Betty Ren Wright, award-winning author of numerous ghost stories and mysteries for children and a former editor of children’s books, died in Racine, WI, on December 31, 2013. She was 86. "We have lost a wonderful Wisconsin writer who knew the emotions and courage of children," Erlene Killeen, retired school librarian for the Stoughton Area School District, tells School Library Journal. "[She] made us all proud to have curiosity and wonder in our regular lives. She will live on in our public and school libraries for decades to come." Though she penned more than 50 books, Wright is perhaps best known for The Dollhouse Murders (Holiday House, 1983), a story of a teenage girl and her mentally disabled sister who discover a supernatural dollhouse in the attic. The house holds the clue to their grandmother’s death 30 years earlier. The book is an early example of a character dealing with a sibling’s disability. Wright got the idea for the character after seeing two siblings picnicking at a highway rest stop.At the time of its publication SLJ said, “The combination of a beautiful, fascinating dollhouse, dark family secrets, ghostly events, danger, and suspense are sufficient to make this a likely choice for escape reading.” The book was adapted into a made-for-television movie in 1992. In 1985, the author took on gender roles in Christina’s Ghost (Holiday House). “Wright adds a welcome commentary about sexism, helping Christina realize that she must defy traditional gender roles and embrace her inner girl-power," said Brian E. Wilson of Evanston Public Library, IL, in his SLJ reviewk. The title went on to receive seven child-voted state awards. From 1949 to 1978, Wright was a children’s book editor in Racine for Western Publishing, the company who created Golden Books. During that time, she wrote the texts for more than 30 picture storybooks such as Willy Wo-oo-oo (Whitman, 1951) and Good Morning Farm (Western, 1971). After her 1976 marriage to artist George Frederiksen, Wright began writing full time, and her first book during this time was Getting Rid of Margery  (Holiday House, 1981). She remained an author with Holiday House for 25 years; her last book for the publisher was 2006’s Princess for a Week. Her books have won several other state awards and she was especially proud to have two Texas Bluebonnet Awards and two Missouri Mark Twain Awards. In 2006, she was named a Notable Children’s Author by the Wisconsin Library Association. “I’ve met hundreds of people I wouldn’t otherwise have know, traveled to places I might otherwise have never seen, heard from readers who have enriched my life in countless ways,” she told the organization at the time of the honor. “Writing a book was the great dream. The reality has been even better.” Wright was born in Wakefield, MI, on June 15, 1927, to William and Revena Wright and attended Milwaukee-Downer College (now Lawrence University of Wisconsin). Even as a child, she always wanted to be a writer, she often said. Her first stories were sold to Alfred Hitchcock’s magazine where she discovered that she enjoyed crime tales. She is survived by two children, eight grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren.