THE MARY CELESTE:
An Unsolved Mystery from History
Jane Yolen, Author, Heidi Elisabet y. Stemple, Author, Roger Roth, Illus
PW
said that this tale of a crewless ship, the Mary Celeste, found adrift in 1872, "may well have amateur sleuths lying awake at night." Ages 6-up. (July)
The team behind last year's The Queen's Own Fool
launches the Young Heroes series with a rollicking adventure starring a 13-year-old Odysseus, prince Continue reading »
PW
said that this lengthy first-person narrative that centers on "La Jardinière," one of the court jesters to Mary Queen of Scots, "will Continue reading »
This gracefully structured picture book introduces readers to the famous Firebird
ballet (choreographed by George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's music) and Continue reading »
Those boisterous, larger-than-life stars of How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?
are back, but this time they're a little under the weather. "What if a Continue reading »
MY BROTHERS' FLYING MACHINE: Wilbur, Orville, and Me
Jane Yolen
Among picture books commemorating the centennial of Kitty Hawk, Yolen's is unusual for appropriating Katharine Wright, Orville and Wilbur's younger sister, as its narrator. This Katharine, Continue reading »
SWORD OF THE RIGHTFUL KING: A Novel of King Arthur
Jane Yolen
In Yolen's spellbinding twist on the Round Table legend, Morgause feels that her 17-year-old son Gawaine belongs on the throne of England. As she attempts to install him there, she tangles Continue reading »
Yolen teams up with Harris in a continuation of their collaboration on the Young Heroes series, with a second adventure starring an Amazonian princess who undergoes a dangerous journey, to take Continue reading »
BOOTS AND THE SEVEN LEAGUERS: A Rock-and-Troll Novel
Jane Yolen
A troll, his younger brother and his best friend venture into the dreaded New Forest to hear Boots and the Seven Leaguers in concert. There they encounter a number of characters as they search Continue reading »
THE RADIATION SONNETS: For My Love in Sickness and in Health
Jane Yolen
These 43 sonnets by Yolen, a bestselling children's author (How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?), are written in the traditional rhymed form with three quatrains Continue reading »
Two strong females dominate this Baba Yaga tale from the team behind The Firebird. Faithful to Russian tradition, the Baba Yaga featured here flies about in an Continue reading »
SWORD OF THE RIGHTFUL KING: A Novel of King Arthur
Jane Yolen
Morgause feels that her 17-year-old son Gawaine belongs on the throne of England, in what PW
's starred review called "a spellbinding twist on the Round Continue reading »
"Once upon a time, a baby was born on a bed that was made from a coffin platform," begins this illuminating picture-book–biography of Denmark's favorite storyteller, which deftly Continue reading »
The tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin gets a modern makeover at the hands of this mother-son team. Calcephony McCallan (who goes by Callie, shortening the name given to her by her ex-hippie Continue reading »
To a tiny bear, it seems like the world is made for the "great big bears"—like his parents—who survey their domain from "great big chairs." The cub's older brother Continue reading »
Gentle rhythms give Yolen's rainy-day tale the feel of a narrative poem. "It's raining," begins Alison Isabelle. "I watch the drops slide down the window,/ leaving trails for Continue reading »
Dyer (Mama Always Comes Home
), herself the daughter of illustrator Jane Dyer, joins the mother-daughter team of Yolen and Stemple (previously paired for Continue reading »
Although the title suggests sentimentality, that notion disappears with the first look inside this snappy square-format book. Yolen's jaunty rhymes are short and sweet; debut illustrator Continue reading »
Pairing lyrical poems and crisp photography to great effect, this collection is a gem. Each poem contains Yolen's response to a series of photographs that portray living things reflected in Continue reading »
Caldecott Medalist Yolen (Owl Moon
) turns her attention to the poet Emily Dickinson and her young nephew, Thomas Gilbert (“Gib”), expanding on some Continue reading »
In an autumn cornfield, a threadbare scarecrow leaps high into the sky to dance across the darkening landscape. The pastoral evening images evoke a bygone era, and the descriptions of the Continue reading »
In this board book spinoff of their long-running series, Yolen and Teague’s lovable dinosaurs bully and ignore their pets: “How does a dinosaur play with her cat?/ Does she throw Continue reading »
All Star!: Honus Wagner and the Most Famous Baseball Card Ever
Jane Yolen
