SOURCE CITATION
"Jane (Hyatt) Yolen." Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, 2nd ed., 8 vols. Gale Group, 2002. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
Photograph © 1999 by Jason Stemple and provided by HarperCollins.

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Dubbed "the American Hans Christian Andersen" by editor/publisher Ann K. Beneduce and "a modern equivalent of Aesop" by Noel Perrin in New York Times Book Review, Jane Yolen is considered a gifted, versatile author who has developed a stellar reputation as a fantasist while contributing successfully to many other genres. An exceptionally prolific creator, she is the author of more than two hundred books for children and young adults and approximately twenty-five for adults. Yolen has written fiction for young adults and adults as well as poetry, criticism, and books on the art of writing and the genre of fantasy. She has also edited and compiled a number of works for both younger and older readers and has contributed to several collections and anthologies.

As a writer of juvenile literature, Yolen addresses her books to an audience ranging from preschool through high school. She has written works ranging from picture books and easy readers to young adult novels. She is the creator of realistic fiction, mysteries, verse, animal tales, concept books, historical fiction, humorous stories, and lyrical prose poems, as well as informational books on such subjects as kites, bells, the Shakers, the Quakers, and the environment. Several of Yolen's books have been published in series, and she is particularly well known for the "Pit Dragon" series of young adult fantasy novels in which she created a mythological world based around cockfighting dragons on an arid planet. A folksinger and storyteller, Yolen has created several works that reflect her love of music and oral folklore, including compilations of international songs, rhymes, and stories. Several of the author's books are autobiographical or incorporate elements from her life or the lives of her family, and her three children all contribute to her works--daughter Heidi as a writer and sons Adam and Jason as a musical arranger and photographer, respectively. Yolen has also worked with a number of outstanding illustrators such as Mercer Mayer, Michael Foreman, Barbara Cooney, Michael Hague, Glen Rounds, Nancy Winslow Parker, Barry Moser, Charles Mikolaycak, Demi, Tomie dePaola, Jane Dyer, David Wiesner, Bruce Degen, Victoria Chess, James Marshall, and Ted Lewin. In addition, two of Yolen's books have received prizes from the Caldecott Medal committee: Owl Moon won the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations by John Schoenherr while The Emperor and the Kite was named a Caldecott honor book for its illustrations by Ed Young.

Yolen was born in New York City on February 11, 1939. Her family spent a short time in California when her father worked there; then they moved to Virginia, living with her grandparents during World War II while her father worked in England for the government. After the war the family finally settled down in New York City again. Her father, who wrote books and radio scripts, came from a line of Russian storytellers. Her mother wrote short stories and created crossword puzzles, and both parents read to Yolen as soon as she was old enough to listen. She learned to read before starting to school. When in first grade, she finished the semester's reading book overnight and was skipped to the second grade, where she was encouraged in reading and writing, earning many gold stars. She wrote the school musical (both lyrics and music), in which all the children played the parts of vegetables; she was the "lead carrot," and the finale put all the vegetables in a salad.

Yolen served as class secretary for three years and can still remember the names in the roll call. She also studied ballet for eight years, played fantasy games in Central Park, and loved music, especially folk songs. While in the sixth grade, she scored highly on a test and was accepted at Hunter, a school for gifted girls. Having an alto voice, she played the male lead in Hansel and Gretel at the school, and she also completed her eighth grade social studies exam in rhyme. While at Hunter she wrote her first two books, a self-bound nonfiction treatise on pirates and a seventeen-page novel about the pioneer west, which she once recalled as "a masterpiece of economy."

In the summers while she was twelve and thirteen, Yolen attended a Quaker camp in Vermont, where she became interested in pacifism and storytelling. Between high school and college, she spent a summer working in an American Friends Service Committee work camp in Yellow Springs, Ohio. These experiences led to an interest in Quaker beliefs; later, she wrote a biography called Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers. Her religious horizons were also broadened when she was introduced to Catholicism by a friend. Many rituals in her fairy tales reflect this exposure.

