Edith Thatcher Hurd; Author of Children’s Books

Edith Thatcher Hurd, 86, author of about 75 children’s books on science and everyday jobs. She collaborated on about 50 books with her late husband, illustrator Clement Hurd. Their last joint effort was “The Earth Is Not Flat” in 1986. Born in Kansas City, Mo., Edith Hurd attended Radcliffe College and Bank Street College in New York, where she met her first collaborator, Margaret Wise Brown. Their books, using the joint pseudonym Juniper Sage, included “Five Little Firemen” and “The Little Fat Policeman.” Hurd’s first solo effort was “Hurry Hurry,” published in 1938. A follow-up, “Hurry Hurry: A Story of What Happened to a Hurrier,” was released in 1947. Among her science books were “The Mother Whale” and “Rain and the Valley.” On Jan. 25 in Walnut Creek, Calif.