Kownacka was born on 11 September 1894 in
Słup,
partitioned Poland. She became a village schoolteacher at the age of 18, teaching in
Dębowa Góra in 1914. It is around that time she also begun her career as a writer. Later she founded her own school in
Krzywda on land owned by a relative. As she did not have sufficient funds to buy books, she wrote down her own stories for the children. It would be published in the book form in 1936 and would become one of the classics of Polish
children's literature, and part of the Polish elementary school curriculum. She continued publishing children's literature after the war:
Kajtkowe przygody (1948),
Tajemnica uskrzydlonego serca (1948),
Dzieci z Leszczynowej Górki (with Zofia Malicka, 1952),
Rogaś z Doliny Roztoki (1957),
Szkoła nad obłokami (1958),
Za żywopłotem (1971),
Na tropach węża Eskulapa (with Kazimierz Garstka, 1980). In 1963 she also co-authored (with a children's encyclopedia about nature,
Głos przyrody. She died on 27 February 1982 in
Warsaw. She was buried in the
Powązki Cemetery. == Awards ==