How great does a baseball player have to be for his baseball card to sell for nearly $3 million? With emphatic prose and oil paintings that echo the perspectives and palettes of vintage Continue reading »
Aliera Carstairs attends a small high school in New York City and feels like an outcast in its crowds of cliques, jocks, goths, nerds, and preps. She's always been a loner and doesn't Continue reading »
Set to a lilting bedtime beat, this rollicking rumpus of a tale ups the humor ante in a familiar scenario by substituting dinosaurs for children: ""How does a dinosaur say good night when Papa comes Continue reading »
While cheerful, this book is also a memorial to Yolen's late husband. Freely drawn by Jorisch in pen and watercolor, an effortlessly confident father guides his mop-headed child through a Continue reading »
Yolen, her daughter/occasional collaborator Stemple (The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories), and Lanquetin (Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins) turn noblesse oblige on its head with this tribute to girl power. Continue reading »
Lost Boy: The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan
Jane Yolen
Fittingly for the writer who would create "the boy who wouldn't grow up," this biography of J.M. Barrie is just as focused on his childhood as it is on his adult life. Before Barrie began his Continue reading »
When her grief-stricken, widowed father decides to leave Boston to be a pioneer farmer on the Nebraska prairie, Elsie wonders if she'll ever feel at home in the world again. Overwhelmed by "the grass Continue reading »
The mother-daughter team behind The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories retells eight folktales featuring traditional dances. A young shepherd finds that animals and humans alike are compelled to Continue reading »
A girl and her father go owling on a moonlit winter night near the farm where they live. Bundled tight in wool clothes, they trudge through snow ""whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl''; here and Continue reading »
When 12-year-old Hannah is transported back to a 1940's Polish village, she experiences the very horrors that had embarrassed and annoyed her when her elders related their Holocaust experiences. Ages Continue reading »
PW's starred review described this ""stirring"" book as a look at the dark underside of Christopher Columbus's adventure. ""The message is blunt but the language in which it is couched is vintage Continue reading »
Merlin tells young Arthur a tale of a boy who prophesies a dragon duel. Dramatic oil paintings match the story's epic scale. Ages 5-up. Continue reading »
Based on a 1720 incident in which two female pirates escaped a death sentence because they were pregnant, this rollicking ballad is ""offbeat and grimly amusing,"" said PW. Ages 4-12. Continue reading »
Yolen's (Child of Faerie, Child of Earth) rhyming picture book chirps a chipper spring song about young animals off to a visit with Grandma. Little Mouse moves ""tip-toe, tippity-toe,"" Little Mole Continue reading »
Como Dan las Buenas Noches los Dinosaurios? = How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
Jane Yolen
PreS-Gr 2-What do dinosaurs do when it's time for bed? Do they scream and yell? Lash their tails? Ask for pony rides? The answer to each question in this sweet bedtime romp is a resounding ""No!"" Continue reading »
Jane Yolen turns her eye towards the Everglades in Welcome to the River of Grass, the fourth installment of her environmentally themed collaboration with illustrator Laura Regan. From the start Continue reading »
Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys
Jane Yolen
In a companion to her Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls, Jane Yolen collects and retells 14 folktales focused on boys in Mightier than the Sword: World Folktales for Continue reading »
Roanoke, the Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Jane Yolen, Heidi Elisabet y. Stemple
The third volume in the Unsolved Mystery from History series, Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, once again invites readers to use their Continue reading »
The final volume in the Pit Dragon trilogywhich began with Dragon's Bloodconcludes a riveting saga that intertwines elements of fantasy and science fiction. The planet of Austar, whose climate and Continue reading »
Yolen and Mikolaycak have worked their separate charms and created a songbook so soothing it hums. The selection of lullabies includes the German ""Brahms' Lullaby,'' the Welsh ``All Through the Continue reading »
Award-winning author Yolen offers a beautiful book of poetry that sings old songs in new ways. The challenging language, rich in metaphor and rhythm, is matched perfectly by Wallner's stunning Continue reading »
The wonderfully paired team of Yolen and Dyer (Piggins) has created another winner with this collection of 15 rhymed poems narrated by the smallest bear of the familiar three bears story. This Continue reading »
