Born in 1951 in River Forest, Illinois, Joan Bauer hails from a literary family—her mother was a high school English teacher and her grandmother a professional storyteller. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her father had an alcohol use disorder and eventually disappeared from her life. After suffering injuries in a car accident in her thirties, Bauer pivoted from screenwriting and journalism to writing novels, specifically for children and young adults. While recovering, she wrote her first book, Squashed. Since then, she has written many award-winning novels, including Hope Was Here, which won the Newbery Award in 2001. Drawing on her own experiences growing up, Bauer’s novels often tap into adversity faced by young people. For example, Rules of the Road is inspired by her own experience of having a father with an alcohol use disorder. Similarly, Stand Tall tackles the difficulty of coping with divorce, as Tree notes “just how complicated his life had become” since his parents split (3).

Bauer’s work fits snugly within the literary context of realistic middle grade literature, as it addresses coming-of-age amid personal and family struggles. Like Tree, many young characters traverse the challenges of divorce, and other popular titles like Kate DiCamillo’s