Yolen, Jane 1939–
Yolen, Jane 1939–
(Jane Hyatt Yolen)
PERSONAL: Born February 11, 1939, in New York, NY; daughter of Will Hyatt (an author and publicist) and Isabelle (a social worker, puzzle-maker, and home-maker; maiden name, Berlin) Yolen; married David W. Stemple (a retired professor of computer science and ornithologist), September 2, 1962; children: Heidi Elisabet, Adam Douglas, Jason Frederic. Education: Smith College, B.A., 1960; University of Massachusetts, M.Ed., 1976; also completed course work for doctorate in children's literature at the University of Massachusetts. Politics: Liberal Democrat. Religion: Jewish/Quaker. Hobbies and other interests: "Folk music and dancing, reading, camping, politics, all things Scottish."
ADDRESSES: Home—Phoenix Farm, 31 School St., Box 27, Hatfield, MA 01038, and Wayside, 96 Hepburn Gardens, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland KY16 9LN. Agent—Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown, Ltd., 10 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003. E-mail—JaneYolen@aol. com.
CAREER: Saturday Review, New York, NY, production assistant, 1960–61; Gold Medal Books (publishers), New York, NY, assistant editor, 1961–62; Rutledge Books (publishers), New York, NY, associate editor, 1962–63; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (publishers), New York, NY, assistant juvenile editor, 1963–65; full-time professional writer, 1965–. Editor of imprint, Jane Yolen Books, for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988–98. Teacher of writing and lecturer, 1966–; has taught children's literature at Smith College. Chairman of board of library trustees, Hatfield, MA, 1976–83; member of Arts Council, Hatfield.
MEMBER: Society of Children's Book Writers (member of board of directors, 1974–), Science Fiction Writers of America (president, 1986–88), Children's Literature Association (member of board of directors, 1977–79), Science Fiction Poetry Association, National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, Western New England Storyteller's Guild (founder), Bay State Writers Guild, Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild (founder), International Kitefliers Association, Smith College Alumnae Association.
AWARDS, HONORS: Boys' Club of America Junior Book Award, 1968, for The Minstrel and the Mountain; Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1968, for The Emperor and the Kite, and 1973, for The Girl Who Loved the Wind; Best Books of the Year selection, New York Times, 1968, for The Emperor Flies a Kite; World on a String: The Story of Kites was named an American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book, 1968; Chandler Book Talk Reward of Merit, 1970; Children's Book Showcase of the Children's Book Council citations, 1973, for The Girl Who Loved the Wind, and 1976, for The Little Spotted Fish; Golden Kite Award, Society of Children's Book Writers, 1974, ALA Notable Book, 1975, and National Book Award nomination, 1975, all for The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales; Golden Kite Honor Book, 1975, for The Transfigured Hart, and 1976, for The Moon Ribbon and Other Tales; Christopher Medal, 1978, for The Seeing Stick, and 2000, for How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?; Children's Choice from the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council, 1980, for Mice on Ice, and 1983, for Dragon's Blood; LL.D., College of Our Lady of the Elms, 1981; Parents' Choice Awards, Parents' Choice Foundation, 1982, for Dragon's Blood, 1984, for The Stone Silenus, and 1989, for Piggins and The Three Bears Rhyme Book; School Library Journal Best Books for Young Adults citations, 1982, for The Gift of Sarah Barker, and 1985, for Heart's Blood; Garden State Children's Book Award, New Jersey Library Association, 1983, for Commander Toad in Space; CRABbery Award from Acton Public Library (MD), 1983, for Dragon's Blood; Heart's Blood was selected one of ALA's Best Books for Young Adults, 1984; Mythopoeic Society's Fantasy Award, Adult Novel, 1985, for Cards of Grief, 1993 for Briar Rose, and 1998 for children's novels The Young Merlin Trilogy: Passager, Hobby, Merlin; Daedelus Award, 1986, for fantasy and short fiction; The Lullaby Songbook and The Sleeping Beauty were each selected one of Child Study Association of America's Children's Books of the Year, 1987; World Fantasy Award, 1988, for Favorite Folktales from around the World; Kerlan Award for "singular achievements in the creation of children's literature," 1988; Parents' Choice Silver Seal Award, Jewish Book Council Award, and Sydney Taylor Award, all 1988, Golden Sower Award from the Nebraska Library Association, 1989, and Charlotte Award from New York State Read-ing Association, all for Piggins; Smith College Medal, 1990; Skylark Award, New England Science Fiction Association, 1990; Regina Medal for body of writing in children's literature, 1992; Mythopoetic Fantasy Award, Adult, 1993, for Briar Rose; Keene State College Children's Literature Festival Award, 1995 and Children's Book Award, 1998; Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1996, for The Devil's Arithmetic; Nebula Award, Best Short Story, 1997, for Sister Emily's Lightship, and 1998, for Lost Girls; Literary Lights for Children Award, Boston Library, 1998; H.D.L., Keene State College, 1998; Anna V. Zarrow Award, 1999; Remarkable Women Award, 1999; California Young Reader Medal, young adult category, 2001, for Armageddon Summer; National Outdoor Book Awards, children's category, 2002, for Wild Wings; Network 2003 ORACLE Award for outstanding contributions to the literary body of storytelling, 2003; honorary doctorate, Smith College, 2003; Parents' Choice Gold Medal for Sword of the Rightful King, 2004; honorary doctorate, Bay Path College, 2004. Fifteen of Yolen's books have been selected by the Junior Literary Guild. In addition, The Emperor and the Kite was named a Caldecott Medal Honor Book, 1968, for its illustrations by Ed Young, and Owl Moon received the Caldecott Medal, 1988, for its illustrations by John Schoenherr.
WRITINGS:
FOR CHILDREN; PICTURE BOOKS AND FICTION
The Witch Who Wasn't, illustrated by Arnold Roth, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1964.
Gwinellen, the Princess Who Could Not Sleep, illustrated by Ed Renfro, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1965.
The Emperor and the Kite, illustrated by Ed Young, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1967, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1988.
The Minstrel and the Mountain: A Tale of Peace, illustrated by Anne Rockwell, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1967.
Isabel's Noel, illustrated by Arnold Roth, Funk & Wagnalls (New York, NY), 1967.
Greyling: A Picture Story from the Islands of Shetland, illustrated by William Stobbs, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1968, new edition, illustrated by David Ray; Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1991.
The Longest Name on the Block, illustrated by Peter Madden, Funk & Wagnalls (New York, NY), 1968.
The Wizard of Washington Square, illustrated by Ray Cruz, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1969.
The Inway Investigators; or, The Mystery at McCracken's Place, illustrated by Allan Eitzen, Seabury (New York, NY), 1969.
Hobo Toad and the Motorcycle Gang, illustrated by Emily McCully, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1970.
The Seventh Mandarin, illustrated by Ed Young, Seabury (New York, NY), 1970.
The Bird of Time, illustrated by Mercer Mayer, Crowell (New York, NY), 1971.
The Girl Who Loved the Wind, illustrated by Ed Young, Crowell (New York, NY), 1972.
The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales, illustrated by David Palladini, Crowell (New York, NY), 1974.
The Boy Who Had Wings, illustrated by Helga Aich-inger, Crowell (New York, NY), 1974.
The Adventures of Eeka Mouse, illustrated by Myra McKee, Xerox Education Publications (Middle-town, CT), 1974.
The Rainbow Rider, illustrated by Michael Foreman, Crowell (New York, NY), 1974.
The Little Spotted Fish, illustrated by Friso Henstra, Seabury (New York, NY), 1975.
The Transfigured Hart, illustrated by Donna Diamond, Crowell (New York, NY), 1975, Magic Carpet Books/Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1997.
Milkweed Days, photographs by Gabriel Amadeus Cooney, Crowell (New York, NY), 1976.
The Moon Ribbon and Other Tales, illustrated by David Palladini, Crowell (New York, NY), 1976.
The Seeing Stick, illustrated by Remy Charlip and Demetra Maraslis, Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.
The Sultan's Perfect Tree, illustrated by Barbara Garrison, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1977.
The Hundredth Dove and Other Tales, illustrated by David Palladini, Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.
Hannah Dreaming, photographs by Alan R. Epstein, Museum of Fine Art (Springfield, MA), 1977.
The Lady and the Merman, illustrated by Barry Moser, Pennyroyal, 1977.
Spider Jane, illustrated by Stefan Bernath, Coward (New York, NY), 1978.
The Simple Prince, illustrated by Jack Kent, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1978.
No Bath Tonight, illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker, Crowell (New York, NY), 1978.
The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms, illustrated by Laura Rader, Collins (New York, NY), 1978.
Dream Weaver and Other Tales, illustrated by Michael Hague, Collins (New York, NY), 1979, reissued as Dream Weaver, 1989.
Spider Jane on the Move, illustrated by Stefan Bernath, Coward (New York, NY), 1980.
