Carolyn Coman is an American writer best known for children's books. Her novels What Jamie Saw and Many Stones were among the runners-up for major annual awards by the American Library Association and the National Book Foundation. Coman was born in Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago. She worked as a bookbinder 1975-84 and later as an editor with Heinemann before she became a full-time writer. She edited Body and Soul, a photo-portrait documentary by Judy Dater, and wrote the text of a children's picture book, prior to completing four young-adult novels from 1993 to 2000. Her novels for middle-grade readers combine humour, investigation and a sense of nostalgia. In the YA novels, "She explores the darker sides of growing up: dealing with parent's abandonment through death in Tell Me Everything, abuse by a stepparent in What Jamie Saw, sibling incest in Bee and Jacky and a political-inspired tragedy in Many Stones." Many Stones was inspired by the murder of Amy Biehl. What Jamie Saw was Newbery Medal honor book and a National Book Award for Young People's Literature finalist. Many Stones was a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and another another National Book Award finalist. 

January 1st, 1951 in Evanston (Age 73)