Just as children often wonder about the earth beneath their feet, the littlest mole here sets out to discover the world ``Up Above.'' When Eeny is told by her sisters that there is light as well as Continue reading »
Yolen's new fable, redolent with myths ageless and archetypal, strikes at the heart. Dove Isabeau, so-called because she always wears dove's colors of gray or white, is bereft at her mother's death. Continue reading »
``Just one story,'' pleads Baby Bear, and then he'll go to sleep. When Goldie falls for what has to be the oldest line known to youngsters, ``just one'' story soon spins into a whole picture Continue reading »
In this lyrical tale drawn from Blackfoot legend, an old man recounts the origin of his name, He-who-loves-horses. He describes the coming of horses, ``Sky Dogs,'' from across the plains, and the Continue reading »
From its arresting cover of a vee of geese stretching across the ``earless / face of the moon'' to the songbirds that sit ``along the wires / like scattered notes / on lines of music'' on the last Continue reading »
In Yolen's vibrant prose, this retelling of an ancient Scottish ballad leaps from the page in riveting strokes. Here, in all its moonswept mystery, is the story of how Jennet, red-headed daughter of Continue reading »
The instant Henry casually ``mentions wizardry to his dear ma,'' she packs him off to Wizard's Hall, with little more than a change of clothes and the advice that, whatever he might encounter, ``it Continue reading »
Droll and decorous illustrations enhance this charmingly bucolic excursion, a sort of Wind in the Willows crossed with Masterpiece Theater. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
Windling's Fairy Tale series has produced several excellent fantasy novels inspired by classic fairy tales. This is one of the series's most ambitious efforts, and only a writer as good as Yolen ( Continue reading »
These prolific, versatile collaborators ( Dinosaur Dances ; the Commander Toad series) here offer a disarming tale, populated by a cast with all the zest of the best nursery rhyme creations. Continue reading »
In the current freshet of rainforest books, Yolen's rises to the surface not as a mere tour guide, but a gracious host to earth's ``dark green, / light green, / emerald green / bright green / copper Continue reading »
Dragon-lovers and maybe even dinophiles will unite to celebrate Yolen's (the Dragon's Blood trilogy) virtuosic poems and stories about dragons. Some new, others previously published, the entries Continue reading »
""Yolen is in top form in this polished, ardent retelling,"" said PW; ""Nolan's sophisticated watercolors... provocatively blend reality and fantasy."" All ages. Continue reading »
Yolen reaches new heights in this flawless tale. Patterned after the story of Job, it concerns one Griselle, a lace maker in Paris of long ago. Reports of her goodness so enrage the gargoyles on a Continue reading »
Beginning with a lethargic anteater and ending with an African zebra, Yolen (Owl Moon) rounds up an ``eXtraordinary'' assembly of poems. She offsets the inclusion of some predictable old Continue reading »
The bear family introduced in Yolen's and Dyer's Baby Bear's Bedtime Book and The Three Bears Rhyme Book return in rhyming poems celebrating 15 holidays. Written primarily in the voice of Baby Bear, Continue reading »
This rollicking ballad springs from an actual incident: captured in 1720 aboard the sloop Vanity when their dilatory mates ""below, did drink and sport,"" the ``pirate queens'' Anne Bonney and Mary Continue reading »
Thoughtful Jerold and the more reckless, appropriately named Gerund are two boys living in similar houses, somehow in parallel universes, in the dead of winter. As he does every year, Herne the Continue reading »
Yolen and Barbour prove a dynamite pairing in this splashy picture book. Here they jazz up a baker's dozen of Aesop's much-loved fables, most of which are familiar (""The Boy Who Cried Wolf,"" ""The Continue reading »
Sixteen traditional stories are retold with a contemporary flair by a master storyteller with wit, humor and panache. Yolen has culled stories from all over the globe (e.g., India, Nigeria, and from Continue reading »
Yolen and Shannon, previously paired for the rollicking Ballad of the Pirate Queens, turn solemn in this verse-and-picture tour of sacred places around the world. Visiting 12 sites, the book Continue reading »
A mole sets out to explore the world ""Up Above."" In a starred review, PW praised the ""inventive"" text and ""gracefully droll"" watercolors. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
This collection of 15 poems, ranging from the expected (""Porridge"") to the unexpected (""How to Bathe a Bear""--in eight easy steps), is inspired by a friendship between Goldilocks and the three Continue reading »