When Yolen was thirteen, her family moved to Westport, Connecticut, where she attended Staples High School. There she was captain of the girl's basketball team, served on the newspaper staff, was a member of the jazz, Spanish, and Latin clubs, won the school's English prize, and performed with the choir. She took piano lessons and learned to ride the famous Lipizzener show horses, although her instructor, she once observed, was a man "who spoke only loud and unintelligible German."

Yolen attended Smith College, developing her writing skills there and having her stories published in magazines and newspapers. She had hoped to be a journalist, but found herself too emotional to do interviews. However, she won the journalism award at Smith, as well as all of the poetry prizes. She earned money for college by writing poetry and singing folk songs. After graduation Yolen, eager to see if she could be a successful writer, worked for various publishers in New York City. In 1963 she joined the children's book department of Alfred A. Knopf, where she was encouraged, met many successful authors, and wrote books of her own.

Yolen's father was a kite enthusiast, and while living in Greenwich Village she researched, wrote, and published a book called World on a String: The Story of Kites for him. In 1962, in the garden of her parents' home, Yolen married David Stemple, a photographer and computer scientist. Her fairy tale The Girl Who Loved the Wind is dedicated to him and celebrates their meeting. Three years later, the couple ordered a Volkswagen Camper and sailed for Europe, where they toured for nine months (years later, while in Scotland, Yolen saw a plaque on a castle wall that read "This is the Faery Flag"; it inspired her to write the story of that name). She once recalled that during this time they climbed a mountain in Greece and worked in an orange grove in Israel, then back in the United States she "mushed" on a dog sled in Alaska and went rafting with her husband and friends down the Colorado River.

During the late 1960s, Yolen met editor Ann K. Beneduce, whom the author once described as "another seminal influence in my writing life." Yolen and Beneduce, who, according to the author, "produced book after book in the handsomest way possible," worked on approximately thirty books together.

One of their first efforts was The Emperor and the Kite, a picture book that was among the first of Yolen's titles to receive major awards. The story outlines how Djeow Seow, the youngest and smallest daughter of an ancient Chinese emperor, saves her father after he is kidnapped by sending him a kite to which is attached a rope made of grass, vines, and strands of her hair. Writing in Dictionary of Literary Biography, William E. Krueger noted that the story "is simply told in the folk tradition, with traditional motifs which provide an aura both of antiquity and of familiarity to the tale." The critic also observed the theme--"that those whom society considers deficient are capable and perhaps more proficient than others--recurs in subsequent tales." A critic in Publishers Weekly said that The Emperor and the Kite "is easily one of the most distinguished (books with Asian backgrounds)--and distinguished proof that extravagance, intelligence, premeditated extravagance, always justifies itself." In 1968, The Emperor and the Kite received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and was named a Caldecott Honor Book.

Yolen received a second Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for The Girl Who Loved the Wind, a picture book published in 1972. In this work, a widowed merchant tries to protect his beautiful daughter from unhappiness but ends up making her a virtual prisoner. The wind visits her and sings to her about life, how it is always full of change and challenges. Finally, the girl escapes with the wind into the world. Writing in School Library Journal, Marilyn R. Singer stated that Yolen "produced a treasure. The story has the grace and wisdom of a folk tale, the polish that usually comes from centuries of telling." Eleanor Von Schweinitz of Children's Book Review remarked that the author "has an especial gift for the invention of traditional-type tales and this is complemented by her rare ability to use language creatively. Here she has used the simple rhythms of the storyteller to conjure up the distinctive flavour of an Eastern tale." Yolen once said that she wrote The Girl Who Loved the Wind "for myself, out of my own history. But recently I received a letter from a nurse who told me that she had read the story to a dying child, and the story had eased the little girl through her final pain. The story did that--not me. But if I can continue to write with as much honesty and love as I can muster, I will truly have touched magic--and passed it on."

The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales, a book published in 1974, won the Golden Kite Award that year; it was also nominated for the National Book Award the next year. It is a collection of five stories that, according to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, "could be called modern folk-or fairy tales, since they boast all the usual ingredients--supernatural beings, inexplicable happenings, the struggle between good and evil forces." The critic concluded that Yolen's "artistry with words . . . makes a striking book." Reflective of a clear moral tone, The Girl Who Cried Flowers is also considered notable for suggesting the close relationship of humanity and nature.

