Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
A lyrical book about a little boy, his obsession with the moon, and how he becomes an astronaut who gets to walk on the moon. And though the book is dedicated to Neil Armstrong, it’s not about him. It’s about desire, dedication, and hard work. In fact, the very things that created the book itself.
The Yolen-Stemples are a family of birdwatchers. (I must admit I am the least of them.having been a city girl the first fourteen years of my life.) My late husband David Stemple grew up in the mountains of West Virginia. And our three children began early, because David (“Pa” in OWL MOON) taught them how to bird.
This is the second book that my three children and I have done for National Geographic, the first being ANIMAL STORIES.
NG asked us to do the first book, we pitched the second. I made a rough outline and once NG gave us a contract for the book, we divided up who would do which sections.
It took Heidi and me close to fifteen years till this book finally came out. I tried it as a picture book, a middle grade novel, an easy-reader. When Heidi signed on and we did it together as a picture book (MUCH better than my first feeble attempt) we actually had a book. Scholastic bought it and put the very inventive John McKinley
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.
I think this is the funniest of the Dino-Sty books, because the basic premise is so absurd as Dinos bring home tigers, etc from the zoo. And Mark Teague has gone all wild and crazy with the art.
The second book about Little Frog (of four, one for each season) with pictures by the new but very professional and suddenly sought-after illustrator, Ellen Shi. (The first frog book was her first published book! And I found her!) In this one Little Frog is a reluctant big sister until danger threatens her baby brothers, and…
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.
I live in New England where there are bears, raccoons, bobcats, skunks, rabbits, deer, turkeys, bluejays, coyotes, opossum, chipmunks, squirrels—a regular Wild Animal Sow in our back yard on a regular basis. So when my oldest granddaughter who was house sitting for me one summer, sent me an email that read in part:
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