In hushed, liquid language, this lullaby-poem whispers of ""the velvet night"" and its soundless stirrings. As ""a big moon balloon/ floats silent over trees,"" moth wings flutter, furry things Continue reading »
On the heels of Paula Danziger and Ann Martin's P.S. Longer Letter Later (Children's Forecasts, Feb. 16) comes another novel (on a very different subject) co-written by a pair of popular YA authors. Continue reading »
These three books make up the author's Young Merlin trilogy, imagining the childhood and coming-of-age of the famous wizard of Arthurian legend. Ages 9-12. Continue reading »
Called the ""Hitless Wonder"" and ""Danny the Whiffer"" by his teammates, Danny retreats to bed after another dispiriting round of strikeouts, ""watching the moon round the bases of the sky"" and Continue reading »
Yolen gathers all the ingredients for a compelling middle grade fantasy novel, but the recipe falls short in this first book of her Tartan Magic series. Reluctantly spending his summer vacation with Continue reading »
The Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas
Jane Yolen, Clement Clarke Moore
Spiffy acrylic paintings of a wintry urban landscape dotted with tangy candy-colored buildings give the classic poem some modern zip. The artist's whimsy shines in an ""Identification Chart: How to Continue reading »
This first book in a new series of unsolved mysteries may well have amateur sleuths lying awake at night. When the crewless ship Mary Celeste was found adrift in 1872, there were no signs of pirates, Continue reading »
Mirror, Mirror: Forty Folk Tales for Mothers and Daughters to Share
Jane Yolen, Heidi Stemple
With more than 200 books to her name, popular storyteller Yolen (editor of Favorite Folktales Around the World) can be forgiven for one that doesn't quite measure up. The subtitle notwithstanding, Continue reading »
Although Yolen (The One-Armed Queen) has published a great deal of acclaimed SF and fantasy (and children's fiction), this is her first collection of genre stories for adults--and it has been worth Continue reading »
Boots and the Seven Leaguers: A Rock-And-Troll Novel
Jane Yolen
Yolen's (Wizard's Hall) plodding tale reads more like a farce than a fantasy. Narrator Gog, a young troll, is dismayed not to have a ticket to hear his favorite band, Boots and the Seven Leaguers, Continue reading »
Dear Mother, Dear Daughter: Poems for Young People
Jane Yolen
Mother-daughter team Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple use an inventive (and humorous) format in Dear Mother, Dear Daughter: Poems for Young People, illus. by Gil Ashby. Daughter addresses mother in Continue reading »
A bunny with fuzzy pink ears and satiny pajamas graces the cover of Bedtime for Bunny: A Book to Touch and Feel by Jane Yolen, illus. by Lynn Norton Parker. Inside, lilting rhyme will help readers Continue reading »
Another addition to the Unsolved Mystery from History series, The Wolf Girls by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, urges readers to act as detectives. The volume Continue reading »
""Tip-toe, tippity-toe Over the leaves and down below Off to Grandma's house we go Sings Little Mouse,"" in Off We Go! by Jane Yolen, illus. by Laurel Molk. Little Frog, Little Mole and others Continue reading »
Jane Yolen offers 14 odes to birds in Wild Wings: Poems for Young People, photographed by her son, Jason Stemple, the team behind Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. In a pattern Continue reading »
In Jane Yolen's The Bagpiper's Ghost, book three in the Tartan Magic series, a trip to a Scottish cemetery entangles American twins Jennifer and Peter in the afterlife feud of former lovers. ( Continue reading »
Yolen teams up with Robert J. Harris in a continuation of their collaboration on the Young Heroes series with a second adventure starring an Amazonian princess, Hippolyta and the Curse of the Continue reading »
The animals aboard Jane Yolen's Animal Train, illus. by Doug Cushman, teach colors, shapes, numbers and opposites. Die-cut like a locomotive, the board book's playful verse encourages youngsters Continue reading »
Just right for a square-format board book, Jane Yolen's original text filled with cozy rhymes combines with Hiroe Nakata's comforting watercolors in A Time for Naps, as a toddler tucks stuffed Continue reading »
PW called this debut title in the launch of the Young Heroes series ""a rollicking adventure""; it stars the 13-year-old prince of Ithaca, who meets his match (and future wife) in a Spartan Continue reading »
The Holocaust was so monstrous a crime that the mind resists belief and the story must be made new for each individual. Yolen's book is about remembering. During a Passover Seder, 12-year-old Hannah Continue reading »
