Jane Yolen's Blog, page 8

Elefantastic

Chronicle Books (May 17, 2022)
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
ISBN-10: 1452176817
ISBN-13: 978-1452176819

This book has only 22 words in the text, and more than half of them are made up! (There is a backmatter which accounts for many more words.) My husband is the one who counted the words and told me!! And I adore the paintings that look like old circus posters. It took the editor and art director more than a year to find exactly the right illustrator.

What reviewers have said:

“The charming gouache illustrations are packed with expression and detailed insets, and their combination with the circus-font text gives the proceedings a delightfully old-fashioned feel. Young readers will revel in the colorful carnival atmosphere and tender interspecies friendship.”—Booklist[T]old in five acts, [Elefantastic!] unfolds in solitary, rhyming ‘ele’ words, each painted in circus-style lettering. . . Helquist (Just Being Dalí) reassures readers about the elephant’s subsequent quality of life in dapper gouache spreads . . . [T]he artwork successfully centers a magician’s love for a creature in this nostalgic piece of Americana.”-Publishers Weekly

Get ELEFANTASTIC from:

Indiebound.org

Deborah’s Tree

Kar-Ben Publishing (November 1, 2021)
Illustrated by Cosei Kawa
ISBN-10: 1728438950
ISBN-13: 978-1728438955

After the success (and an honor book award from the Jewish Publishers) for my first picture book midrash-MIRIAM AT THE RIVER, the publisher was eager for more. I wrote Deborah’s Tree and Mrs. Noah’s Doves at more or less than same time and what fun they were to write.

The story of Deborah who is the first woman judge in the Old Testament (the Torah or Hebrew Bible) has always fascinated me. The problem is we only see her as an older woman, not really picture book fare, so I decided to tell it from the time she is a child. The pictures are stunning.

Get DEBORAH’S TREE from:

Indiebound.org

The Last Robot (and other science fiction poems)

Shoreline of Infinity/ The New Curiosity Shop (February 10, 2021)
ASIN: B08WHRFTY4

I had been writing poems for a science fiction magazine in Scotland. (I have a house in Scotland that I spend a lot of the summer at, so it’s not as big a stretch as you think.) Because they had already published a lot of my sf poems, they asked if I would like to do a small paperback book of sf poems and I was delighted to be asked.

Buy THE LAST ROBOT from:

Something New for Rosh Hashana

Kar-Ben Publishing (August 1, 2021)
Illustrated by Chistine Battuz
ISBN-10: 1728403391
ISBN-13: 978-1728403397

This little board book just kind of wrote itself, and the wonderful first Jewish publisher I showed it to fell in love with it and brought it out swiftly as a board book.

What reviewers have said:

“Verdict: A good choice for picture book shelves.” ― Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL, School Library Journal

Buy SOMETHING NEW FOR ROSH HASHANA from:

Indiebound.org

Black Dog Poems

Meat For Tea Press (February 24, 2022)
with Peter Tacy
ISBN-10: 0997529881

Peter and I had dated for two months in college. He was known as the Williams College Poet at that time, and I as the Smith College Poet and someone (neither of us remember who that was!) thought it was a good idea to have us meet. We spent the entire two months discussing poetry, and most particularly Emily Dickinson, who was not highly prized way back in the 1950’s! We lost contact after that. Both ended up in happy marriages, but my husband died at 69 and Peter’s wife battled cancer for 28 years before dying. We were two sad-sack widowed people. We found each other again because of a New Yorker article about my Holocaust novels. Our first date in that second round was at the Dickinson Museum. Peter brought his gorgeous standard Poodle Gracie with him. She and I immediately fell for one another. It took another couple of weeks before Peter and I did the same. And then Covid closed down the USA and Peter and I were stranded at this house for three months in Connecticut, not seeing other people except when we were outside walking the dog.

Inside, the house, we were both writing a lot of poems, many of them about Gracie. And then at age 18—a long life for poodles—she died as we held her at the vet’s. The book of poems became her memorial.

