Her books continue to be enjoyed by adults as well as children.
It was not until 1980 that Yolen was "discovered" by the general reading public and her work began being published in anthologies, collections, magazines, and textbooks. Her fairy tales and mythological stories captured the popular imagination at a time when the art of storytelling experienced a massive rebirth in America. Suddenly people were gathering together to listen to someone tell stories, and Yolen's were among the favorites. On the basis of this experience, she comments in SAAS, she has "two pieces of advice for young people interested in writing: read and write. Read and read and read. It's the only way you'll discover what great stories have been told, and what stories you want to tell better."
Yolen's life can be summed up in one word: "imagination." She is the eldest of two children of William Hyatt Yolen, an author and pioneer of the resurgence of kite-flying in America, and Isabelle Berlin Yolen, herself a writer who constructed crossword puzzles for magazines.
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