's Book Award

Time for Andrew (1994)

• California Young Reader's Medal
• Georgia Children's Book Award
• Rebecca Caudhill Young Readers' Book Award (Illinois)
• William Allen White Children's Book Award (Kansas)
• Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award
• Mark Twain Award (Missouri)
• Texas Bluebonnet Award
• Utah Children's Book Award
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (Vermont)
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award

The Gentleman Outlaw and Me—Eli (1996)

• Iowa Children's Choice Award

The Old Willis Place (2004)

• William Allen White Children's Book Award (Kansas)
• Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)
• South Carolina Children's Book Award
• Volunteer State Book Award (Tennessee)
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (Vermont)

Witch Catcher (2006)

• West Virginia Children's Book Award

Deep and Dark and Dangerous (2007)

• Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)

Closed for the Season (2009)

• Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)