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| Jane Yolen | |
Jane Yolen, who published 450 books "in practically every conceivable genre," died last Thursday at age 87, the New York Times reported, writing that Yolen "never encountered a genre she didn't like; among her early books was a history of kites. Yet running through almost all her writing was a strong through-line of deep psychological insight and a sense of wonder. Many of her works were fables and folklore, whether retellings of old stories or her own, original tales....
"She was inspired by the Eastern European Jewish folk stories she heard as a child--her father was born in present-day Ukraine--and by the writers she fell in love with as a teenager, like Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad."
Yolen wrote children's books, folklore, fantasy, and science fiction books, and was best known for Owl Moon, illustrated by John Schoenherr, which won the Caldecott Medal; The Devil's Arithmetic, about a Jewish girl who travels in time to the Holocaust in Poland in 1942; two Nebula Award-winning novellas, "Sister Emily's Lightship" and "Lost Girls"; The Emperor and the Kite, illustrated by Ed Young, which was a Caldecott Medal Honor Book; and two series, the Commander Toad and Pit Dragon Chronicles. She published her first book, Pirates in Petticoats, at age 22.
Yolen also wrote books with her three children, writer and musician Adam Stemple, children's book author Heidi Stemple, and photographer Jason Stemple.
Among her many awards and honors, Yolen was given a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2009.
Yolen was also a university professor, songwriter, and editor. In the 1960s, she worked at Gold Medal Books, Routledge, and Knopf. From 1990 to 1996, she had a YA imprint, Jane Yolen Books, at Harcourt Brace.
Her 450th, Terror Birds, will be published July 14 by Charlesbridge Moves. The title is illustrated by Celia Lowenthal and is book 2 in the Monsters of Fife series.