In 1980, Yolen published the first of her popular "Commander Toad" series, Commander Toad in Space. Beginning reader books that poke fun at the popular "Star Wars" films--for example, Commander Toad's ship is called the Star Warts--and the "Star Trek" television show, the series is usually considered a humorous and entertaining way of introducing children to literature. In Commander Toad in Space, the brave captain and his frog crew discover a watery planet and an evil monster, Deep Wader, who is defeated by being engaged in a sing-along. Judith Goldberger of Booklist stated: "Any beginning-to-read book with brave space explorers, a ship named the Star Warts, and a monster who calls himself Deep Wader would be popular almost by definition. The bonus here is that the adventure of Commander Toad and his colleagues is a clever spoof and really funny reading."

In 1982, Yolen published Dragon's Blood: A Fantasy, the first volume in her acclaimed "Pit Dragon" series. High fantasy for young adults that incorporates elements of science fiction and is often compared favorably to the "Pern" books by Anne McCaffrey, the "Pit Dragon" series is acknowledged for Yolen's imaginative creation of a completely realized world. Dragon's Blood, which Horn Book Magazine reviewer Ann A. Flowers hailed as an "original and engrossing fantasy," features Jakkin, a fifteen-year-old slave boy whose master is the best dragon breeder on the planet Austar IV, a former penal colony where inhabitants train and fight dragons domesticated by the early colonists. Jakkin steals a female dragon hatchling to train in secret for the gaming pits, a cockfighting ritual that contributes largely to the planet's economy. Hoping to win his freedom by raising a superior fighting dragon, Jakkin establishes an amazing mental link with his "snatchling," which he names Heart's Blood. The story ends with the dragon's first win; Jakkin--now free--learns that his master knew about his theft and that Akki, a bond girl training in medicine whom Jakkin loves, is his master's illegitimate daughter.

In the second volume of the series, Heart's Blood, Jakkin is the new Dragon Master and Heart's Blood has produced five hatchlings. Jakkin becomes involved in Austar politics when he is asked to infiltrate rebel forces and rescue Akki. Becoming the pawns in a deadly game, Jakkin and Akki flee with Heart's Blood into the freezing cold of night, called Dark After. Cornered by the authorities after inadvertently blowing up a major city, the trio fight for their lives. In the battle, Heart's Blood is killed. In order to survive the freezing temperatures, Jakkin and Akki enter her carcass; when they emerge, they have been given the gift of dragon's sight--telepathy--and the ability to withstand the cold. Charlotte W. Draper of Horn Book Magazine stated, "Rich in symbolism, eloquent in the evocation of a culture which carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, the book stretches the reader's conception of human capability." In A Sending of Dragons, the third volume in the series, Jakkin and Akki avoid capture by running into the wilderness with Heart's Blood's five babies. When they enter a hidden tunnel, the group encounters an underground tribe of primitives who have discovered the way to extract metals on Austar IV. Jakkin and Akki also learn that these people, who, like them, are bonded to dragons, have developed a bloody, terrifying ritual of dragon sacrifice. At the end of the novel, Akki, Jakkin, and Heart's Blood's fledglings escape with two of the primitive community's dragons. Confronted by their pursuers from above ground, they decide to return to the city and use their new knowledge to bring about an end to the feudalism and enslavement on Austar IV. Writing in School Library Journal, Michael Cart said that, like the two volumes preceding it, the particular strengths of A Sending of Dragons are in "the almost encyclopedic detail which Yolen has lavished upon her fully realized alternative world of Austar IV, in her sympathetic portrayal of the dragons as both victims and telepathic partners, and in the symbolic sub-text which enriches her narrative and reinforces her universal theme of the inter-dependency and unique value of all life forms."

