Lois Lowry: Hello. My name is Lois Lowry, easy to pronounce but oddly it has not always been my name. Of course people get married and their name changes, but Lois has not always been my first name. That's kind of the funny story. My grandmother was Norwegian, and her name was a Norwegian name, Sena, S-E-N-A. When I was born in Hawaii, 1937, my parents named me for my Norwegian grandmother, so my name was Sena and my last name was Hammersberg, a Norwegian name.

They sent a telegram to Wisconsin telling her of my birth and that I had been named for her. She sent a telegram back saying, "Change her name. Give her an American name." My name was legally changed when I was still a tiny infant, and I was named for my father's two sisters, Lois Ann. I always have kind of wished that I had kept the Norwegian name.