Children's author Charlotte Zolotow dies

The more than 70 children's books by Charlotte Zolotow are not, in many cases, escapist, fantasy fare.

"My Grandson Lew" is about a boy struggling with the death of his grandfather; "The Old Dog" concerns the loss of a beloved pet; "The Hating Book" deals with anger toward a friend; and "William's Doll" is about a boy who is bullied because he wants a doll.

Zolotow approached these topics and many more in a gentle, reassuring manner. But the author, who had a difficult, troubled upbringing, firmly believed that it was unhealthy for children's feelings toward sadness to be discounted or, even worse, ignored.

"Children have the same emotions as adults, though they experience them more intensely," she is quoted as saying on a website dedicated to her work, "since they haven't yet learned the protective camouflage with which we adults disguise our feelings."

Zolotow, 98, died Nov. 19 at her home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., said her daughter, author Crescent Dragonwagon.

One of Zolotow's last books was 1997's "Who Is Ben?" about a boy asking questions about his existence. Dragonwagon said she might read from it at a memorial for her mother.

"The boy asks, 'Why does the day end?' " Dragonwagon said, "and his mother tells him that it doesn't end, it goes on to become day somewhere else."

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Charlotte Gertrude Shapiro was born June 26, 1915, in Norfolk, Va.

In addition to her daughter, Zolotow is survived by a son, Stephen, one grandchild and two great-grandchildren. She was divorced from writer Maurice Zolotow, who died in 1991.