Barrows' first writing output was for adult non-fiction. In 2003 she turned to
Children's literature, for which she is most noted and honored. Of her interest in this area she has written: :I sometimes think I've spent my entire life trying to recreate one particular afternoon of my tenth year. That was the day I lay on the couch reading a wonderful book called
Time at the Top until I lost all sense of my real life and joined the life of the book instead. It was glorious, like walking into a dream. I want every kid to have that experience, but most of all, being horribly selfish, I want to have it again, too. And finally, I've discovered a way: I write books. ==Published works==