Get BLACK DOG POEMS from:

Indiebound.org

Big Bold Beautiful Me

Magination Press (September 6, 2022)
with Maddison Stemple-Piatt
Illustrated by Chloe Burgett
ISBN-10: 1433838648
ISBN-13: 978-1433838644

My first-born granddaughter Maddison and I had written a book called “When Nana Dances With Me” when she was ten and was a young ballerina in Amherst Mass. As I had been at Balanchine’s School of American ballet in NYC years and years ago. And we loved to dance together in my kitchen.  The book was not sold until Maddison was in law school! But as she said on the speakerphone when we heard about the sale to our agent and my daughter (her mom) and me, “But I am not a writer, you know. I am going to be a lawyer.” We all had a good laugh at that.

However, the next morning she had sent me a rough draft of BIG BOLD, BEAUTIFUL ME. I put it all into rhyme , she critiqued my changes (she had done a study and a movie of dancers and their body image problems for a college project) and she changed some of the rhymes (for the good!). We sent it to the same wonderful publisher—Magination Press, which is part of the American Psychological Association,) who had brought out “Nana Dances.” They took it at once.

What reviewers have said:

“Body positivity shines through a jaunty rhyming text…Individual examples are then followed by the hearty refrain “When I look in the mirror,/ what do I see?// Big and bold and beautiful me!” Burgett’s images effectively use mirrors to depict the kids’ attitude shifts as they share their stories—from initial peering to celebrating their own reflection. As the expressive children, one by one, gather to play at a nearby park, readers may well be feeling the cheerful undercurrent of affirmation and support. Ages 4–8.” —Publishers Weekly“An upbeat, uncomplicated ode to bodies that are big, thick, broad, and boundless.” —Kirkus Reviews

Get BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL ME from:

Indiebound.org

Giant Island

Flashlight Press (August 1, 2022)
Illustrated by Doug Keith
ISBN-10: 1947277189
ISBN-13: 978-1947277182

All books have a back story and this is a fun one. An editor I did not know (who has become a dear friend) asked me for her publisher (of a company I did not know then) if I could help edit/rewrite a picture book. They had gorgeous illustrations that told the story, but the illustrator’s writing skills were not up to his artwork.  That sort of thing is always a stretch.And can be a spiderweb of good intentions that ends up killing everyone involved.

But I love stretching! And I am not afraid of spiders or their webs. (I am a snake-a-phobe). And away I went, careful to keep the story I was telling matching the art—a story about  two children and their grandfather plus their dog who discover how the island they are visiting got its name. And making sure the lyrical telling matched the lyrical art as well. After a lot of back and forthing, we all got a book we are proud of. I managed to catch the spirit of Doug’s pictures, the editor was satisfied, the publisher got a book he loves….and onward. Now it is up to the readers to make it their own.

Around the Web:

Watch the book trailer.Illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba interviews Jane about Giant Island.

What reviewers have said:

“Award-winning author Yolen… sings old songs in new ways.” —Publishers Weekly“The wonder of childhood comes alive…literally….. Childhood magic shared with a new generation.” —Kirkus Reviews“Jane Yolen, who sees stories everywhere, takes a giant leap here. Through her text and through comic and scintillating illustrations by Doug Keith, we learn that though no man may be an island, an island might be—well, a giant adventure, at least.”—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked“Lovingly rendered in whimsical illustrations that bring this fairy tale to life.”–Danielle Ballantyne, Foreword Review“A beautifully imaginative tale of discovery and magic and family history on an island that really lives up to its name.”–Delia Sherman, anthologist and fantasy writer“Keep your eyes wide open. There may be more than one giant in this magical place with giants who keep giant secrets.”–David L. Harrison, author of The Book of Giant Stories“This delightful book, with its slow and delicious reveal of the life of a magical island, will enchant those children who know (much better than we adults do!) how truly alive the world can be!” —Bruce Coville, Author of +100 titles“Gigantic adventures await on Giant Island! Jane Yolen’s inquisitive text brightens Doug Keith’s well observed watercolors. I can’t wait to visit again!”–Tony DiTerlizzi, The Spiderwick Chronicles

Indiebound.org

Knowing the Name of a Bird

Creative Editions; Illustrated edition (August 18, 2020)
Illustrated by Jori van der Linde
ISBN-10: 1568463499
ISBN-13: 978-1568463490

This began as an interesting quote I read in a birding magazine, moved on to a poem (I write a poem a day and send them out to over 1,000 subscribers) and at last-with some additions and fiddling– a picture book with my favorite publisher of truly elegant books, Creative Editions.