The Faery Flag: Stories and Poems of Fantasy and the Supernatural
Jane Yolen
The rhythmic voice in this collection of nine stories and six poems is unmistakably that of a master storyteller and poet. ``Once upon a time. . . ,'' says the narrator of the first poem, and the Continue reading »
This sequel to Sister Light, Sister Dark follows Jenna into adulthood as she reluctantly fulfills the prophesy naming her the Anna, the warrior queen who will lead her people out of oppression. In Continue reading »
Yolen, one of the most prolific writers for children these days (see preceding review), is back again--this time with an alphabet book. Library and bookstore shelves may groan under the weight of Continue reading »
The terpsichorean dinosaurs in this collection of whimsical poems allemande left and pirouette in high style. Although Yolen's ( Owl Moon ; The Three Bears Rhyme Book ) verses often scan raggedly and Continue reading »
As with Owl Moon , Yolen will dazzle readers with these 19 poems about the moon. Councell, ( Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle ), meanwhile, contributing a palette of muted blues, Continue reading »
The highly prolific Yolen ( Owl Moon ; Elfabet ) here relates a bittersweet memory from an important period in her childhood: the two years during which her father was away at war. She recalls the Continue reading »
Based on Scottish stories about the selchies--seals who take on human form--Yolen's tale is as lilting and deep as the sea itself. A fisherman and his wife are overjoyed when the stray seal pup that Continue reading »
Yolen is in top form here in this polished, ardent retelling of the tragic Greek legend of Daedalus and his son Icarus. Banished from his beloved Athens for killing his nephew, the proud craftsman Continue reading »
Like Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House and the Provensens' Shaker Lane , this felicitous marriage of text and art portrays the impact of modernization on one community. Yolen's gently poetic Continue reading »
As this sentimental tale of the heart's ``own compass'' begins, Betsy is packed off to Nana and Grandy's farm one spring while her mother battles a difficult pregnancy and her father remains hard at Continue reading »
Verse (often verging on doggerel) conveys this forced narrative about a boy who asks members of his family, ``What did you do on the day Grandad died?'' Mama, for example, responds, ``I looked in the Continue reading »
This elegant book may well leave a lasting impression on readers of all ages. With vivid imagery, Yolen's (Grandad Bill's Song) flowing narrative easily establishes the dreamy mood of an Continue reading »
With a nod to ``The Night Before Christmas,'' Yolen introduces a group of sleeping mice that dream not of sugarplums, but of a Halloween ``fancy-dress ball.'' The rodents never get the chance to Continue reading »
``It was a hot summer day,/ the air crackling with heat''-Strider the dog lies in the sun, Jordie sits motionless on the swing, and Pete and Sara read and color. When Jordie brings out the hose Continue reading »
Yolen is pitch-perfect in her delivery of this tender tale of the friendship that blossoms between an elderly white woman and an African American girl. Miz Berlin is well known in her neighborhood Continue reading »
Work of the hands, faith and community spirit are constants that eight-year-old Matthew has always known growing up on a Pennsylvania Amish farm. These things make all the difference when lightning Continue reading »
Following the format of the two earlier books in the White Jenna oeuvre (Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna), the third shows how myth, legend, song, history and story interweave to create a Continue reading »
Like an old Scottish ballad, Yolen's poem about the friendship between a faerie boy and human girl is told with a stately tone and compelling melody. ""He was a child of faerie folk,/ A child of sky Continue reading »
Yolen and Ming (previously paired for Merlin and the Dragons) mine Greek myth to retell the story of Bellerophon, the boy who tames a flying horse. Yolen recounts the tale through the voice of a Continue reading »
In a starred review of this original fairy tale about an orphaned child, PW said, ""Yolen gracefully brings her tale full circle, revealing the surprise identity of Aurea's mother and, refreshingly, Continue reading »
Yolen (Child of Faerie, Child of Earth) heralds the seductive charms of fairyland in this volume of stories and poems, masterfully illustrated with Mackey's (Cat Up a Tree) mystical oil paintings. Continue reading »
""La Jardini re,"" one of the court jesters to Mary Queen of Scots, is the subject of this collaborative offering from veteran Yolen (Off We Go! and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, reviewed above) Continue reading »
