Zilpha grew up in the country and had many animals including cows, goats, ducks, rabbits, chickens, dogs, cats and horses.
Zilpha learned to read before she had begun going to school by eavesdropping on her mother's lessons to her older sister.
Zilpha began to create stories at the age of eight.
Zilpha loved to play games as a child and many of her games involved creating stories and personalities out of inanimate objects such as trees, plants and toys.
In fifth grade, Zilpha was obsessed with Egyptians. Later, her own daughter created a game that centered around Egypt. This two things became the basis for her book, The Egypt Game.
Zilpha grew up in California during the Great Depression.
Zilpha didn't fit in very well in middle school because she had been moved ahead in elementary school and was much younger than the other middle school students.
Zilpha went to Whittier College and got a job as a teacher when she graduated.
Zilpha married her college sweetheart, Larry in 1950. They have three children, including a foster child from China.
Zilpha continued to work as a teacher and would work on writing her books at night. She couldn't type, so she wrote her first book by hand and Larry typed it for her.
The Egypt Game was her fourth book and the one that established her as a prominent children's author.
In addition to writing books for young adults, Zilpha has also written a book for adults, a poetry book, picture books, a book of short stories, and helped create a video game.
Zilpha and Larry travel a lot and have been to Japan, China, India, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Java, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, India, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Italy, and others.
Zilpha is still writing books and her newest one, The Unseen, will be released April 13, 2004.
All information on this page and the following pages (not including links in the links section to other pages) is for a Juvenile Literature class at Texas Woman's University.