Tarini Poetry Analysis Fat is not a Fairy Tale Jane Yolen

Fat is not a Fairytale by Jane Yolen.

Jane Yolen was born on 11th February 1939. When she was in school she was a gold star kid. She won a gold star for writing the best poem in her school. When she was thirteen she won a gold star again for writing a good poem. She was really interested in writing. She used to take piano lessons and she studied ballet. She then got into Hunter Junior High School where she discovered that there were gold star kids all over the city and that she was not the only gold star kid. She studied hard to remain a gold star kid. During this time she and her little brother Steve created newspapers for the apartment and sold them for 5 cents each.

After she graduated from college she became an editor and used to edit during lunch times breaks, evening and weekends. She thought of herself as a writer, journalist/non fiction writer. She then became a childrens book writer and she published her first book on a cold February day which turned out be her 22nd birthday. Her first ever books name was Pirates in Petticoats.

Jane Yolen got married in 1962 to a man called David. W. Stemple. They had 3 kids (2 boys and 1 girl) and they had 6 grandchildren. Her husband died in March 2006 because of cancer and she now lives right next to her daughter Heidi.

In the poem Fat is not a Fairytale why did you chose to write about being fat and about fairytales? I wanted to write about these two things because I wanted the healthy people to know that to be a princess one doesnt need to be thin and pretty. There could be fat princesses too.

Was there are reason on why you took names of famous fairy tales and changed their names a little bit? What was the reason? Yes, there was a reason on why I wrote it that way and they reason why I did was because I wanted everyone to know that the name of the book/fairytale doesnt matter. It doesnt matter if the name of the book was Cinderella and the princess in that book was fat. In this poem there arent very many poetic devices (similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, personification etc.), why is that? That is because I could not compare anything with fairy tales and I couldnt personify anything. I wasnt able to fit any poetic devices in my poem.

What is the metaphorical meaning of this poem?

Tarini Poetry Analysis Fat is not a Fairy Tale Jane Yolen

The metaphorical meaning of this poem is that you are perfect the way you are. You dont need to be something that you arent. We have to learn to be ourselves. We dont need to change ourselves to get what we want.