The second in a planned quartet of historical novels set in Scotland (which began with Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots), Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen and Richard J. Harris finds Continue reading »
Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris present Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast, the third title in their Young Heroes series, which began with Odysseus and the Serpent Maze. Twelve-year old Atalanta Continue reading »
Jane Yolen and her son, Jason Stemple, team up for their third collaboration in poetry and photos, Least Things: Poems About Small Natures. Tiny creatures such as tree frogs and grasshoppers come Continue reading »
Favorite characters and titles are now available in board book editions. Dinos delight in acting like toddlers in original board books starring the prehistoric heroes first introduced in How Do Continue reading »
Favorite characters and titles are now available in board book editions. Dinos delight in acting like toddlers in original board books starring the prehistoric heroes first introduced in How Do Continue reading »
Readers can dance through the pages of The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illus. by Rebecca Guay. The compendium contains seven stories from across the Continue reading »
The team behind A Mirror to Nature again pairs striking, full-color photographs of birds with spirited poems in a full range of styles and forms. A haiku for a kingfisher speaks tenderly to the Continue reading »
Fancy Nancy in her attitude, Charles Schulz's Pigpen in her execution, this mother-daughter team's heroine has a charm all her own. Princess Pig hustles to get her home ready for her "big tea party," Continue reading »
There isn't a dull moment in Yolen's rousing retelling of this Norwegian folktale, in which a girl tames a polar bear cub, defeats a band of tattooed trolls, and arrives at the court of the King of Continue reading »
As in their previous books, Yolen and Teague delicately nudge readers toward appropriate behavior using rhetorical questions and loveably indecorous dinosaurs. At a birthday party, does a dinosaur Continue reading »
Short stories that revolve around wishes form this volume created to raise money for Book Wish Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to build libraries for Darfur refugees living in Chad. Continue reading »
Swinging a few branches across the evolutionary tree, Yolen turns her attention from the misbehaving dinosaurs of the How Do Dinosaurs... series to garden-variety monsters that leave school en masse Continue reading »
Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers:
The Life of Marc Chagall in Verse
Jane Yolen, J. Patrick Lewis
Lewis and Yolen pair 14 poems about Marc Chagall (1887?1985) with reproductions of more than a dozen of his paintings (as well as vintage photographs) in this moving account of the artist?s Jewish Continue reading »
This playful collection of twin-themed poems, a welcome addition to the bookshelf on the subject of twins, is as much for parents as for kids. Early poems focus on the time before birth: ?Wrestling Continue reading »
The team behind A Mirror to Nature and Wild Wings offers another striking pairing of poems and photographs about the natural world, in this case the mysterious lives of insects. Each poem (and Continue reading »
Lewis and Yolen team up for a darkly funny homage to the dearly departed?those with feathers, hooves, tails, and fins. An axe leans against a blood-stained stump while three feathers drift nearby Continue reading »
Dragons are just not morning people. They ?bumble? and ?tumble? out of bed, and the doughty little knight who is their master risks life and limb just getting them to ?Put their jammies in the Continue reading »
Continuing to follow the successful blueprint of the long-running How Do Dinosaurs books, Yolen and Teague pose the possibility of dinosaurs wreaking merry havoc on Christmas Eve. Uproarious
Continue reading »
Yolen and Teague score a winner with this playful Chanukah story brought to life with bright and engaging illustrations. Each page poses a question of how a dinosaur would behave during the eight Continue reading »
Curse of the Thirteenth Fey: The True Tale of Sleeping Beauty
Jane Yolen
Yolen follows her Snow White retelling, Snow in Summer (2011), with a similarly inventive spin on Sleeping Beauty (like that book, this novel also derives from one of the author?s short stories). Continue reading »
Yolen?s smart, introspective, foil-wielding Aliera Carstairs returns, this time to thwart the Dark Lord?s plot to kidnap her beloved cousin. The Dark Lord wants the Defender?s weapon?that?s Aliera?s Continue reading »