One of Yolen's most highly acclaimed books is The Devil's Arithmetic, a young adult novel published in 1988. A time travel fantasy rooted in one of the darkest episodes of history, the novel features Hannah Stern, a twelve-year-old Jewish girl who is transported from contemporary New York to rural Poland in 1942 when she opens the door for Elijah during her family's Seder celebration. Captured by the Nazis, Hannah--now called Chaya--is taken to a death camp, where she meets Rivka, a spirited young girl who teaches her to fight against the dehumanization of the camp and tells her that some must live to bear witness. When Rivka is chosen to be taken to the gas chamber, Chaya, in an act of self-sacrifice, goes in her place; as the doors of the gas chamber close, Chaya--now Hannah again--is returned to the door of her grandparents's apartment, waiting for Elijah. Hannah realizes that her Aunt Eva is her friend Rivka and that she also knew her grandfather in the camp. A critic in Kirkus Reviews wrote of The Devil's Arithmetic, "Yolen is the author of a hundred books, many of which have been praised for their originality, humor, or poetic vision, but this thoughtful, compelling novel is unique among them." Writing in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Roger Sutton noted that Yolen's depiction of the horrors in the camp "is more graphic than any we've seen in holocaust fiction for children before." Confirming that Yolen has brought the "time travel convention to a new and ambitious level," Cynthia Samuels of New York Times Book Review concluded that "sooner or later, all our children must know what happened in the days of the Holocaust. The Devil's Arithmetic offers an affecting way to begin." Yolen, who has said that she wrote The Devil's Arithmetic for her own children, stated in her acceptance speech for the Sydney Taylor Book Award, "There are books one writes because they are a delight. There are books one writes because one is asked to. There are books one writes because . . . they are there. And there are books one writes simply because the book has to be written. The Devil's Arithmetic is this last kind of book. I did not just write it. The book itself was a mitzvah." In addition to the Taylor Award, which was given to the novel in 1989, Yolen received the Parents' Choice Silver Seal Award, the Jewish Book Council Award, the Association of Jewish Libraries Award, and the Maud Hart Lovelace Award for The Devil's Arithmetic, which was also a finalist for the Nebula Award.

With Encounter, a picture book published to coincide with the five-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, Yolen created what is perhaps her most controversial work. Written as the remembrance of an elderly Taino Indian man, the story, which describes the first encounter of Native Americans with Columbus, depicts the man's experience as a small boy. The narrator awakens from a terrifying dream about three predatory birds riding the waves to see three anchored ships. Frightened yet fascinated by the strangers who come ashore, the boy tells his chief not to welcome the men, but he is ignored. The boy and several other Indians are taken aboard the ships as slaves. After he escapes by jumping overboard, the boy tries to warn other tribes, but to no avail; the Taino are wiped out. Calling Encounter an "unusual picture book," Carolyn Phelan of Booklist noted that "while the portrayal of Columbus as evil may strike traditionalists as heresy, he did hunger for gold, abduct native people, and ultimately (though unintentionally), destroy the Taino. This book effectively presents their point of view." Writing in New Advocate, James C. Junhke called Encounter "among the most powerful and disturbing publications of the Columbus Quincentennial." Noting the "pioneering brilliance" of the book, Junhke called Yolen's greatest achievement "the reversal of perspective. This book forces us to confront what a disaster it was for the Taino people to be discovered and destroyed by Europeans. Readers young and old will fervently wish never to be encountered by such 'strangers from the sky.'" Writing in response to Junhke's review in the same publication, Yolen said, "If my book becomes a first step towards the exploration of the meeting between Columbus and the indigenous peoples--and its tragic aftermath--then it has done its work, whatever its flaws, perceived or real." The author concluded, "We cannot change history. But we--and most especially our children--can learn from it so that the next encounters, be they at home, abroad, or in space, may be gentler and mutually respectful. It is a large hope but it is, perhaps, all that we have."

