In Kar-Ben’s latest board book, Shalom Bayit: A Peaceful Home, different animals are depicted relaxing in their homes. From a bird family in a nest high in a tree to worms burrowing in deep in the ground, every animal has a home where they feel safe and comfortable.

It gets a little boring eating matzah for eight days straight. One of the fun things about Passover is finding those creative ways to eat all the matzah we buy. 

I am the older sister, of a boy four years younger. My brother Steven. Steve. Stevie. Steve Yolen who lives in Brazil.

So the story of Miriam resonates for me--that oldest sister, a seeress/author, a musician, a leader of her people who both works for and sometimes defies the Lord. 

Quite a few readers notice that the majority of my picture books read like poems. Even if they don’t rhyme. They use all the trappings of poetry: lyricism, metaphor, simile, rhythm, internal rhymes, alliteration, etc.

This is not happenstance nor mere chance. I wrote my first poem (rhymed though not particularly well rhymed) in first grade. (I was  kindergarten age but as I had been reading since three years old, my parents and teachers decided I should be skipped ahead.