Janet McDonald

Janet McDonald (August 10, 1953 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer of young adult novels as well as the author of Project Girl, a memoir about her early life in Brooklyn's Farragut Houses and struggle to achieve an Ivy League education. Her best known children's book is Spellbound, which tells the story of a teenaged mother who wins a spelling competition and a college scholarship. The book was named as one of the American Library Association's eighty-four Best Books for Young Adults in 2002. In 2003, her novel Chill Wind won her the John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

In addition to books, McDonald also wrote articles for publications such as Slate, including one in which she paid psychic Sylvia Browne $700 for a telephone reading. McDonald was a member of Mensa, the high IQ society.

Biography After graduating from Vassar (1977), Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (1984), and New York University Law School (1986), McDonald practiced law in New York City (1986–89) and Seattle (1989–91). She took a position as an intern at a Paris law firm (1991–93) before moving to Olympia, Washington, to work in the Attorney General's office and teach French language classes at Evergreen State College. McDonald settled in Paris in 1995 to work first as an international attorney and then as a writer, until she died of cancer in 2007.