Today, children’s author Jane Yolen stops by with a guest post about her newest picture book, Crow Not Crow.
CROW NOT CROW is a family story, sort of.
Adam Stemple is my middle child. He invented the Crow Not Crow method of birding to teach his city wife how to identify birds.
And the illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba, while not an actual relative of the blood, has become another child of mine. We are both Americans who live in Scotland, me part time and she—for now—full time, getting her doctorate in children’s literature at Glasgow University, after getting her Master’s in children’s book illustration at Edinburgh University. And when I am in Edinburgh, I now have what she and her wonderful husband Stan dub “Jane’s Room.” It is my own private B&B. (Stan is a wonderful cook!) with hot and cold running children’s book conversations. Elizabeth and I have another book coming out next year (different subject, different publisher) and one more from Cornell that she is working on right now. Plus every time I stay over, we come up with a half dozen new ideas for books we want to work on—together or by ourselves.
Elizabeth is taller than me, younger than me, slimmer than me, has longer hair than I do, and is a stunner. It seems unfair that she is also a writer on her own, with an award-winning novel and many illustrated books under her belt. But I have more books out than she has. Hahahahaha! If life is a contest, I call that a draw. Except Elizabeth can draw and I cannot.
But I have to say, working with two people I adore on the same book has given me great pleasure. If it gives our readers even a shadow of that great pleasure, I will feel our work is well received.
Crow Not Crow
By Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple, Illustrated by Elizabeth Dulemba
Audience: Children 6-9 years
Pages: 36
New York Times bestselling children’s author, Jane Yolen, and her son, Adam Stemple, have teamed up to write a gentle tale of a father introducing his daughter to the joys of bird watching. Using the simple “Crow, Not Crow” method for distinguishing one bird from another, father and daughter explore the birds near their home…and there are so many to see! After the story ends, readers learn more about all the birds that appear in the book with photographs, descriptions, and QR links to bird sounds.
Novel Novice 
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