Emily Cheney Neville was born December 28, 1919. Graduating from Bryn Mawr in 1940, she Married Glenn Neville and had five children. During the 1940's, Ms. Neville worked as a reporter and in the 1960's began writing children's and young adult literature. Her first book, It's Like This, Cat, published in 1963 won the Newberry Award in 1964. She continued to publish throughout the 1960's. Her books have been praised by critics for their emphasis on realism and honest depiction of adolescent life. Her books are also noted for their sense of time and place, most notably New York City in the 1960's, and while they may seem dated in some respects, Ms. Neville gives readers a detailed picture of a now vanished world. Ms. Neville's books have also been lauded as helping pave the way for more realistic portrayals of adolescence and urban life, a departure from many of the young adult books of the 1960's with their conventional stories and happy endings.
From the guide to the Emily Cheney Neville Papers, 1963-1969, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])