These 16 sonnets grew out of Yolen's lifelong love for Dickinson, who is a neighbor of sorts%E2%80%94her ancestral home is near Yolen's. Written in the voices of Dickinson, her sister, and others, Continue reading »
Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist
Jane Yolen, Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Yolen and Dotlich refashion 15 classic fairy tales into incisive poems told from dual perspectives. Cinderella laments wearing glass shoes when other choices were more sensible (?I could have put on/ Continue reading »
Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves, and Other Female Villains
Jane Yolen
Mother-daughter collaborators Yolen and Stemple, who previously partnered with Guay on The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories, revisit the lives and legendary misdeeds of 26 notorious women in this Continue reading »
?We both believe that literature begins in the cradle,? write Yolen and Dyer at the beginning of this collection of 75 brief but vivid poems. Most are originals from Yolen (10 poems are credited to Continue reading »
Yolen and Stemple%E2%80%94the mother-son team behind Troll Bridge, Pay the Piper, and B.U.G.%E2%80%94deliver a fast-paced adventure, first in a trilogy, which draws on fairy myth and lore. Aspen is a Continue reading »
Yes, even dinosaurs have bad days, and a few of them are at their worst in this addition to Yolen and Teague?s popular series. It?s always a delight to watch Teague?s dinosaurs misbehave, and that?s Continue reading »
Despite the subtitle, Guran (The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons) has actually filled this anthology with adaptations of familiar tales. The stories include urban fantasy (?Warrior Dreams? by Cinda Continue reading »
The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 2
Jane Yolen (et al.)
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction?aka F&SF?has been one of the flagships of speculative fiction since its founding in 1949. While similarly lauded magazines, like Continue reading »
Animal Stories: Heartwarming True Tales from the Animal Kingdom
Jane Yolen
Yolen and her children present 19 true stories about unusual animals. While anchored in reality, the vibrant storytelling and Ishida?s bold, posterlike acrylics occasionally invoke the feeling of Continue reading »
Yolen (Owl Moon) weaves a magical yet believable tale of myth and magic in this charming middle-grade fantasy. In the mythical kingdom of Callanshire, James, son of the Duke of Callander, is sent Continue reading »
An unnamed Jewish girl living in Paris fervently believes in angels?she need only look at the Gothic buildings around her to know they exist. Those angels seem ?farther and farther away? after the Continue reading »
Throughout the How Do Dinosaurs series, prehistoric carnivores and herbivores have showed off some less-than-perfect behavior in modern settings. Now Yolen and Teague take the idea a bit farther: Continue reading »
Frequent mother-daughter collaborators Yolen and Stemple, whose previous books include Not All Princesses Dress in Pink, offer a gentle rhyming bedtime story that spotlights 14 birds? Continue reading »
When an inquisitive red squirrel named Nutley summons the nerve to offer the "Paw of Friendship" to a group of nearby gray squirrels, they respond by tossing him off a cliff. Fearing for his life Continue reading »
In succinct, evocative poems, Yolen describes the seasons as they unfold in a forest habitat. In one winter scene, children play in the distance while foxes frolic in the foreground, and an owl and Continue reading »
It is 1971, and a girl named Sally and her brothers are walking home across the sand dunes of their Maine town when she sees "this big gray thing, humped on the drying sand." It's a beached gray Continue reading »
Two dozen stories of women warriors form this epic anthology of stories about those forced to fight, those who chose to fight regardless of odds, those who ran from their destiny as warriors, and Continue reading »
The brilliant and the bland run side-by-side in the Allens' second collection of strange tales. Vivid prose and creepy concepts appear in Jessy Randall's "Maybe a Witch Lives There," in which two Continue reading »
First in a planned series (a portion of proceeds will benefit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology), this dreamy story follows a child and his dog on a stroll by the sea. Writing in characteristically Continue reading »
Vivid autumn foliage is generally considered to be a thing of beauty, but those unfamiliar colors spell danger to a young frog. ?To Little Frog, red and gold were scary,? writes Yolen (On Bird Continue reading »
Yolen and Teague return to a subject they covered in their 2000 picture book, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, as an unusual group of dinosaurs?concavenator, majungasaurus, and sauropelta, Continue reading »