Mice on Ice, illustrated by Lawrence DiFiori, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 1980.
Shirlick Holmes and the Case of the Wandering Wardrobe, illustrated by Anthony Rao, Coward (New York, NY), 1981.
The Acorn Quest, illustrated by Susanna Natti, Harper (New York, NY), 1981.
Brothers of the Wind, illustrated by Barbara Berger, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1981.
Sleeping Ugly, illustrated by Diane Stanley, Coward (New York, NY), 1981.
The Boy Who Spoke Chimp, illustrated by David Wiesner, Knopf (New York, NY), 1981.
Uncle Lemon's Spring, illustrated by Glen Rounds, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 1981.
(Reteller) The Sleeping Beauty, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson, Knopf (New York, NY), 1986.
Owl Moon, illustrated by John Schoenherr, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1987.
Dove Isabeau, illustrated by Dennis Nolan, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1989.
Baby Bear's Bedtime Book, illustrated by Jane Dyer, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1990.
Sky Dogs, illustrated by Barry Moser, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1990.
(Reteller) Tam Lin: An Old Ballad, illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1990.
Elfabet: An ABC of Elves, illustrated by Lauren Mills, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1990.
Letting Swift River Go, illustrated by Barbara Cooney, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1990.
The Dragon's Boy, Harper (New York, NY), 1990.
Wizard's Hall, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1991.
Hark! A Christmas Sampler, illustrated by Tomie dePaola, music by Adam Stemple, Putnam (New York, NY), 1991.
(Reteller) Wings, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1991.
All Those Secrets of the World (autobiographical fiction), illustrated by Leslie Baker, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1991.
Encounter, illustrated by David Shannon, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1992.
Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mole, illustrated by Kathryn Brown, published by Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1992.
Mouse's Birthday, illustrated by Bruce Degen, Putnam (New York, NY), 1993.
Hands, illustrated by Chi Chung, Sundance Publishing (White Plains, NY), 1993, also published as Hands: Big Book, 1993.
Beneath the Ghost Moon, illustrated by Laurel Molk, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.
Honkers, illustrated by Leslie Baker, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.
Travelers Rose, Putnam (New York, NY), 1993.
Grandad Bill's Song, illustrated by Melissa Bay Mathis, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1994.
And Twelve Chinese Acrobats (autobiographical fiction), illustrated by Jean Gralley, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1994.
Good Griselle, illustrated by David Christiana, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1994.
The Girl in the Golden Bower, illustrated by Jane Dyer, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.
Old Dame Counterpane, illustrated by Ruth Tietjen Councell, Putnam (New York, NY), 1994.
(Reteller) Little Mouse and Elephant: A Tale from Turkey, illustrated by John Segal, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.
(Reteller) The Musicians of Bremen: A Tale from Germany, illustrated by John Segal, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.
The Ballad of the Pirate Queen, illustrated by David Shannon, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1995.
Before the Storm, illustrated by Georgia Pugh, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1995.
(Reteller) A Sip of Aesop, illustrated by Karen Barbour, Blue Sky Press (New York, NY), 1995.
Merlin and the Dragons, illustrated by Ming Li, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 1995.
The Wild Hunt, illustrated by Francisco Mora, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1995.
(With daughter, Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple) Meet the Monsters, illustrated by Patricia Ludlow, Walker (New York, NY), 1996.
Nocturne, illustrated by Anne Hunter, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1997.
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth, illustrated by Jane Dyer, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.
Miz Berlin Walks, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1997.
(Reteller) Once upon a Bedtime Story: Classic Tales, illustrated by Ruth Tietjen Councell, 1997.
The Sea Man, illustrated by Christopher Denise, Putnam (New York, NY), 1997.
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast (short stories), Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1997.
House, House, illustrated with photographs by the Howes Brothers and Jason Stemple, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 1998.
King Long Shanks, illustrated by Victoria Chess, Har-court Brace (San Diego, CA), 1998.
(Reteller) Pegasus, the Flying Horse, illustrated by Ming Li, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 1998.
The Book of Fairy Holidays, illustrated by David Christiana, Blue Sky Press (New York, NY), 1998.
Raising Yoder's Barn, illustrated by Bernie Fuchs, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.
(Reteller) Prince of Egypt, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 1998.
(Compiler with Linda Mannheim) The Liars' Book, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Blue Sky Press, 1998.
(With Heidi E.Y. Stemple) Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History, illustrated by Roger Roth, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.
Moonball, illustrated by Greg Couch, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, illustrated by Mark Teague, Blue Sky Press (New York, NY), 2000.
Off We Go!, illustrated by Laurel Molk, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2000.
Harvest Home, illustrated by Greg Shed, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 2000.
Where Have the Unicorns Gone?, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson, Simon & Schuser (New York, NY), 2000.
Welcome to the River of Grass, illustrated by Laura Regan, Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.
The Hurrying Child, illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson, Silver Whistle Books (San Diego, CA), 2001.
Firebird, illustrated by Vladimir Vagin, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.
The Sea King, illustrated by Stefan Czernecki, Crocodile Books (Brooklyn, NY), 2003.
My Brothers' Flying Machine: Wilbur, Orville, and Me, paintings by Jim Burke, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2003.
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, illustrated by Mark Teague, Blue Sky Press (New York, Ny), 2003.
Hoptoad, illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt, Silver Whistle Books, (San Diego, CA), 2003.
The Flying Witch, illustrated by Vladimir Vagin, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
Meow: Cat Stories from around the World, illustrated by Hala Wittwer, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.
How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten?, illustrated by Mark Teague, Blue Sky Press (New York, NY), 2004.
"GIANTS" SERIES; ILLUSTRATED BY TOMIE DEPAOLA
The Giants' Farm, Seabury (New York, NY), 1977.
The Giants Go Camping, Seabury (New York, NY), 1979.
"COMMANDER TOAD" SERIES; ILLUSTRATED BY BRUCE DEGEN
Commander Toad in Space, Coward (New York, NY), 1980.
Commander Toad and the Planet of the Grapes, Coward (New York, NY), 1982.
Commander Toad and the Big Black Hole, Coward (New York, NY), 1983.
Commander Toad and the Dis-Asteroid, Coward (New York, NY), 1985.
Commander Toad and the Intergalactic Spy, Coward (New York, NY), 1986.
Commander Toad and the Space Pirates, Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.
Commander Toad and the Voyage Home, Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
"ROBOT AND REBECCA" SERIES
The Robot and Rebecca: The Mystery of the Code-Carrying Kids, illustrated by Jurg Obrist, Knopf (New York, NY), 1980, student book club edition illustrated by Catherine Deeter, Random House (New York, NY), 1980.
The Robot and Rebecca and the Missing Owser, illustrated by Lady McCrady, Knopf (New York, NY), 1981.
"PIGGINS" SERIES; ILLUSTRATED BY JANE DYER
Piggins, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1987.
Picnic with Piggins, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1988.
Piggins and the Royal Wedding, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1988.
"YOUNG MERLIN" TRILOGY
Passager, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1996.
Hobby, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1996.
Merlin, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1997.
"TARTAN MAGIC" SERIES
The Wizard's Map, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1998.
The Pictish Child, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1999.
The Bagpiper's Ghost, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 2002.
FOR CHILDREN; NONFICTION
Pirates in Petticoats, illustrated by Leonard Vosburgh, McKay (New York, NY), 1963.
World on a String: The Story of Kites, World Publishing (Cleveland, OH), 1968.
Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers, Seabury (New York, NY), 1972.
(Editor, with Barbara Green) The Fireside Song Book of Birds and Beasts, illustrated by Peter Parnall, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1972.
The Wizard Islands, illustrated by Robert Quackenbush, Crowell (New York, NY), 1973.
Ring Out! A Book of Bells, illustrated by Richard Cuf-fari, Seabury (New York, NY), 1974.
Simple Gifts: The Story of the Shakers, illustrated by Betty Fraser, Viking (New York, NY), 1976.
(Compiler) Rounds about Rounds, music by Barbara Green, illustrated by Gail Gibbons, Watts (New York, NY), 1977.
The Lap-Time Song and Play Book, musical arrangements by son Adam Stemple, illustrated by Margot Tomes, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1989.
A Letter from Phoenix Farm (autobiography), illustrated with photographs by son Jason Stemple, Richard C. Owen (Katonah, NY), 1992.
Jane Yolen's Songs of Summer, musical arrangements by Adam Stemple, illustrated by Cyd Moore, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1993.
Welcome to the Green House, illustrated by Laura Regan, Putnam (New York, NY), 1993.
Jane Yolen's Old MacDonald Songbook, illustrated by Rosekrans Hoffman, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1994.
Sing Noel, musical arrangements by Adam Stemple, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1996.
Milk and Honey: A Year of Jewish Holidays, illustrated by Louise August, musical arrangements by Adam Stemple, Putnam (New York, NY), 1996.
