Doris Smith Dies

Doris Buchanan Smith, the author of 17 books for adolescents, including the 1973 award-winning A Taste for Blackberries (Crowell), died August 8. She was 68. Smith, who had four children of her own, also cared for more than 200 foster children—some for a few days and others for months. Her books included Return to Bitter Creek (Viking, 1986), which was an SLJ and Publishers Weekly best book of the year, and The Pennywhistle Tree (Putnam, 1991). Smith won the Georgia Children's Book Award for 1974–1975 and the Children's Best Book Prize in Holland for Blackberries, about a boy whose best friend dies.