Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
This feminist counting rhyme origin story began when I saw Ruth Councell’s pictures for my book What Rhymes With Moon. She had hung all the pictures on clothesline around the inside of her house and had a party for viewing. The editor came, too, and we found ourselves gobsmacked in
The third of four music books I did for Boyds Mills. Adam was wonderful to work with, shipping me off the simple arrangements which I then played on the piano. We figured if I could sight read them, ANYONE could! Many were animal songs I’d taught him when he was a child. I picked the songs, wrote
I began this book (a tribute to a cam song I loved, “The Green Grass Grows All Around”) when I saw Bob Marstall’s latest work. Bob, an old friend of 35 plus years, had up to that time been notable for his careful, realistic landscapes and nature books. He won an Orbis Pictus award among other honors for them.
Second of the series for Cornell Lab of Ornithology,a rhymed picture book with marvelous pictures by Bob Marstall, my friend of 40 years and an Orbis Pictus award-winning illustrator. This one is set at a New England pond where the quiet of the day is broken by a raucous flock of ducks. Great back-matter by the scientists at the Lab.
Once again, a rhymed book in the series about individual bird adventures around the USA.. A child and her mother spot a pair of eagles mating. They trek back several months later to see the eagle chicks in a huge nest. This is Elizabeth’s second book with me for Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, the first being CROW NOT CROW,
Third rhymed picture for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with pictures by my old friend Bob Marstall. Each one about a place and a resident kind of bird. In this one a boy on the beach works hard to rescue a sea star (starfish) from greedy gulls passing it around from beak to beak.
Retold folk and fairy tales from all over the world, reimagined for the youngest listeners.
This is another book that took about twelve years to come out. My part–the finding and retelling the stories–was done within months of signing the contract. But the wonderful Jane Dyer, the illustrator, had some health
This collection is entirely retold folk tales for the youngest listeners: “The Three Bears,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “The Little Red Hen,” “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” etc. There is a storytelling CD/tape narrated by me, with musical interludes by my son Adam Stemple.
I was incredibly honored to be asked to be one of the three Guests of Honor at the Glasgow SF World Con. That’s the largest science fiction convention in the world, a moveable feast, held summer 2005 in Scotland. Part of the perks of being a World Con GOH, is that
When Jason showed me some of the pictures of ice he’d taken–especially the one that looks just like Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream,” I knew what our follow up poetry book to “Water Music” had to be. Originally I called the book “Ice Song”