Welcome to the Sea of Sand, illustrated by Laura Regan, Putnam (New York, NY), 1996.
Welcome to the Ice House, illustrated by Laura Regan, Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.
Tea with an Old Dragon: A Story of Sophia Smith, Founder of Smith College, illustrated by Monica Vachula, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1998.
(With Heidi E.Y. Stemple) The Wolf Girls: An Unsolved Mystery from History, illustrated by Roger Roth, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.
(With Heidi E.Y. Stemple) Roanoke: The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History, illustrated by Roger Roth, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Denis Nolan, Dutton's Children's Books (New York, NY), 2004.
FOR CHILDREN; POETRY
See This Little Line?, illustrated by Kathleen Elgin, McKay (New York, NY), 1963.
It All Depends, illustrated by Don Bolognese, Funk & Wagnalls (New York, NY), 1970.
An Invitation to the Butterfly Ball: A Counting Rhyme, illustrated by Jane Breskin Zalben, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1976, Caroline House (Honesdale, PA), 1991.
All in the Woodland Early: An ABC Book, illustrated by Jane Breskin Zalben, Collins, 1979, Caroline House (Honesdale, PA), 1991.
How Beastly! A Menagerie of Nonsense Poems, illustrated by James Marshall, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1980.
Dragon Night and Other Lullabies, illustrated by Demi, Methuen (New York, NY), 1980.
(Editor) The Lullaby Songbook, musical arrangements by Adam Stemple, illustrated by Charles Mikolay-cak, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1986.
Ring of Earth: A Child's Book of Seasons, illustrated by John Wallner, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1986.
The Three Bears Rhyme Book, illustrated by Jane Dyer, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1987.
Best Witches: Poems for Halloween, illustrated by Elise Primavera, Putnam (New York, NY), 1989.
Bird Watch, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1990.
Dinosaur Dances, illustrated by Bruce Degen, Putnam (New York, NY), 1990.
(Compiler) Street Rhymes around the World, illustrated by seventeen artists, Wordsong (Honesdale, PA), 1992.
Jane Yolen's Mother Goose Songbook, musical arrangements by Jason Stemple, illustrated by Rosekrans Hoffman, Boyds Mill Press, 1992.
(Compiler) Weather Report, illustrated by Annie Gus-man, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1993.
Mouse's Birthday, illustrated by Bruce Degen, Putnam (New York, NY), 1993.
Raining Cats and Dogs, illustrated by Janet Street, Har-court Brace (San Diego, CA), 1993.
What Rhymes with Moon?, illustrated by Ruth Tietjen Councell, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1993.
(Compiler and contributor) Alphabestiary: Animal Poems from A to Z, illustrated by Allan Eitzen, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1994.
Sacred Places, illustrated by David Shannon, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1994.
Animal Fare: Zoological Nonsense Poems, illustrated by Janet Street, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1994.
The Three Bears Holiday Rhyme Book, illustrated by Jane Dyer, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1995.
Water Music: Poems for Children, illustrated with photographs by Jason Stemple, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1995.
(Compiler) Mother Earth, Father Sky: Poems of Our Planet, illustrated by Jennifer Hewitson, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1996.
O Jerusalem, illustrated by John Thompson, Scholastic Books (New York, NY), 1996.
Sea Watch: A Book of Poetry, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Putnam (New York, NY), 1996.
(Compiler and contributor) Sky Scrape/City Scape: Poems of City Life, illustrated by Ken Condon, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1996.
(Compiler) Once upon Ice and Other Frozen Poems, illustrated with photographs by Jason Stemple, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 1997.
Snow, Snow: Winter Poems for Children, illustrated with photographs by Jason Stemple, Wordsong (Honesdale, PA), 1998.
The Originals: Animals That Time Forgot, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1998.
Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People, photographs by Jason Stemple, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2000.
(With Heidi E.Y. Stemple) Dear Mother, Dear Daughter: Poems for Young People, illustrated by Gil Ashby, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2001.
Wild Wings: Poems for Young People, photographs by Jason Stemple, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2002.
Horizons: Poems As Far As the Eye Can See, photographs by Jason Stemple, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2002.
Least Things: Poems about Small Natures, photographs by Jason Stemple, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2003.
FOR YOUNG ADULTS; FICTION
(With Anne Huston) Trust a City Kid, illustrated by J.C. Kocsis, Lothrop, 1966.
(Editor) Zoo 2000: Twelve Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy Beasts, Seabury (New York, NY), 1973.
The Magic Three of Solatia, illustrated by Julia Noonan, Crowell (New York, NY), 1974.
(Editor and contributor) Shape Shifters: Fantasy and Science Fiction Tales about Humans Who Can Change Their Shape, Seabury (New York, NY), 1978.
The Gift of Sarah Barker, Viking (New York, NY), 1981.
Neptune Rising: Songs and Tales of the Undersea Folk (story collection), illustrated by David Wiesner, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1982.
The Stone Silenus, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1984.
Children of the Wolf, Viking (New York, NY), 1984.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh) Dragons and Dreams, Harper (New York, NY), 1986.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh) Spaceships and Spells, Harper (New York, NY), 1987.
The Devil's Arithmetic, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Werewolves: A Collection of Original Stories, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.
The Faery Flag: Stories and Poems of Fantasy and the Supernatural, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1989.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Things That Go Bump in the Night, Harper (New York, NY), 1989.
(Editor and contributor) 2041 AD: Twelve Stories about the Future by Top Science Fiction Writers (anthology), Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1990, reprinted as 2041, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1991.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Vampires, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.
Here There Be Dragons (original stories and poetry), illustrated by David Wilgus, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1993.
Here There Be Unicorns (stories and poetry), illustrated by David Wilgus, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1994.
Here There Be Witches (stories and poetry), illustrated by David Wilgus, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1995.
(Editor and contributor) Camelot: A Collection of Original Arthurian Tales, illustrated by Winslow Pels, Putnam (New York, NY), 1995.
(Editor, with Martin H. Greenberg, and contributor) The Haunted House: A Collection of Original Stories, illustrated by Doron Ben-Ami, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.
Here There Be Angels (stories and poetry), illustrated by David Wilgus, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1996.
Here There Be Ghosts (stories and poetry), illustrated by David Wilgus, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1998.
(With Bruce Coville) Armageddon Summer, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1998.
Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls, Silver Whistle Books (San Diego, CA), 2000.
Boots and the Seven Leaguers: A Rock-and-Troll Novel, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 2000.
(Editor and contributor) Sherwood: A Collection of Original Robin Hood Stories, illustrated by Dennis Nolan, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2000.
Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 2003.
Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys, illustrated by Paul Colón, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 2003.
"YOUNG HEROES" SERIES; FICTION
(With Robert J. Harris) Odysseus in the Serpent Maze, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.
(With Robert J. Harris) Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.
(With Robert J. Harris) Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
(With Robert J. Harris) Jason and the Gorgon's Blood, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.
"STUART" QUARTET; FICTION
Queen's Own Fool, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2001.
(With Robert J. Harris) Girl in a Cage, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2002.
Prince across the Water, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2004.
"PIT DRAGON" SERIES; FICTION
Dragon's Blood: A Fantasy, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1982, Harcourt Brace (Orlando, FL), 2004.
Heart's Blood, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1984, Harcourt Brace (Orlando, FL), 2004.
A Sending of Dragons, illustrated by Tom McKeveny, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1987, Harcourt Brace (Orlando, FL) 2004.
FOR ADULTS; FICTION
Cards of Grief (science fiction), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1984.
Sword and the Stone, Pulphouse (Eugene, OR), 1991.
Briar Rose, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1992.
The Books of Great Alta (includes Sister Light, Sister Dark, White Jenna, and The One Armed Queen) Tor (New York, NY), 1997.
COLLECTIONS
Merlin's Booke (short stories), illustrated by Thomas Canty, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1982.
Tales of Wonder (short stories), Schocken (New York, NY), 1983.
Dragonfield and Other Stories (story collection), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1985.
Storyteller, New England Science Fiction Association Press (Cambridge, MA), boxed edition illustrated by Merle Insinga, 1992
(With Nancy Willard) Among Angels (poetry), illustrated by S. Saelig Gallagher, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1995.
Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories, (science fiction), Tor Books (New York, NY), 2000.
The Radiation Sonnets (poetry collection) Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2003.
ANTHOLOGIES
(Editor) Favorite Folktales from around the World, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1986.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Xanadu, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1993.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Xanadu Two, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1994.
(Editor and contributor, with Martin H. Greenberg) Xanadu Three, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1995.
(Editor) Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from around the World, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1998.
(With Heidi E.Y. Stemple) Mirror, Mirror, Viking (New York, NY), 2000.
(With Shulamith Oppenheim) The Fish Prince and Other Stories: Mermen Folk Tales, illustrated by Paul Hoffman, Interlink Books (New York, NY), 2001.
NOVELTY
Time for Naps, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2002.
