In the early 1940s, Lenski was told by her doctor that for the sake of her health she needed to avoid Connecticut's harsh winters. The family began to spend their winters in the southern United States, first visiting Louisiana and then Florida. During these trips Lenski observed the social and economic differences between this region of the country and her familiar Midwest and Northeast, inspiring her to write about the ways of life experienced by children in diverse American regions. Although her writing was interrupted by illness in the early 1950s, she continued the project of writing regional stories until 1968.