Eloise Jarvis McGraw was an author of children's books and young adult novels. She also wrote an adult novel called Pharaoh. She was awarded the Newberry Honour three times in three different decades, for her novels Moccasin Trail (1952), The Golden Goblet (1962), and The Moorchild (1997). A Really Weird Summer (1977) won an Edger Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America. McGraw had a very strong interest in history, and among the many books she wrote for children are Greensleeves, The Seventeenth Swap, and Mara, Daughter of the Nile.