Animal Train, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2002.
Bedtime for Bunny: A Book to Touch and Feel, illustrated by Norton Parker, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2002.
"WHITE JENNA" SERIES; FICTION
Sister Light, Sister Dark, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1988.
White Jenna, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1989.
The One-armed Queen, with music by son Adam Stemple, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1998.
FOR ADULTS; NONFICTION
Writing Books for Children, The Writer (Boston, MA), 1973, revised edition, 1983.
Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1981, revised edition, August House, 2000.
Guide to Writing for Children, The Writer (Boston, MA), 1989.
Take Joy: A Book for Writers, Kalmbach Trade Press (Waukesha, WI), 2003.
Also author of the play Robin Hood, a musical with music by Barbara Greene first produced in Boston, MA, 1967, and of the chapbook The Whitethorn Wood. Ghostwriter of a number of books for Rutledge Press that were distributed by other publishing houses, including One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, a counting rhyme book published by Doubleday, and a series of activity books. Editor of books, including A Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno, Appleblossom by Shulamith L. Oppenheim, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, The Jewel of Life by Anna KirwanVogel, The Patchwork Lady by Mary K. Whittington, and The Red Ball by Joanna Yardley, all Harcourt Brace, 1991. Contributor to many books, including Dragons of Light, edited by Orson Scott Card, Ace Books, 1981; Elsewhere, edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold, Ace Books, Volume 1, 1981, Volume 2, 1982; Hecate's Cauldron, edited by Susan Schwartz, DAW Books, 1982; Heroic Visions, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Ace Books, 1983; Faery!, edited by Windling, Ace Books, 1985; Liavek, edited by Will Shet-terly and Emma Bull, Ace Books, 1985; Moonsinger's Friends, edited by Susan Schwartz, Bluejay, 1985; Imaginary Lands, edited by Robin McKinley, Greenwillow, 1985; Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England, by Jack Zipes, Methuen, 1986; Liavek: Players of Luck, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace Books, 1986; Liavek: Wizard's Row, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace Books, 1987; Visions, by Donald R. Gallo, Delacorte, 1987; Liavek: Spells of Binding, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace Books, 1988; Invitation to Camelot, by Parke Godwin, Ace Books, 1988; and The Unicorn Treasury, by Bruce Cov-ille, Doubleday, 1988, and dozens more. Author of introduction for Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale, collected and told by Robert D. San Souci, Philomel Books, 1993; Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival, National Storytelling Association, 1996; and Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from around the World by Kathleen Ragan, Norton, 1998. Yolen has also written songs and lyrics for folksingers, some of which have been recorded. Her papers are housed at the Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota.
Author of column "Children's Bookfare" for Daily Hampshire Gazette during the 1970s. Contributor of articles, reviews, poems, and short stories to periodicals, including Chicago Jewish Forum, Horn Book, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Language Arts, Los Angeles Times, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, New Advocate, New York Times, Parabola, Parents' Choice, Washington Post Book World, Wilson Library Bulletin, and Writer. Member of editorial board, Advocate (now New Advocate) and National Storytelling Journal, until 1989. Some of Yolen's books have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Afrikaans and Xhosa, and have been published in many countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden. She also writes as Jane H. Yolen.
ADAPTATIONS: The Seventh Mandarin was produced as a motion picture by Xerox Films, 1973; The Emperor and the Kite was produced as a filmstrip with cassette by Listening Library, 1976; The Bird of Time was adapted as a play and first produced in Northampton, MA, 1982; The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales was released on audio cassette by Weston Woods, 1983; Dragon's Blood was produced as an animated television movie by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1985, and shown on CBS Storybreak; Commander Toad in Space was released on audio cassette by Listening Library, 1986; Touch Magic … Pass It On, a selection of Yolen's short stories, was released on audio cassette by Weston Woods, 1987; Owl Moon was produced as a filmstrip with cassette by Weston Woods, 1988, and as both a read-along cassette, 1990, and a video; Owl Moon was also adapted as part of the video Owl Moon and Other Stories produced by Children's Circle; Piggins and Picnic with Piggins was released on audio cassette by Caedmon, 1988; Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy was released on audio cassette by NewStar Media, 1991; Merlin and the Dragons was released on audio cassette by Lightyear Entertainment, 1991, was produced as a video by Coronet, 1991, and was released as What's a Good Story? Merlin and the Dragon with commentary by Yolen; Greyling was released on audio cassette by Spoken Arts, 1993; Hands was released on audio cassette by Sundance Publishing, 1993; Beneath the Ghost Moon was produced as a video by Spoken Arts, 1996; Wizard's Hall was released on audio cassette by "Words Take Wines," narrated by Yolen, 1997. Recorded Books has also issued audio cassettes of three of Yolen's books: Briar Rose, The Devil's Arithmetic, and Good Griselle. Yolen is the subject of the audio cassette The Children's Writer at Work—Jane Yolen, produced by Real Life Productions; in addition, she is the subject of the videos Good Conversation: A Talk with Jane Yolen, produced by Weston Woods, and The Children's Writer at Work, produced by Reel Life, 1997. The Devil's Arithmetic was the inspiration for a TV movie broadcast on Showtime, which won two Emmys.
SIDELIGHTS: Dubbed "the American Hans Christian Andersen" by editor/publisher Ann K. Beneduce and "a modern equivalent of Aesop" by Noel Perrin in the New York Times Book Review, Jane Yolen is considered a gifted, versatile author who has developed a stellar reputation as a fantasist while contributing successfully to many other genres. An exceptionally prolific writer, she is the creator of approximately three hundred books for children and young adults and approximately twenty-five for adults. Yolen has written fiction for young adults and adults as well as poetry, criticism, and books on the art of writing and the genre of fantasy for an adult audience. She has also edited and compiled a number of works for both younger and older readers and has also contributed to several collections and anthologies. As a writer of juvenile literature, Yolen addresses her books to an audience ranging from preschool through high school and has written works ranging from picture books and easy readers to young adult novels. She is the creator of realistic fiction, mysteries, verse, animal tales, concept books, historical fiction, humorous stories, and lyrical prose poems, as well as informational books on such subjects as kites, bells, the Shakers, the Quakers, and the environment. Several of Yolen's books have been published in series, and she is particularly well known for the "Pit Dragon" series of young adult fantasy novels in which she created a mythological world based around cockfighting dragons on an arid planet. A folksinger and storyteller, Yolen has created several works that reflect her love of music and oral folklore, including compilations of international songs, rhymes, and stories. Several of the author's books are autobiographical or incorporate elements from her life or the lives of her family, and her three children all contribute to her works—daughter Heidi Elisabet as a writer and sons Adam and Jason as a musical arranger and photographer, respectively.
Yolen is perhaps best known as a writer of original folk and fairy tales and fables with a strong moral core. She has received special recognition for her literary fairy tales, works in the tradition of Oscar Wilde and Laurence Housman that combine familiar fantasy motifs with contemporary elements and philosophical themes. As a fantasist, Yolen is noted for creating elegant, eloquent tales with deep psychological insights that evoke a timeless sense of wonder while having relevance to contemporary life. She includes figures such as dragons, unicorns, witches, and mermaids as characters, and her stories often revolve around shape-shifters, animals who have the ability to transform into humans or humans into animals. As a writer, Yolen invests her works with images, symbols, and allusions as well as with wordplay—especially puns—and metaphors. She is considered an exceptional prose stylist whose fluid, musical writing is both polished and easy to read aloud.
As a writer of nonfiction, the author is credited for capturing the spirit of her subjects as well as for the enthusiasm with which she invests her books. Although her fiction is occasionally criticized for unlikely plots and sketchy characterizations and her fairy tales are sometimes considered too mannered, Yolen is generally praised as a writer of consistent quality whose books are evocative, moving, and enjoyable. Peter D. Sieruta of Children's Books and Their Creators stated: "With a confident writing style and inexhaustible imagination, Jane Yolen has proven herself one of the most prolific and diverse creators in the field of children's literature." In Yolen's entry in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, Marcia G. Fuchs commented: "Faerie, fiction, fact, or horrible fantasy, Yolen's lyrical and magical tales are indeed tales to read and to listen to, to share, to remember, and to pass on." Jane Langton, herself a noted writer of fantasy, stated in the New York Times Book Review that Yolen's fables "are told with sober strength and native wit. They are simple and perfect, without a word too much." Writing in Teaching and Learning Literature, Lee Bennett Hopkins toasted the author: "May the pen of Yolen never run dry. The world of children's literature has been, and will continue to be, richer for her vast talents."
