Yolen has written many fairy tales that feature dragons, unicorns, and even angels.

In many of these, family relationships are emphasized. In her witch stories in particular, issues of central interest to women abound. In these stories, the witches themselves are usually not the main issue, a deviance from typical feminist writing in which witches represent women persecuted for their power to give life (through childbirth) by patriarchal culture. Instead, the issues tend to be intimate ones, as found in "The Face in the Cloth." On the other hand, Yolen is willing to tackle broad social issues in stories such as "The Woman Who Loved a Bear" (please see separate entry).

In that story, the witch-figure is actually male, and the story is about a woman overcoming the oppressive forces of an alien society with the help of a sensitive man.