This story, the first book in the Mary Jane series, recounts the happy, wholesome adventures of five-year-old Mary Jane and her family as she helps her mother around the house, goes on a picnic with the big girls, plants a garden with her father, learns to sew and more. Clara Ingram Judson (1879–1960) was an American author who wrote over 70 books for children. She was born on May 4, 1879, in Logansport, Indiana, and married James McIntosh Judson in 1901. Her first children's book was Flower Fairies, published in 1915. She is probably most famous for her books in the Mary Jane Series, first published in 1918. Her radio program on homemaking debuted in 1928, making her one of the first women broadcasters. She died on May 24, 1960, in Evanston, Illinois, shortly before she would receive the second Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, just after Laura Ingalls Wilder herself. She Later got her own award, the Clara Ingram Judson Award.