Writing in the Fourth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators (FBJAI), Yolen said, "I come from a long line of storytellers. My great-grandfather was the Reb, the storyteller in a small village in Finno-Russia, my father an author, my mother a mostly unpublished writer." Yolen once remarked CA: "My father's family were merchants and storytellers (some called them well-off liars!). My mother's family were intellectuals. I seem to have gotten a bit of both, though not enough of either." Yolen's father publicized the sport of kite flying so successfully that, according to his daughter in he "forced a renaissance in kiting that is still going on"; in 1968 Yolen published World on a String: The Story of Kites, a well-received informational book about the subject. The author's mother quit her job as a social worker in order to raise Jane and her younger brother, Steven; in her free time, Isabelle Yolen wrote short stories and created crossword puzzles and double acrostics. Jane spent most of her childhood in New York City. She also spent summers in Virginia, the birthplace of her mother, and lived for a year and a half in California, where her father did publicity for Warner Brothers.
Yolen commented: "I was a writer from the time I learned to write." An early reader as well as a tomboy, Yolen played games in Central Park while being encouraged in her reading and writing by her teachers. "I was," she recalled "the gold star star. And I was also pretty impossibly full of myself. In first or second grade, I wrote the school musical, lyrics and music, in which everyone was some kind of vegetable. I played the lead carrot. Our finale was a salad. Another gold star." Yolen wrote in FBJAI, "If I had to point to my primary source of inspiration, it would be to the folk culture. My earliest readings were the folk tales and fairy stories I took home from the library by the dozens. Even when I was old enough to make the trip across Central Park by myself, I was still not too old for those folk fantasies." Yolen once reflected that she read "all the Andrew Lang fairy books as a child and any kind of fairy stories I could get my hands on. I vividly remember Treasure Island and the Louisa May Alcott books. All of the Alcott books, Jo's Boys, and even the Alcott books that nobody else had heard of, became part of my adolescent reading. I read The Wind in the Willows and the Mowgli stories. We didn't have 'young adult' fiction, so I skipped right into adult books which tended to be very morose Russian novels—my Dostoevsky phase—then I got hooked on Joseph Conrad. Adventure novels or lugubrious emotional books are what I preferred. Then I went back into my fairy tale and fantasy stage. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, metaphysical and folkloric fantasy." In a transcript of a speech in Judaica Librarianship, Yolen commented that she was raised "on tales of King Arthur and Robin Hood. I was a fanatical reader of fantasy and magic, history and adventure." She also began to develop her musical abilities, singing with a friend and earning enough money by passing the hat to buy sodas and ice cream. In sixth grade, Yolen was accepted by Hunter, a girls' school for what were called "intelligently gifted" students. The author said: "With my gold stars and my writing ability, I expected to be a superior gift to Hunter. To my surprise—and horror—I was barely in the middle of my class and managed to stay there by studying extremely hard."
While at Hunter, Yolen commented: "Music became a mainstay in my life." Her father, who sang and played the guitar, introduced Yolen to folk songs. She wrote in FBJAI, "I went him some better in learning every old English, Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian love song and ballad I ever heard." Yolen starred as Hansel in the school production of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel, played the piano, and wrote songs; in addition, she studied at Balanchine's American School of Ballet. She also developed her interest in writing. In eighth grade, Yolen wrote her first two books, a nonfiction book on pirates, and a novel about a trip across the West by covered wagon. She described this work, which is seventeen pages long and includes a plague of locusts, death by snake bite, and the birth of a baby on the trail, as "a masterpiece of economy." Her experience writing the novel helped Yolen to develop an appreciation for the short form. She acknowledged that short stories and poetry "have remained my first loves." During her twelfth and thirteenth summers, Yolen attended Indianbrook (now Farm and Wilderness), a Quaker camp in Vermont. Here, she said, "I learned about pacifism, swimming, storytelling, mucking out horse stalls, planting a garden, and kissing, not necessarily in that order."
After returning from her second summer at Indianbrook, Yolen moved with her family to Westport, Connecticut. As a student at Staples High School, she became captain of the girls' basketball team; news editor of the school paper; head of the Jewish Youth Group; vice president of the Spanish, Latin, and jazz clubs; a member of the school's top singing group; and a contributor to the school literary magazine. She also won a Scholastic Writing Award for one of her poems, a contest called "I Speak for Democracy," and her school's English prize. Before graduation, her class named Yolen "Best Voice for The Perfect Senior." A high school friend, Stella Colandrea, introduced Yolen to the Catholic Mass. "It was because of Stella's influence that I became enamored of different religions. My own Judaism and camp-discovered Quakerism were the most morally appealing, but the panoply of Catholic rites seem to have taken hold of my imagination and wind in and out of many of the elaborate religious rituals I write about in my fantasy tales. And, since I am an Arthurian buff and a lover of things medieval, knowing a bit about the church helps," Yolen stated. However, Yolen's greatest influence in high school was her cousin-in-law Honey Knopp, a pacifist and peace activist who held hootenannies at her home and gave Yolen a copy of Journal by George Fox, the founder of the Quaker faith. Fox later became the subject of Yolen's biography Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers. The home that Honey Knopp shared with her husband, Burt, according to Yolen, "became my haven. Oh, I still went to basketball games and dances and parties, wisecracking with my friends and being outrageous. But Honey called out another side of me." Honey's influence is present in many of Yolen's most well-known books, such as The Gift of Sarah Barker and The Transfigured Hart.
After graduating from high school, Yolen attended Smith College, a prestigious institution for women in western Massachusetts. Going to Smith, Yolen "was a choice that would, all unknowingly, change my life. It made me aware of friendships possible—and impossible—with women. It created in me a longing for a particular countryside, that of New England. It charged me with a sense of leftsidedness, of an alien or changeling awareness. And it taught me, really, about poetry and literature and the written word." At Smith, Yolen majored in English and Russian literature and minored in religion. She ran several campus organizations, authored and performed in the class musicals, and wrote her final exam in American intellectual history in verse, receiving an A+ as her grade. She also wrote poetry: between her junior and senior year, one of Yolen's poems was published in Poetry Digest, and her verse was also published in other small literary magazines.
Although poetry was in her soul, Yolen decided to become a journalist. During the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, Yolen worked as a cub reporter for the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. "It was there," Yolen recalled, "I wrote my first signed pieces for a newspaper. My very first byline read 'by Joan Yolen.' I did not take it as a sign." Other vacations were spent as a junior counselor in New Jersey and working for Newsweek magazine as an intern; she also contributed to the New Haven Register and published an article on kites in Popular Mechanics. Yolen dismissed the idea of being a journalist when she found herself making up facts and writing stories off the top of her head; she also found that she was emotional when it came to interviewing the poor. "It became clear," she said, "that I was a fiction writer." However, Yolen did continue her musical pursuits, writing in FBJAI that she "made an unhappy college career bearable by singing with a guitar-playing boyfriend at fraternity parties and mixers. We made a little money, a lot of friends, and imprinted hundreds of folk tunes on our hungry minds." After graduating from Smith, Yolen moved to New York City and worked briefly for This Week magazine and Saturday Review before launching her career as a freelance writer. She helped her father write his book The Young Sportsman's Guide to Kite Flying and did a number of small freelance jobs. Yolen took an apartment in Greenwich Village with two roommates. At a wild party there in the summer of 1960, she met her future husband, David Stemple, who was a friend of one of her roommates; the couple were married in 1962. Yolen has noted that one of her most popular books, The Girl Who Loved the Wind, is about her meeting with David, a computer expert and photographer who is Yolen's chief advisor on her books. "In it," she stated "a Persian girl is kept in a walled-in palace by an overprotective father until the day the wind leaps over the garden wall and sweeps her away into the wide, everchanging world."
Approached by an editor from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Yolen fibbed and said that she had a book-length manuscript ready for review. She recalled: "Caught in the web of this deceit, I, who always prided myself on my honesty, realized there was nothing to do but sit down at my typewriter and get something done quickly. Children's books! I thought. They'd be quickest and easiest." Yolen soon learned that writing books for children was not as quick and easy as she first thought. She collaborated with a high school friend, illustrator Susan Purdy, on several manuscripts, none of which were accepted by the editor at Knopf. Then, Yolen and Purdy sent their manuscripts to other publishers, but with no success. In 1961, Yolen became an assistant editor at Gold Medal Books, a paperback house known for its western novels and spy thrillers. She once commented: "I was famous for about a moment in publishing as the one who coined 'she was all things to two men' for some Gothic novel." Her father introduced Yolen to Eleanor Rawson, the vice president of David McKay Publishing Company. In turn, Rawson introduced the fledgling author to Rose Dobbs, the editor in charge of children's books. Yolen's first book, the nonfiction title Pirates in Petticoats, was followed by See This Little Line?, a picture book in rhyme that was published the same year.
