Authors Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple Visit FSM

Friends School students spent the day learning about writing and the creative process from authors Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple.

On Tuesday, the 19th, authors Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple visited the school, meeting with every group of students. It was a rare and wonderful experience for our students. They had the opportunity to receive answers to their questions about the process of writing & publishing books from one of the world’s most prolific and diverse authors.

In addition to sharing their wisdom and experience in the field, Jane and Adam signed all of their books that our school library owns and co-wrote a poem about the school’s mascot, the falcon, for us on this special occasion. Here is the final stanza:

So like the falcon, kids, fly high.
Make your goal the whole big sky.
Ask where and how & when and why –
Be Minnesota friends.

 Jane has been called the Aesop of the 20th Century and the Hans Christian Andersen of America. Her 300th book is scheduled to be published this year. Among her most well-known works are Caldecott winner Owl Moon; the best-selling “How Do Dinosaurs…” series; the Commander Toad series; Encounter (a picture book about the arrival of Columbus from the perspective of a Native American child); The Devil’s Arithmetic (a powerful Holocaust story); and many books of fantasy, poetry, and collections of fables and folk and fairy tales. Adam has co-written a number of songbooks and is working on his third novel with Jane, after winning the Locus Award for Pay the Piper: A Rock-n-Roll Fairy Tale. The companion book, Trollbridge, takes place in Minnesota.

 We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to have Jane and Adam visit us. Our students are walking away from the visit with a gift that will last their lifetimes.