Yolen frequently draws on history in her novels for young readers. Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots, written with Robert J. Harris, presents life at the ruler's court through the eyes of a young orphan girl who becomes the queen's confidante. According to Cheri Estes in School Library Journal, the "rich and involving novel . . . will have readers clamoring to know more about this dramatic period in French and Scottish history." Odysseus in the Serpent Maze, which Yolen also wrote with Robert J. Harris, depicts the hero of Greek mythology as a young teenager. Booklist contributor Gillian Engberg considered the book a "swashbuckling" adventure filled with "snappy humor and breakneck adventure." For slightly younger readers, Yolen and her daughter, Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, coauthored two mystery stories based on actual events. The Mary Celeste, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "may well have amateur sleuths lying awake at night" puzzling over how the crewless ship Mary Celeste, found adrift in 1872, came to her strange fate. Similarly, The Wolf Girls is based on an incident in 1920, when two allegedly feral children were brought to an orphanage in India. Had they really been raised by wolves, or was their story a hoax? School Library Journal writer Anne Chapman hailed the book as "tasty fodder for emerging detectives."

In addition to her distinguished works of fiction, Yolen has written many volumes of children's verse as well as numerous nonfiction books. Two works with religions themes, Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers and Simple Gifts: The Story of the Shakers, garnered particular praise. Among her recent projects is a picture-book series on ecology with illustrator Laura Regan; it includes Welcome to the Sea of Sand, Welcome to the Ice House, and Welcome to the River of Grass. Critics admired the evocative prose with which Yolen describes threatened ecosystems in these works. Writing about the latter title, which refers to the Everglades, Booklist reviewer Connie Fletcher noted the power of Yolen's "poetically written" text, and a contributor to Kirkus Reviews hailed it as "evocative as it is informative."

Yolen and her husband have three children and live in a fourteen-room house in Hatfield, Massachusetts, with a crafts center in their large barn. As the children grew older, Yolen's output changed from children's books to young adult and adult fiction, though she resists any attempts to classify her work. Her first book for adults, Cards of Grief, was selected by the Science Fiction Book Club. She has written music to accompany many of her stories, and she often reads her work aloud because the sound of the words is important. She advises young people to read and write every day, and conducts workshops across the country for aspiring authors.

The popularity of Yolen's work continues to grow; her series books, featuring Piggins and Commander Toad, are favorites with children. "I consider myself a poet and a storyteller," she once reflected. "I just want to go on writing and discovering my stories for the rest of my life because I know that in my tales I make public what is private, transforming my own joy and sadness into tales for the people."

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born February 11, 1939, in New York, NY; daughter of Will Hyatt (an author and in public relations) and Isabelle (a social worker, puzzle-maker, and homemaker; maiden name, Berlin) Yolen; married David W. Stemple (a professor of computer science), September 2, 1962; children: Heidi Elisabet Stemple-Piatt, Adam Douglas, Jason Frederic. Avocation: Folk music and dancing, antiquing, camping, politics, Scotland, the Elizabethan age. Education: Smith College, B.A., 1960; University of Massachusetts, M.Ed., 1974; also completed course work for doctorate in children's literature at the University of Massachusetts. Politics: Liberal Democrat. Religion: "Jewish-Quaker." Memberships: International Kitefliers Association, Society of Children's Book Writers (member of board of directors, 1974--), Science Fiction Writers of America (president, 1986-88), Children's Literature Association (member of board of directors, 1977-79), Science Fiction Poetry Association, National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, Western New England Storyteller's Guild (founder), Bay State Writers Guild, Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild (founder), Smith College Alumnae Association. Addresses: Home--Phoenix Farm, 31 School Street, Box 27, Hatfield, MA 01038 and Wayside, 96 Hepburn Gardens, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland KY16 9LN. Agent--Marilyn Marlow, Curtis Brown Ltd., 10 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003. E-mail--JaneYolen@aol.com.

CAREER
Writer. Saturday Review, New York, NY, production assistant, 1960-61; Gold Medal Books (publishers), New York, NY, assistant editor, 1961-62; Rutledge Books (publishers), New York, NY, associate editor, 1962-63; Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), Inc. (publishers), New York, NY, assistant juvenile editor, 1963-65; full-time professional writer, 1965--. Editor of imprint, Jane Yolen Books, for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, CA, 1988-98. Teacher of writing and lecturer, 1966--. Chairman of board of library trustees, Hatfield, MA, 1976-83; member of Arts Council, Hatfield, MA.