After leaving Gold Medal Books, where she got to know such authors as Kurt Vonnegut and Harlan Ellison, Yolen became an associate editor at Rutledge Press, a small packaging house that created books and then sold them to larger publishing companies for distribution. Yolen became a ghostwriter for Rutledge, authoring several books—often concept and activity books—that were published under different names. While at Rutledge, Yolen met Frances Keene, an editor who became head of the children's book department at Mac-millan. Yolen called Keene, who was to publish five of her books, "a great teacher as well as a fine editor. She taught me to trust my storytelling ability and to work against being too quick…. She also pushed me into delving deeply into folklore while at the same time recognizing my comedic talents." Yolen described her association with Keene as the "beginning of an editorial relationship that I really count as the start of my writing career." In 1963 Yolen became an assistant editor in the children's department at Knopf, where she met authors and illustrators such as Roald Dahl and Roger Duvoisin and learned about children's literature. She formed a writers' group with such aspiring authors and editors as Jean van Leeuwen, Alice Bach, and James Cross Giblin; one of the members of the group, Anne Huston, collaborated with Yolen on the realistic young adult novel Trust a City Kid.
In 1965 the Stemples decided to spend a year traveling. For nine months, they trekked across Europe and then sailed for Israel and Greece. Yolen recalled that bits and pieces "of our wanderings have already found their way into my stories." She added that "places and people we met were stored away in my memory, and months, even years, later were transformed into the magical landscape of my tales." While they were traveling, Yolen discovered that she was pregnant; Heidi Stemple arrived in 1966, shortly after her parents returned to America. David Stemple took a job at the University of Massachusetts Computer Center in Amherst, so he and Jane relocated to western Massachusetts. Adam Stemple was born in 1968 and Jason Stemple in 1970. During the late 1960s, Yolen met editor Ann K. Beneduce, whom the author described as "another seminal influence in my writing life." Yolen and Beneduce, who, according to the author, "produced book after book in the handsomest way possible," worked on approximately thirty books together.
The Emperor and the Kite, a picture book that was among the first of Yolen's works to be edited by Ben-educe, is the first of the author's titles to receive major awards. The story outlines how Djeow Seow, the youngest and smallest daughter of an ancient Chinese emperor, saves her father after he is kidnapped by sending him a kite to which is attached a rope made of grass, vines, and strands of her hair. Writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), William E. Krueger noted that the story "is simply told in the folk tradition, with traditional motifs which provide an aura both of antiquity and of familiarity to the tale." The critic also observed the theme—"that those whom society considers deficient are capable and perhaps more proficient than others—recurs in subsequent tales." A critic in Publishers Weekly said that The Emperor and the Kite "is easily one of the most distinguished [books with Oriental backgrounds]—and distinguished proof that extravagance, intelligence, premeditated extravagance, always justifies itself." A reviewer in Children's Book News commented: "Here is a writer who delights in words and can use them in a controlled way to beautiful effect." In The Girl Who Loved the Wind, a picture book, again illustrated by Ed Young, a widowed merchant tries to protect his beautiful daughter from unhappiness but ends up making her a virtual prisoner. The wind visits her and sings to her about life, how it is always full of change and challenges. Finally, the merchant's daughter escapes with the wind into the world. Writing in School Library Journal, Marilyn R. Singer stated that Yolen "produced a treasure. The story has the grace and wisdom of a folk tale, the polish that usually comes from centuries of telling." Eleanor Von Schweinitz of Children's Book Review added that the author "has an especial gift for the invention of traditional-type tales and this is complemented by her rare ability to use language creatively. Here she has used the simple rhythms of the storyteller to conjure up the distinctive flavour of an Eastern tale." Yolen said that she wrote The Girl Who Loved the Wind "for myself, out of my own history. But recently I received a letter from a nurse who told me that she had read the story to a dying child, and the story had eased the little girl through her final pain. The story did that—not me. But if I can continue to write with as much honesty and love as I can muster, I will truly have touched magic—and passed it on."
When Yolen was sixteen, her aunt's sister by marriage, Honey Knopp, gave her a copy of the journal of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. "Since then," Yolen commented "I've been interested in the Quakers." Yolen became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1971. The next year, she published another of her most well-received titles, Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers. A biography of the seventeenth-century Englishman who founded the movement that came to be known as Quakerism as part of his own quest for religious freedom, the book is noted for portraying Fox—with his long hair and pronouncements in favor of women's rights and against war and slavery—as a kindred spirit to the young radicals of today. William E. Krueger of DLB called Friend"a quite readable biography, interesting and, in places, quite touching, without fictionalization." Writing in Library Journal, Janet G. Polacheck noted: "Even where the subject is not in great demand, this beautifully written, valuable biography is an essential purchase."
The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales, is a collection of five stories that, according to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, "could be called modern folk-or fairy tales, since they boast all the usual ingredients—supernatural beings, inexplicable happenings, the struggle between good and evil forces." The critic concluded that Yolen's "artistry with words … makes a striking book." A critic in Kirkus Reviews called The Girl Who Cried Flowers a "showpiece, for those who can forego the tough wisdom of traditional fairy tales for a masterful imitation of the manner." Reflective of a clear moral tone, The Girl Who Cried Flowers is also considered notable for suggesting the close relationship of humanity and nature. William E. Krueger of DLB called the book "haunting in its mythic implications" and stated that "the tone and poetic elements are Yolen's unique contributions."
All in the Woodland Early is a concept book that teaches the alphabet through the author's verses and musical score. The book outlines a little boy's hunting expedition in the woods; each letter represents the animal, bird, or insect—both familiar and unfamiliar—for which he is searching. At the end of the last verse, readers discover that the boy is gathering the animals to play with him and a little girl. Yolen also provides music to go with her words. Writing in the Washington Post Book World, Jerome Beatty, Jr. said: "Count on versatile Jane Yolen to invent something special and intriguing." He summed up his review by saying: "So clever! It adds another dimension to a lesson in the ABCs, does it not?" A reviewer in Publishers Weekly called All in the Woodland Early "an outstanding alphabet book," while William E. Krueger of DLB called it a "beautifully composed book, reminiscent of cumulative nursery rhymes…. This work exhibits Yolen's delightful handling of image, verse, and music."
Commander Toad in Space is the first of her popular "Commander Toad" series for beginning readers that pokes fun at the popular "Star Wars" films—for example, Commander Toad's ship is called the Star Warts—and the "Star Trek" television series. Yolen's series is usually considered a humorous and entertaining way of introducing children to literature. In Commander Toad in Space, the brave captain and his frog crew discover a watery planet and an evil monster, Deep Wader, who is defeated by being engaged in a sing-along. Judith Goldberger of Booklist stated: "Any beginning-to-read book with brave space explorers, a ship named the Star Warts, and a monster who calls himself Deep Wader would be popular almost by definition. The bonus here is that the adventure of Commander Toad and his colleagues is a clever spoof and really funny reading." A reviewer in School Library Journal called the book a "hoppy combination of good story and clever media exploitation" before concluding: "This one holds water."
Simple Gifts: The Story of the Shakers is an informational book about the history of Shakerism, a millennium religion that grew out of Quakerism but has different beliefs. The Gift of Sarah Barker is a historical novel for young adults that is set in a Shaker community. The story features two teenagers, Abel and Sarah, who have grown up in the Society of Believers, a celibate religious community, and now find that they are sexually attracted to each other. As the young people struggle with their feelings, Yolen depicts the contradiction between the religious ecstasy of the Shakers—whose dances and celebrations gave the group their nickname—and the repressive quality of their lifestyle. Sarah and Abel decide to leave the community, but not before Sister Agatha, Sarah's abusive mother, commits suicide. Writing in Children's Book Review Service, Barbara Baker called The Gift of Sarah Barker "an absorbing tale" and a "jewel of a historical novel," while Stephanie Zvirin of Booklist stated: "Into the fabric of a teenage romance [Yolen] weaves complicated and disturbing—at times violent—undercurrents that add a dimension both powerful and provocative." Before writing Sarah Barker, Yolen interviewed some of the few remaining Shakers for background information. She also used her daughter, Heidi, who was becoming interested in boys, as the prototype for Sarah. Yolen "I kept wondering how, in a Shaker community, you could keep the boys away from a girl like Heidi or keep Heidi away from the boys. I imagined a Romeo and Juliet story within the Shaker setting."
Dragon's Blood: A Fantasy, is the first volume in her "Pit Dragon" series. High fantasy for young adults that incorporates elements of science fiction and is often compared favorably to the "Pern" books by Anne McCaffrey, the "Pit Dragon" series is acknowledged for Yolen's imaginative creation of a completely realized world. Dragon's Blood features Jakkin, a fifteen-year-old slave boy whose master is the best dragon breeder on the planet Austar IV, a former penal colony where inhabitants train and fight dragons domesticated by the early colonists. Jakkin steals a female dragon hatchling to train in secret for the gaming pits, a cockfighting ritual that contributes largely to the planet's economy. Hoping to win his freedom by raising a superior fighting dragon, Jakkin establishes an amazing mental link with his "snatchling," which he names Heart's Blood. The story ends with the dragon's first win; Jakkin—now free—learns that his master knew about his theft and that Akki, a bond girl training in medicine whom Jakkin loves, is his master's illegitimate daughter. Writing in Horn Book, Ann A. Flowers called Dragon's Blood an "original and engrossing fantasy," while Patricia Manning of School Library Journal said that the novel provides a "fascinating glimpse of a brand new world." Pauline Thomas of the School Librarian called the book "splendid entertainment," adding, "the author explains little, letting the reader work out the details of geography, natural history, social structure, and sexual mores. The result is remarkably convincing. Austar IV is a world as real as [Ursula K. Le Guin's] Earthsea."
