Donald J. Sobol, American author, was born Oct. 4, 1924 in New York, N.Y. He has one sister, Helen.

After serving in World War II, Sobol enrolled in Oberlin in 1946 where in his junior year of college he took a Creative Writing class that changed his life.

He gives credit for his career to his English teacher, John Singleton, who gave him a personal advanced course in Creative Writing. Sobol earned a bachelor’s degree.

In 1955, he married and he and his wife had four children, John, Eric, Glen and Diane.

Their son Glen died in a car accident in 1983 at the age of 23.

They also have four grandchildren. Sobol has written more than 80 books for children and young adults.

He is best known for his Encyclopedia Brown mystery series. The first book of this series was published in 1963 after being rejected by 24 publishers.

Henryetta Public Library has two of his books from this series, “Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case” and “E.B. Solves Them All.”

Sobol died July 11, 2012 in Miami, Fla.

October themes on the library calendar include Children’s Magazine Month, Computer Learning Month, Arts and Humanities Month, International School Library Month, Health Literacy Month and Bullying Prevention Month.