Author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana, and she spent her teenage years in Joliet, Illinois with some occasional trips to Iowa. Two of her series are set in Indiana: the witch books and the Bessledorf mystery series. Some of the titles in those series include "Witch's Sister," "The Witch Herself," "The Witch Returns," "The Mad Gasser of Bessledorf Street," "The Bodies in the Bessledorf Hotel," and "Bernie and the Bessledorf Ghost." Naylor's book "Shiloh" won the Newberry Award and the 1995 Young Hoosier Book Award.