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MEET YAEL SCHY
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Yael Schy

All my life, I have loved to dance. I started taking ballet lessons when I was 8 years old, and I haven’t stopped dancing since! In college, I majored in theater arts with an emphasis in dance, and psychology. I now use dance in my work as a trainer and coach in leadership and teambuilding. I also teach various kinds of partner dancing. My favorite kinds of dancing these days are swing dance and tango!

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

I read a lot as a child—mostly fantasy and science fiction. I also loved poetry, and began writing poems, songs, and stories at a young age. I’m still writing poems and songs!

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

I co-authored a business book called TEAMWORK TOOLS: A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH FOR MANAGERS AND TRAINERS (Kagan Publishing, 2008). This book is about how to help people learn together collaboratively. It is based on Cooperative Learning educational techniques.

What really triggers your imagination?

I am very inspired by nature, and of course by dancing and music! I also like to exercise the creative part of my brain by doing improvisational theater and dance, singing, and looking at photographs, drawings, and interesting objects. Finally, since I write poetry, I love playing with sounds, and I always have a rhyming dictionary handy!

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

I co-authored my first children’s book, WHERE IN THE WILD? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed (Tricycle Press, 2007), with my husband, David M. Schwartz and photographer Dwight Kuhn. I am thrilled that the book has received numerous awards:

• 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Book and Films Prize for Excellence in Science Books
• 2008 Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12
  -National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Children'­s Book Council (CBC)
• Cybils Award Finalist
• 2008 Animal Behavior Society’s Outstanding Children’s Book Award
• 2009 Great Lakes Great Books Award for Grades 2-3
• 2009 Elementary California Collection

When is your next book going to be in book stores?

David, Dwight, and I have written a sequel, WHERE ELSE IN THE WILD? MORE Camouflaged Creatures Concealed…and Revealed. It will be published by Tricycle Press in Fall 2009. We have already started a third book in the series, called, What in the Wild? Which will be published in Fall 2010.

 Is there anything about yourself that you’d like to share - hobbies, where you were born, special talents other than writing/illustrating.

I am a native California Reader! I was born and raised in Los Angeles. My passions are all kinds of dancing and improvisational theater, and I perform in an international folkdance troupe and an improvisational theater troupe. I am very fortunate that I have been able to combine my passion with my work as a business consultant and facilitator. I use dance and improvisational theater exercises to help people communicate and work together as a team. I created a workshop called Teamwork Tango ® that teaches leadership and teambuilding skills through the metaphor of partner dancing, and which I have presented at numerous professional conferences and organizations in the United States and abroad. I also love hiking and walking—especially at the beach!

What other jobs you had before you became a writer/illustrator?

I have a Masters Degree in Social Work and Community Organizing, and I spent 20 years as a manager in various nonprofit health and human services organizations, before starting my own consulting business 8 years ago. My previous work as a social worker included counseling people with disabilities, community organizing in a small town in Israel, lobbying Congress on health care policy issues in Washington, DC, organizing a statewide coalition on poverty issues in Maryland, working as an advisor at a deaf university, and directing an intergenerational community mural project in Los Angeles. (You can still see my mural on the history of the Los Angeles Jewish community on Fairfax Avenue, in the parking lot of Cantor’s Delicatessen!)