In the second volume of the series, Heart's Blood, Jak-kin is the new Dragon Master and Heart's Blood has given birth to five hatchlings. Jakkin becomes involved in Austar politics when he is asked to infiltrate rebel forces and rescue Akki. Becoming the pawns in a deadly game, Jakkin and Akki flee with Heart's Blood into the freezing cold of night, called Dark After. Cornered by the authorities after inadvertently blowing up a major arena, the trio fight for their lives. In the battle, Heart's Blood is killed. In order to survive the freezing temperatures, Jakkin and Akki enter her carcass; when they emerge, they have been given the gift of dragon's sight—telepathy—and the ability to withstand the cold. Charlotte W. Draper of Horn Book stated: "Rich in symbolism, eloquent in the evocation of a culture which carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, the book stretches the reader's conception of human capability." In A Sending of Dragons, the third volume in the series, Jakkin and Akki avoid capture by running into the wilderness with Heart's Blood's five babies. When they enter a hidden tunnel, the group encounter an underground tribe of primitives who have discovered the way to extract metals on Austar IV. Jakkin and Akki also learn that these people, who, like them, are bonded to dragons, have developed a bloody, terrifying ritual of dragon sacrifice. At the end of the novel, Akki, Jakkin, and Heart's Blood's fledglings escape with two of the primitive community's dragons. Confronted by their pursuers from above ground, they decide to return to the city and use their new knowledge to bring about an end to the feudalism and enslavement on Austar IV. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly stated: "Yolen's tightly plotted, adventurous trilogy constitutes superb storytelling. She incorporates elements of freedom and rebellion, power and control, love and friendship in a masterfully crafted context of a society sick with perversion." Writing in School Library Journal, Michael Cart said that, like the two volumes preceding it, the particular strengths of A Sending of Dragons are in "the almost encyclopedic detail which Yolen has lavished upon her fully realized alternative world of Austar IV, in her sympathetic portrayal of the dragons as both victims and telepathic partners, and in the symbolic subtext which enriches her narrative and reinforces her universal theme of the inter-dependency and unique value of all life forms."
One of Yolen's most highly acclaimed books is The Devil's Arithmetic, a young adult time-travel fantasy that is rooted in one of the darkest episodes of history. The novel features Hannah Stern, a twelve-year-old Jewish girl who is transported from contemporary New York to rural Poland in 1942 when she opens the door for Elijah during her family's Seder celebration. Captured by the Nazis, Hannah—now called Chaya—is taken to a death camp, where she meets Rivka, a spirited young girl who teaches her to fight against the de-humanization of the camp and tells her that some must live to bear witness. When Rivka is chosen to be taken to the gas chamber, Chaya, in an act of self-sacrifice, goes in her place; as the doors of the gas chamber close, Chaya—now Hannah again—is returned to the door of her grandparents' apartment, waiting for Elijah. Hannah realizes that her Aunt Eva is her friend Rivka and that she also knew her grandfather in the camp. A critic in Kirkus Reviews wrote of The Devil's Arithmetic: "Yolen is the author of a hundred books, many of which have been praised for their originality, humor, or poetic vision, but this thoughtful, compelling novel is unique among them." Writing in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Roger Sutton noted that Yolen's depiction of the horrors in the camp "is more graphic than any we've seen in holocaust fiction for children before." Confirming that Yolen has brought the "time travel convention to a new and ambitious level," Cynthia Samuels of the New York Times Book Review concluded that "sooner or later, all our children must know what happened in the days of the Holocaust. The Devil's Arithmetic offers an affecting way to begin." Yolen, who has said that she wrote The Devil's Arithmetic for her own children, stated in her acceptance speech for the Sydney Taylor Book Award: "There are books one writes because they are a delight. There are books one writes because one is asked to. There are books one writes because … they are there. And there are books one writes simply because the book has to be written. The Devil's Arithmetic is this last kind of book. I did not just write it. The book itself was a mitzvah."
With Encounter, a picture book published to coincide with the five-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, Yolen created what is perhaps her most controversial work. Written as the remembrance of an elderly Taino Indian man, the story, which describes the first encounter of Native Americans with Columbus, depicts the man's experience as a small boy. The narrator awakens from a terrifying dream about three predatory birds riding the waves to see three anchored ships. Frightened yet fascinated by the strangers who come ashore, the boy tells his chief not to welcome the men, but he is ignored. The boy and several other Indians are taken aboard the ships as slaves. After he escapes by jumping overboard, the boy tries to warn other tribes, but to no avail; the Taino are wiped out. Calling Encounter an "unusual picture book," Carolyn Phelan of Booklist noted that "while the portrayal of Columbus as evil may strike traditionalists as heresy, he did hunger for gold, abduct native people, and ultimately (though unintentionally), destroy the Taino. This book effectively presents their point of view." Writing in the New Advocate, James C. Junhke called Encounter "among the most powerful and disturbing publications of the Columbus Quincentennial." Noting the "pioneering brilliance" of the book, the critic called Yolen's greatest achievement "the reversal of perspective. This book forces us to confront what a disaster it was for the Taino people to be discovered and destroyed by Europeans. Readers young and old will fervently wish never to be encountered by such 'strangers from the sky.'" Writing in response to Junhke's review in the same publication, Yolen said, "If my book becomes a first step towards the exploration of the meeting between Columbus and the indigenous peoples—and its tragic aftermath—then it has done its work, whatever its flaws, perceived or real." The author concluded, "We cannot change history. But we—and most especially our children—can learn from it so that the next encounters, be they at home, abroad, or in space, may be gentler and mutually respectful. It is a large hope but it is, perhaps, all that we have."
Yolen has a penchant for viewing popular versions of stories from a new perspective. Of Sword of the Rightful King, Kelly Milner Halls wrote in the Denver Post: "Master storyteller Jane Yolen deftly turns the popular myth upside down in this vibrant new look at Arthur's dubious destiny and the cast of characters who helped deliver it." In the book, Yolen ponders such questions as what if pulling the sword from the stone did not entitle the young Arthur to become king? Maybe the fable was created after the boy was crowned king as a public relations effort to gain the people's devotion? Maybe Merlin (Merlinnus, in the book) was simply manipulating Arthur for his own political gain? What if the brave knights of the round table were easily deceived? "The theme of power and belief becoming reality, while not new, is used to good effect here to properly explore the Authurian myths in a new light," commented Mike Jones in SF.
Companion book to Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls, Mightier Than the Sword begins with a letter from Yolen to the "boys" in her life—her sons and grandsons. She writes, "being a hero [is] more than whomping and stomping the bad guy" and comments on the truth "that brains trump brawn almost every time; that being smart makes the battle shorter, the kingdom nearer, the victory brighter, and the triumph greater." The book consists of fourteen folktales in which, according to Susan Dove Lempke in Horn Book magazine, "boys solve their seemingly impossible problems not with force but with wit, trust, kindness and other virtues." Writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Janice M. Del Negro said that even so, there is still plenty of action in the tales, and the similarity many of them bear to already classic fables—such as "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "Puss in Boots"—"make this title valuable for comparative folktale curricula and collections."
Throughout her career, Yolen has woven bits and pieces of her personal history—and that of her family and friends—into her works. She was quoted in DLB as saying that she uses "these scraps the way a bird makes a nest and a mouse makes a house—snippet by snippet, leaf and bough and cotton batting and all." Several of the author's books are directly autobiographical. For example, All Those Secrets of the World is set during the two years that her father was away at war. Yolen recalls how, as a four-year-old, she watched her father depart by ship. The next day, Janie and her five-year-old cousin Michael see some tiny specks on the horizon while they are playing on the beach; the specks are ships. Michael teaches Janie a secret of the world, that as he moves farther away, he gets smaller. Two years later, when her father returns, Janie whispers Michael's secret after he tells her that she seems bigger: that when he was so far away, everything seemed smaller, but now that he is here, she is big. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly wrote: "Yolen here relates a bittersweet memory from an important period in her childhood…. This timely nostalgic story is told with simple grace, and Janie's thoughts and experiences are believably childlike." Phyllis G. Sidorsky of School Library Journal called All Those Secrets of the World an "affecting piece without an extraneous word and one that is particularly timely today."
