Lois Lowry was born in the Territory of Hawaii in 1937, but spent much of her childhood in her mother's hometown in Pennsylvania. During World War II, Lois' father served abroad as an army dentist. After the war, the entire family moved to Tokyo and later to New York. Throughout her childhood, Lois tended to live in her imagination and in the world of books. She spent hours writing poems and stories in her private notebook. When she was 13, her parents bought her a typewriter.