Friday, May 30, 2008

Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen is an author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction, including Owl Moon, Devil's Arithmetic, and How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? She is also a poet, a teacher of writing and literature, and a reviewer of children's literature. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century.

Her new book is Naming Liberty.

Earlier this week I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
The two books I just finished reading are Ellen Wittlinger's YA book Sandpiper, which has a bit too much sex for me to share with my 7th grade granddaughter, but is otherwise a well-written and smart book about a girl and boy who both have lived with unbearable secrets and who are both afraid that they now have no lives to live at all.

The second book is A. J. Jacobs non-fiction The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs spent a year trying to follow exactly/literally the rules set down in the Bible (some really tough parts about stoning adulterers and not wearing mixed fabrics and not touching your wife during her period, etc.) It is witty, moving, and fascinating stuff.
Visit Jane Yolen's website and her journal.

--Marshal Zeringue