And Twelve Chinese Acrobat is based on family stories about her father's older brother. Set in a Russian village in 1910, the book features Lou the Rascal, a charming troublemaker who keeps getting into scrapes. When Lou is sent to a military school in Kiev, the family—especially narrator Wolf, Lou's youngest brother (and Yolen's father)—is sad. Lou is expelled from military school. Months later, he surprises everyone by bringing home a troupe of twelve Chinese acrobats he met while working in a Moscow circus. The acrobats fascinate the locals with their descriptions of an exotic world far removed from the little village. When the acrobats leave the shtel in the spring, Lou's father, recognizing his son's managerial ability, sends him to America to find a place for the family. Writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Betsy Hearne said: "The relationship between the two brothers, Lou and Wolf, lends an immediate dynamic to the historical setting." The critic concluded that the compressed narrative, brief chapters, spacious format, large print, and "vivaciously detailed pen-and-ink illustrations dancing across almost every page [by Jean Gralley] make this a prime choice for young readers venturing into historical fiction for the first time, or, for that matter, considering a probe into their own family stories." A critic in Kirkus Reviews called And Twelve Chinese Acrobats a book "radiating family warmth, in words, art, and remembrance."
Yolen again drew on personal experience when her husband was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 2003. Suddenly finding her life spinning out of control, she attempted to combat the helpless sensation by each night retiring to her attic office to compose a sonnet. "It is such a rigid form that it imposes structure; it empowered me because then I had control," she told Eric Gold-scheider of the Boston Globe. The result: forty-three sonnets written over the course of her husband's forty-three-day radiation regimen and released as The Radiation Sonnets. "Some of the poems are funny and some of the poems are just a cry for help," she told Goldscheider.
In an article for Horn Book, Yolen stated: "As a writer I am the empress of thieves, taking characters like gargoyles off Parisian churches, the ki-lin (or unicorn) from China, swords in stones from the Celts, landscapes from the Taino people. I have pulled threads from magic tapestries to weave my own new cloth." The author concluded, "Children's literature is about growth. Just as we do not put heavy weights on our children's heads to stunt their growth, we should not put weights on our writers' heads. To do so is to stunt story forever. Stories go beyond race, beyond religion—even when they are about race and religion. The book speaks to individuals in an individual voice. But then it is taken into the reader's life and recreated, re-invigorated, re-visioned. That is what literature is about."
Yolen mused that her life, "like anyone else's is a patchwork of past and present…. I can also see a pattern that might tell me my future—as long as I remain consistent. I consider myself a poet and a storyteller. Being 'America's Hans Christian Andersen' means trying to walk in much-too-large seven-league boots. I just want to go on writing and discovering my stories for the rest of my life because I know that in my tales I make public what is private, transforming my own joy and sadness into tales for the people. The folk."
During an interview for Bookbird with Eva-Maria Met-calf, Yolen discussed the relevance of folklore in her work. She commented: "Only in America do we seem to want to throw away the past and constantly rebuild afresh. We seem to think that there is no need to stand on the shoulders of giants. That we ARE the giants. Give me a moment of metaphor here. In Scotland, where I live half the year, the old stones from houses and churches, and cathedrals, become incorporated into new buildings. Harled over and whitewashed, they are still a reminder of how close to their own ghosts the Scots dwell. I believe that is a better way."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 4, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1990, pp. 229-241.
Children's Literature Review, Volume 4, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1982, pp. 255-269; Volume 44, 1997, pp. 167-211.
de Montreville, Doris, and Elizabeth D. Crawford, editors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 52: American Writers for Children since 1960: Fiction, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1986, pp. 398-405.
Drew, Bernard A., The One Hundred Most Popular Young Adult Authors, Libraries Unlimited (Engle-wood, CO), 1996.
Roginski, Jim, Behind the Covers: Interviews with Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults, Libraries Unlimited (Englewood, CO), 1985.
St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.
St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.
Silvey, Anita, editor, Children's Books and Their Creators, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995, pp. 700-701.
Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1989, pp. 1075-1078.
Yolen, Jane, Guide to Writing for Children, The Writer (Boston, MA), 1989.
Yolen, Jane, Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie, and Folktale in the Literature of Childhood, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 1981.
Yolen, Jane, Writing Books for Children, The Writer (Boston, MA), 1973, revised edition, 1983.
PERIODICALS
Bookbird, May, 2003, Eva-Maria Metcalf, interview with Jane Yolen, pp. 52-55.
Booklist, November 15, 1980, Judith Goldberger, review of Commander Toad in Space, p. 464; May 15, 1981, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Gift of Sarah Barker, p. 1250; March 1, 1992, Carolyn Phelan, review of Encounter, p. 1281.
Boston Globe, May 22, 2003, Eric Goldscheider, interview, "At Home with Jane Yolen," p. H2; June 8, 2003, Liz Rosenberg, "High-Flying Youths and Brave Patriots," review of My Brothers' Flying Machine: Wilbur, Orville, and Me, p. H.9.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 1988, Roger Sutton, review of The Devil's Arithmetic, pp. 23-24; June, 1995, Betsy Hearne, review of And Twelve Chinese Acrobats, p. 365; May 2003, Elizabeth Bush, review of My Brothers' Flying Machine, p. 379-380; July-August 2003, Janice M. Del Negro, review of Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys, p. 466; September 2003, Janice M. Del Negro, review of Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur, p. 41; September 2003, Elizabeth Bush, review of Roanoke: The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History, p. 40-41.
Childhood Education, summer, 2003, Heather J.B. Ar-buckle, review of Wild Wings: Poems for Young People, pp. 244-245.
Children's Book News, January-February, 1970, review of The Emperor and the Kite, pp. 23-24.
Children's Book Review, December, 1973, Eleanor Von Schweinitz, review of The Girl Who Loved the Wind, pp. 172-173.
Children's Book Review Service, June, 1981, Barbara Baker, review of The Gift of Sarah Barker, p. 100.
Denver Post, August 3, 2003, Kelly Milner Halls, review of Sword of the Rightful King, p. H2.
Horn Book, August, 1982, Ann A. Flowers, review of Dragon's Blood, pp. 418-419; April, 1984, Charlotte W. Draper, review of Heart's Blood, p. 206; November-December, 1994, Jane Yolen, "An Empress of Thieves," pp. 702-705; May-June 2003, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Mightier than the Sword, p. 362-363.
Judaica Librarianship, spring, 1989–winter, 1990, transcript of Yolen's acceptance speech for the Sydney Taylor Book Award, pp. 52-53.
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1974, review of The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales, p. 741; August 15, 1988, review of The Devil's Arithmetic, p. 1248; April 15, 1995, review of And Twelve Chinese Acrobats, p. 564.
Library Journal, June 15, 1972, Janet G. Polacheck, review of Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers, p. 2245.
New Advocate, spring, 1993, James C. Juhnke and Jane Yolen, "An Exchange on Encounter," pp. 94-96.
New York Times Book Review, November 20, 1977, Jane Langton, review of The Hundredth Dove and Other Tales, p. 30; November 13, 1988, Cynthia Samuels, "Hannah Learns to Remember," p. 62; November 8, 1992, Noel Perrin, "Bulldozer Blues," p. 54; August 10, 2003, Eric Nagourney, review of How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, p. 19.
Publishers Weekly, August 14, 1967, review of The Emperor and the Kite, p. 50; July 22, 1974, review of The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales, p. 70; January 11, 1980, review of All in the Woodland Early, p. 88; October 9, 1987, review of A Sending of Dragons, p. 90; March 22, 1991, review of All Those Secrets of the World, p. 80; April 14, 2003, Diane Robak, review of Sword of the Rightful King; August 4, 2003, review of The Flying Witch, p. 78.
School Librarian, December, 1983, Pauline Thomas, review of Dragon's Blood, p. 384.
School Library Journal, March, 1973, Marilyn R. Singer, review of The Girl Who Loved the Wind, p. 102; December, 1980, review of Commander Toad in Space, p. 66; September, 1982, Patricia Manning, review of Dragon's Blood, p. 146; January, 1988, Michael Cart, review of A Sending of Dragons, pp. 87-88; July, 1991, Phyllis G. Sidor-sky, review of All Those Secrets of the World, p. 66.
SF, August, 2003, Mike Jones, review of Sword of the Rightful King, pp. 66-68.
Teaching and Learning Literature (TALL), November-December, 1996, Lee Bennett Hopkins, "O Yolen: A Look at the Poetry of Jane Yolen," pp. 66-68.
USA Today, April 24, 2003, Ayesha Court, review of Mightier Than the Sword, p. D.06.
Washington Post Book World, April 13, 1980, Jerome Beatty, Jr., "Herds of Hungry Hogs Hurrying Home," p. 10; July 13, 2003, review of Sword of the Rightful King.
ONLINE
Jane Yolen Home Page, http://www.janeyolen.com/ (August 21, 2004).
OTHER
The Children's Writer: Jane Yolen (video), ReelLife Productions, produced 1996.
Good Conversations: A Talk with Jane Yolen (video), Tom Podell Productions, produced 1998.