It’s why I love being in the children’s book field. There’s a raptor rehabilitator in Virginia called the Owl Moon Raptor Center. They call me up and say, “We’re going to do this with “Owl Moon” or “On Eagle Cove” or another of my bird books. Q: You must get loads of responses to “Owl Moon” alone.Ī: You know who contacts me most these days? Raptor rehabilitators. No matter where you go, you’re going to find a story. When a fox jumps up and down onto its prey, it looks like a parenthesis - there’s a story right there. Does Hatfield inspire you?Ī: I walk out by the Connecticut River and all over. Q: Growing up, I loved your books on nature. I would say I have books in contract now up through 2025. Some are not going to be illustrated for another two or three years.

Or 408, something like that I’ve already sold about 30 books. So the book with your granddaughter will be number 401?Ī: I have about 5 books coming out after this - so 405. 'I've become aware of nature through my husband', said Yolen.Q: Does that happen often, that you write something that gets published years later?Ī: Let me put it this way: I just sold a book with my granddaughter who is 25. The 'Pa' character is based on her husband, David, who was an avid outdoorsman and birdwatcher. According to Jane Yolen's website, she is actually Yolen's child, Heidi. While the first-person text does not specify the child's gender, the jacket flap copy refers to the characters as 'a little girl and her father'. Along their way, they encounter a great horned owl.

The story deals with a father who takes his child owling for the first time on a cold winter night. It is gentle yet adventurous, quiet yet full of sound'. Usually stories of a little girl are with her mother. Yolen described the book as 'a positive family story. In 1989, Weston Woods Studios adapted the book to an animated film narrated by Yolen. It has been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages, including French, German, Chinese, and Korean. It won many awards, most notably the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations, and has appeared on Reading Rainbow in the US. Owl Moon is a 1987 children's picture book written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr.

Owl and moon book