Though technically Jason’s second book, after “A Letter from Phoenix Farm,” it’s his first book of the heart. He and I found a number of water images he’d already shot in the Colorado mountains, and he then took off across country to California to
Ballad of the Pirate Queens, The
My editor Bonnie Verberg called and said that David Shannon–with whom I had just done ENCOUNTER–was dying to do a new book with me. (And I him!) She said he was fascinated by pirates and she had suggested women pirates. Did I know if there were any?
Three Bears Holiday Rhyme Book, The
This book of rhymes is a follow-up to “Three Bears Rhyme Book” and “Baby Bear’s Bedtime Book” and covers 16 holidays (though Christmas and Chanukah are in one poem.) They include New Year’s, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s,
Alphabestiary
A labor of love. What fun for someone who loves poetry to get to spend six months simply reading poetry in order to find the poems for an alphabet of animal rhymes. I needed poems that were not only wonderful in themselves–but easy enough
A Sip of Aesop
Since I have always loved the Aesopian fables, putting together this collection of rhymed versions of my favorites was a total joy. Scholastic paired me with the irrepressible Karen Barbour who worked on the book after having a baby.
Before the Storm
Georgia Pugh is my next door neighbor, a wonderful painter who has pieces in some of the finest museums in the country. I wrote the text for her, setting it in our combined front yards, with my own three children starring as two brothers and a sister on a hot, hot summer day. She painted her own
And Twelve Chinese Acrobats
Based on a family story that has grown enormously over the years, this book is about the time the Yolens lived in the Ukraine and the oldest boy Lev (my Uncle Lou) was a troublemaker. Sent away to a military academy–an enormous decision for a Jewish family–he gambled away the gold
Old Dame Counterpane
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
Girl in the Golden Bower, The
An original fairy tale about a child whose sorceress stepmother leaves her out in the woods to die. Jane Dyer wanted to illustrate an original fairy tale and I had the first three pages of this one done, without a plot in sight. The editor Maria Modugno put it under contract and hoped I’d find a story in
Good Griselle
An original fairy tale about a good woman, the devil, a bet between the angels and gargoyles on a French cathedral, and an ugly little boy. The climax takes place on Christmas eve. I began the story after a visit to Paris with my husband, where we spent the weekend with one of my editors who was