Barbara Smucker was one of Canada’s best-known and best-loved authors of fiction for children and young adults. Throughout her career, she was profoundly affected by civil rights issues, which informed works such as Days of Terror, White Mist, and Underground To Canada. She won multiple awards for her work, including the Vicky Metcalf Award, the Canada Council Children’s Literature Prize, and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. She passed away in 2003.