My old college, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, contacted me and asked if I would write a picture book about the founder for the Sophia Smith Centennial, I explained how long picture books actually take, which
Sherwood
Eight new stories about Robin Hood and company, by such worthies as Nancy Springer, Anna Kirwan, Mary Frances Zambreno. It also includes son Adam Stemple’s first solo short story. My story is called “Our Lady of the
Welcome to the Ice House
This book is about the Arctic in occasional rhyme, part of a series of four Welcome To … books. It takes a lot of research to write a poem about a place. I have been to Alaska three times but I’ve never seen a polar bear.
Raising Yoder’s Barn
A long time ago, my editor at Little Brown sent me someone’s art work asking me to write a book about barns for that artist. I couldn’t. But one day I thought about the barn-raising scene in the movie “Witness” and
Armageddon Summer
Years ago I read about some millenialist group or another declaring that the world was going to end on a certain date and at a specific time. These news stories pop up every year, and not just when we are heading downhill
Pegasus, the Flying Horse
Lightyear Entertainment did an animated movie written by Doris Orgel and she wasn’t interested in turning the story of Pegasus into a book. I watched the movie and wasn’t interested in retelling her story either. So when
Prince of Egypt
I was asked to write the “Classic Storybook” version of the Spielberg “Prince of Egypt” movie. As I had been a religion minor in college and have done a number of books with folkloric and religious themes, I was interested. It turned out
Here There Be Ghosts
Short stories and poems, all written by me, having to do with ghosts. As I had written very few ghost stories up to that point, most of them are new. Included are “Mandy” about a ghost dog based on the dog I owned when I was a teenager and
Commander Toad and the Voyage Home
I began the COMMANDER TOAD books because I saw an article in the local newspaper about a boy and his frog who had just won a jumping-frog contest. The frog’s name was “Star Warts.” I thought it would be funnier if the frog had been a toad
King Long Shanks
I had long wanted to do a book with Victoria Chess whose quirky illustrations of animals and children greatly appealed to me. She, it seems, wanted to work with me. She mentioned this to one editor friend who urged her to call me.