What reviewers have said:

Yolen’s text reads almost like a poem … and all is about how we (as humans) have a limited capacity to truly understand the communication of birds — and how we often reduce birds by defining them with the names we use for them. ‘A bird’s name is not what it is,’ the book opens, ‘but what we call it.’ At the book’s close, we’re reminded that birds go by many names … But, we are also reminded, birds won’t answer to the names we give them — ‘only its song.'” —Jules Danielson, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast“Poet Jane Yolen explores the difference between what we call birds, and what birds are and do. A bird’s name, she points out, is not the same thing as an actual bird. A bird’s name is not the same thing as ‘the exact blue of its neck.’ A bird’s name ‘tells you little about the build of its nest.’ Jori van der Linde’s poster-like illustrations, worked in pen and Photoshop, are both realistic and stylized.” —Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune

Arch of Bone

Tachyon Publications (November 9, 2021)
Illustrated by Ruth Sanderson
ISBN-10: 1616963506
ISBN-13: 978-1616963507

So, twenty years or so ago, I had an idea to write a kind of middle grade sequel to MOBY DICK in which a fourteen year old boy in 1860s Nantucket hears a knock on the door early in the morning. His mother, who has been sick on and off all winter is still sleeping. His father is first mate on a whaler that is overdue. The boy opens the door and sees a stranger standing there.

“Who are you?” he asks.

“Call me Ishmael,” the man replies.

THAT’s all I had. Mostly because I know nothing about sailing or old boats or wind currents etc. Twenty years later–fifteen years after my husband died, I re-met a man I had dated for two months when we were both in college. He is a life-long boats-man, a past Commodore of a yacht club, and a writer; During our courtship, he helped me on research, critiqued three early drafts (He is a writer and a poet and a retired teacher). And THAT’S how ARCH OF BONE finally got written–and sold.

What reviewers have said:

“Yolen’s original twist on Moby-Dick combines a unique premise with edge-of-your-seat adventure. Fourteen-year-old Josiah is engagingly characterized from the outset as a boy on the edge of manhood, searching for answers about his father’s death. Under the arch of bone he has tantalizing dreams of Ahab’s hunt for Moby Dick. A gripping tale by a master storyteller―when I finished it, I started over and read it again.” ―Katherine Coville, author of Briar and Rose and Jack“This is the story Melville should have written.” ―Daniel Pinkwater, author of The Neddiad“Elemental and timeless. The thrill of Josiah’s adventure comes from watching him learn how to survive the wilderness, but it also has much to share about coming to terms with the loss of a parent and humans’ complicated relationship to the natural world.” ―Eliot Schrefer, National Book Award Finalist“Arch of Bone is a historical novel that reanimates Nantucket’s whaling history. In it, the aftermath of the Pequod’s sinking is imagined on behalf of the families of those lost at sea. The result is a daring story in which a grieving son becomes his own kind of survivor.” ―Foreword

When Nana Dances

Magination Press (November 2, 2021)
with Maddison Stemple-Piatt
Illustrated by Priscilla Burris
ISBN-10: 143383684X
ISBN-13: 978-1433836848

Written with my ten year old granddaughter, Maddison Stemple-Piatt, and sold ten plus years later. (She is now in law school!) And the publishing company who bought it–Magination Press–hadn’t been running yet in its current form. Both Maddison and I were young ballet dancers and dancing remained in both our lives (though with arthritis in my ankles and knees, I don’t dance any more). But she does. It’s all about a variety of Nanas who have danced and/or still dancing with their grandkids, in rhyme.

What reviewers have said:

“An ode to dancing grandmothers from a range of backgrounds, this picture book celebrates the fun that Nana creates, whether she’s shake-a-shaking, shimmying, or doing the salsa. Yolen and her first grandchild, Stemple-Piatt, who both trained in ballet from a young age, join forces for this dance-centered narrative. In rhyming text,” –Publishers Weekly