Craig McGowan has little to believe in as a street urchin in 1930s Edinburgh, but just when he?s ready to give up and throw himself from the top of a church, he meets Silex, a demon trapped in a Continue reading »
This slight collection contains several very strong stories but is weakened by its overarching theme: all of the pieces are riffs on famous fairy tales, or on the lives of writers or famous Continue reading »
Roanoke, the Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Jane Yolen, Heidi Elisabet y. Stemple
The third volume in the Unsolved Mystery from History series, Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, once again invites readers to use their Continue reading »
This first book in a new series of unsolved mysteries may well have amateur sleuths lying awake at night. When the crewless ship Mary Celeste was found adrift in 1872, there were no signs of pirates, Continue reading »
Another addition to the Unsolved Mystery from History series, The Wolf Girls by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, urges readers to act as detectives. The volume Continue reading »
Readers can dance through the pages of The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illus. by Rebecca Guay. The compendium contains seven stories from across the Continue reading »
On her 10th birthday, a lonely girl on vacation in Scotland has a chance meeting with a merman, and their friendship leaves a lasting impression. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
Esbaum's breezy first children's book introduces a pair of siblings who, spending a week at Granny's, are given two very different missions. Likeable narrator Annabelle is charged with Continue reading »
Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles
Darlene Friedman
Cassidy Li is going to be Star of the Week in her kindergarten class, and that means she gets to bring a snack (the titular brownies) and chronicle her life story on a poster. But as she reviews Continue reading »
Roanoke, the Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Jane Yolen, Heidi Elisabet y. Stemple
The third volume in the Unsolved Mystery from History series, Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, once again invites readers to use their Continue reading »
King-Smith produces another winner with this latest animal yarn starring a lovable little girl with a jumbo-size dream. Rupert, the family dog, has long been in his grave when Janie discovers his Continue reading »
King-Smith (Babe: The Gallant Pig; The Terrible Trins) again chooses his beloved English countryside as the setting for this amiable tale of a magical hare. Examining a mysterious circle of flattened Continue reading »
In Roth's (The Sign Painter's Dream) tall fish tale set in the north country, the prize goes not for the mythical creature's capture, but for the truce it brings about between two bickering buddies. Continue reading »
Of this story about an iconoclast who finds a new life, PW said, ""Youngsters will take an immediate shine to this affably offbeat leading man."" Ages 9-12. (Sept.) Continue reading »
This first book in a new series of unsolved mysteries may well have amateur sleuths lying awake at night. When the crewless ship Mary Celeste was found adrift in 1872, there were no signs of pirates, Continue reading »
Another addition to the Unsolved Mystery from History series, The Wolf Girls by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illus. by Roger Roth, urges readers to act as detectives. The volume Continue reading »
What is the perfect gift for the king who has everything? In this fact-based picture book, the unusual present is a giraffe. In 1826 the pasha of Egypt offers to ship a giraffe to France as a gesture Continue reading »
?When the time is right, you?ll face your fear,? Zach?s grandmother tells him as they ride the Ferris wheel after he refuses to ride the Whipper roller coaster with Grandpa. Rodman?s (Camp K-9) Continue reading »
Onoseta’s devastatingly vulnerable debut, told nonlinearly in two teen Nigerian girls’ dual perspectives, portrays a tempestuous sisterhood amid colorism, familial trauma, and Continue reading »
Humor and heartfelt emotion reign supreme in a quirky narrative that centers the importance of family, blood or blended. Twelve-year-old Adela Ramírez, who’s of Mexican descent, Continue reading »
“Sal loved the water. He liked to imagine it moving under his feet.” With junk from his mother’s garage and pickings from local businesses, he starts building. In the family’s Continue reading »
Rick, a lumpy gray rock with googly eyes and a sweet smile, has been sitting on Room 214’s Nature Finds shelf “for as long as he can remember” while on-the-move human students, Continue reading »