Barbara Claassen Smucker (1915-2003) is the author of twelve children's books. Many of her books tell the stories of persecuted people looking for freedom, safety, and a better life. Intrigued by particular people groups, she has written about the Amish, Native Americans, Russian Mennonites, and escaped slaves. Runaway to Freedom: A Story of the Underground Railroad< won numerous prizes, including being named one of Canada's best fifty children's books of all time. Another book with characters of Mennonites from the Russian Ukrainian villages is Days of Terror, a story during the 1920s, just before Lenin came to power.