Guest Post by Heidi Stemple and Jane Yolen: JANIE WRITES A PLAY (illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight)

Note from Debbie: I’m delighted to have my dear friend Heidi Stemple and her mom, Jane Yolen, visit my blog. Today is special not only because it’s launch day for JANIE WRITES A PLAY: JANE YOLEN’S FIRST GREAT STORY, a picture book Heidi wrote and that Madelyn Goodnight illustrated, but also because it’s her mom’s birthday.

Heidi: What do you give the mom who has everything for her 86^th birthday?

Well, if that mom is Jane Yolen, you write a book about her.

I did that. It’s called JANIE WRITES A PLAY. It’s illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight. It comes out on February 11, 2025.

My mom was born in 1939, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants. Actually, that’s not the whole story. She actually found out her dad was born in “the old country” just after he died. So her father, my Poppy, was an immigrant. He just didn’t tell anyone. My mom was raised in NYC and went to PS 93. She lived on Central Park West and her apartment had 14 windows on the Park. These are bits of her childhood I have always known—she has worked those small details into many conversations. “I’m a New Yorker at heart,” she says even though she is the least street savvy human I know. I love that about her. Her parents actually packed up the family and moved to the CT suburbs while she and her brother Steve were at summer camp. Surprise! I don’t think she has ever forgiven them for that insult to her New Yorker-ness. But, the details about her childhood before being dragged out of the city–those are the stuff of legend. My mom, after all, is a storyteller. Her impressive canon of almost 450 books (and counting) is a clue. And, she came upon her storytelling the old-fashioned way. She was born into it.

I asked her about her family’s history of storytelling.

JY:   Some people call it lying, or perhaps tousling the truth, but the Yolens, all of them, were huge storytellers. They would sit around telling stories.

My grandfather owned a hotel or some type of gathering spot where people stayed overnight and, there, he would tell stories in the evenings. He would tell stories that had everyone leaning in to hear the amazing tales he was weaving. People assumed (or he told them) he had brought these stories from the Old Country. Turns out, it was Shakespeare. He was telling Shakespeare stories and passing them off as his own!

Heidi: We have a million stories about the Yolens as liars. I remember my Gr’uncle (that’s Great-Uncle) Harry telling me about when he was a matador. He had an entire bathroom wallpapered with pictures of his adventures and one picture right in the middle, of him dressed in the iconic matador uniform, proved the validity of the matador story to me. It was years before I realized he was just making this up and the photo was him in a costume. Those Yolens! My mom has taken many family stories and woven them into her books. THE MANY PROBLEMS IS ROCHEL LEAH, recently, but also AND 13 CHINESE ACROBATS and MIZ BERLIN WALKS, to name a few.

But, the stories that I have always loved most are the ones about my mom’s early writing. She and her brother wrote a building newspaper—interviewing the residents, writing articles, and, after their mom typed and mimeographed each edition, they sold it back to the residents. Then there was the play! My mom has always bragged about the play she wrote in first grade (though the grade does change occasionally in the telling). I assumed my mom would eventually write this story as a picture book. She didn’t. So, I did.

I asked her about this.

Heidi: JY, why did you never write about the play? It seems like an obvious piece of your childhood to write.

JY: Probably because I didn’t think it was a great story.

Heidi: But, it IS a great story!

JY: Well, it’s my story. But, it’s special because the book is your telling.

Heidi: Did I mention it’s nice when your mom is your biggest cheerleader? Also, I’m her biggest fan. I told her the book was her origin story—like a super hero. She laughed.

JY: Alright, I’ll take that.

Heidi: But, when I asked her what made authors superheroes, she gave me what her students call a “Jane-ism.”

JY: We can see into the past and the future at the same time.

Heidi: It’s fun having such a wise mom. She worries about being less wise as she ages. And we talk a lot about memory—losing memories, the fallibility of memory, what our memories give us… stuff like that. When I was writing the manuscript, I asked her to recall details, for example, her walk to school, who would she pass? She recalled a butcher sweeping the steps and he made it into the book. She remembered her teacher and all the names of all the kids in her class because she was the attendance taker.

JY: These bits I remember from then–I mean, you’ve heard me recite all the names from my class, “Alan, Arthur, Barry, Bruce, Carl…” That’s all from repetition which is a different kind of memory—it was in my mouth. It became a mantra. And the same thing with things I wrote back then. Two poems come to mind “Bus Bus,” and “Candy Cane Mountain.” Early poems. I remember these poems when I can’t remember poems I have written recently.

Heidi:

I hope this book serves as a bit of memory. We joke that I am the “external hard drive” for all my mom’s memories. So I guess it’s fitting that I wrote this one down. It really is a love letter—to my mom, but also to all the creative kids who want to write or sing or act or draw. I grew up being told I could do that. I hear, over and over, from my creative friends that their dreams were not supported. “You can do art, but, as a hobby. That’s not a real job.” Never once did I hear anything like that. In fact, all of our creative pursuits were encouraged. I have two younger brothers. Adam is a novelist and musician. Jason is a photographer. I actually came last to an artist career having started out as a probation/parole officer before joining the family business at the advanced age (ha! Hilarious to think this now!) of 28. But, I never looked back. And, I have my upbringing the thank for it. The encouragement AND the discipline.

JY: What I find interesting is when I read the book about Little Janie—me—I can see the Yolen genes. Meaning, like little me, your brother wrote songs, you wrote poems…

Heidi: So you are saying “nature,” but do you think some of it is “nurture?” I mean, writing may be in our genes, but you were also a great teacher…

JY: Oh yes, you remember! When we went on trips, I made notebooks for you all, and I would collect and critique them. But you all learned! You learned how to write…

Heidi: And revise.

JY: Yes, and revise.  I should apologize for the critiques.

Heidi: Oh, never apologize JY! The notebooks and your critiques–those make for a GREAT story!

About Heidi Stemple:

Heidi didn’t want to be a writer when she grew up. In fact, after she graduated from college, she became a probation officer in Florida. It wasn’t until she was 28 years old that she gave in and joined the family business, publishing her first short story in a book called Famous Writers and Their Kids Write Spooky Stories. The famous writer was her mom, author Jane Yolen. Since then, she has published more than thirty-five books and numerous short stories and poems, mostly for children.

Heidi lives and writes on a big old farm in Massachusetts that she shares with a dozen deer, a family of bears, three coyotes, two bobcats, a gray fox, a red fox, tons of birds, and some very fat groundhogs. Once a year she calls and counts owls for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

Find out more about Heidieystemple.com.