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Cover of Eeny Meeny Miney Mole by Jane Yolen

Eeny Meeny Miney Mole

Eeny and her sisters are moles, but the older two are conservative and nervous. Eeny is a young adventurer. Someone once described this book as “Beatrix Potter with a kink!” I’d tried writing this story in rhyme: “Once at the bottom of a deep, dark hole lived Eeny and Meeny and little Miney Mole.”

Cover of Street Rhymes Around the World by Jane Yolen

Street Rhymes Around the World

It took about eight months to track down the jump rope and ball bouncing and counting out rhymes for this picture book. Some I found in books and some I got from my husband’s international students and colleagues. I wanted the rhymes in both English and in their original or transliterated voices.

Cover of Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen

Letting Swift River Go

I had lived in the Connecticut River Valley for a number of years, and had known (and visited) that lovely created wilderness, the Quabbin Reservoir. But I hadn’t known the human story behind it until the local newspaper did an article. It seems that in the late ’30s, the people of the Swift River Valley towns had sold

Cover of Wings by Jane Yolen

Wings

I was asked to write a storybook about the mythical flight of Daedelus and Icarus for illustrator Susan Gallagher (also known as S. Selig.) But once I’d actually told the story and the book was accepted, she was no longer interested in the project. She later illustrated the book of adult poems Nancy Willard and I did

Cover of All Those Secrets of the World by Jane Yolen

All Those Secrets of the World

This is based on something that actually happened when my father came home wounded from World War II. My mother, baby brother, and I lived with her parents for two and a half years (see also the book MIZ BERLIN WALKS and the short story “The Long Closet.”) When my father returned from London

Cover of Sky Dogs by Jane Yolen

Sky Dogs

This original folk tale uses both the Piegan mythic stories about how the horse came to the Piegan (Blackfeet) people and also some historical matter. There are full notes on the last page. It is always tricky business, writing in another culture. I heard that one Native spokesman said that “She has an authentic voice.”

Cover of Baby Bear's Bedtime Book by Jane Yolen

Baby Bear’s Bedtime Book

This was written as a companion to THREE BEARS RHYME BOOK, using the same characters, but instead of rhyme, this book is told in prose. Baby Bear, determined not to go to bed, cons his babysitter Goldie into telling him story after story. Each story she tells is connected visually to one of his toys. In the end

Cover of Elfabet by Jane Yolen

Elfabet

This alphabet book stars elves doing a variety of activities. Illustrator Lauren Mills was one of my students at Centrum and I always loved her perfect miniaturist style. When she moved from California east and married Dennis Nolan, another wonderful illustrator, I wrote this book just for her.

Cover of Tam Lin by Jane Yolen

Tam Lin

I have always loved the Scottish border ballad Tam Lin, first mentioned in a ballad book of 1549. It’s one of the only ones (maybe THE only one) in which the woman does the rescuing. Young Janet McKenzie (in my version) wants to have her patrimony–the old mansion of Carterhaugh–but it now belongs to the fairies.

Cover of Dinosaur Dances by Jane Yolen

Dinosaur Dances

When they were little, my boys both loved dinosaurs so much, I embroidered dinosaur pillows for them. (I am NOT good at needlework.) When they were teenagers, I wrote this book. Go figure! The poems range from a dinosaur rock-and-roll band to a dinosaur waltz to a dinosaur square dance.