Environmental Picture Books with Frank Murphy

We are so excited to have Frank Murphy join us today to share information about Environmental Picture Books!

Frank Murphy has taught various grades at the elementary level for 32 years. He has published several award-winning picture books and easy readers for over 23 years. He loves traveling with his wife and co-author, Carla. He roots on the Philadelphia 76ers and UFC matches with his sons. He loves the hobby of collecting and trading sports cards - he has two of the biggest Tyrese Maxey and Bo Nickal collections in the hobby. Two of his own favorite books are Heroic Heart and A Boy Like You. His all-time favorite kids' book is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. He's most proud of the accomplishments his kids are making - Griffin (marketing), Chase (filmmaking), and Haley (teaching).  

“If not us, then who?” - that’s the quote from A Planet Like Ours that matters the most to me. It’s a rallying call to readers, young and adult, to care for our world - and all that lives in it. And it’s why Charnaie Gordon and I wrote the text.

A Planet Like Ours is the fifth book in the “like You” series. After writing the first book, A Boy Like You, I didn’t imagine that the book would turn into a whole series of picture books. After A Girl Like You, A Teacher Like You, and A Friend Like You - our team wanted to take a little bit of a different path. We arrived at the idea of taking care of our planet. It was the first book in the series where the title didn’t end with “You”. I had already co-authored A Friend Like You with Charnaie Gordon. I really really love collaborating with Charnaie – we have great chemistry together and we just get each other; it’s always a seamless and smooth writing experience with Charnaie. 

There is so much happening in our world that is about division. We have hoped all along that this book would relate to everyone - no matter what. Even though politics and its inherent divisions (now more than ever) make their way into debates about climate change, global warming, and the ways we use and abuse natural resources – we think everyone can agree that we can all contribute to caring for Earth. From eliminating littering to caring for animals we wanted to give readers gentle reminders and inspiration to remember that we’re all sharing the same home – our Earth. 

Kayla Harren, the books’ illustrator, is the driving force in illuminating our words. Her art ignites everything we write and she is the one who actually creates the story with her illustrations - in each book. With A Planet Like Ours, Kayla created some memorable and dramatic images. My favorite piece of art is the full spread of the child sitting in a boat, attempting to clean the waters below; the way Kayla put the readers underneath the water, looking above is powerful. Also, the scene of barren land with only tree stumps remaining is stunning - and so sad. Additionally, Kayla is skilled at representing the vast diversity we have as humans. With each “like You” book we hope that every kid sees a part of themself in the art.

Another hope we have is that teachers, librarians, and caregivers share the book year-round, not just on and around Earth Day. The messages in this book need to be taught and acted upon daily. The last message I wanted readers to notice and remember is that caring for each other is incredibly important – maybe now more than ever. Charnaie and I were very intentional about having that message in this book.

Thanks for joining us, Frank!

You can find Frank’s book here and you can also check him out his website at www.frankmurphybooks.com.

Activism Picture Books with Robin Hall

We are so excited to have Robin Hall join us today to share information about Activism Picture Books!

Robin Hall holds an MFA in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut picture book, THE LITTLEST WEAVER, will release Fall 2023 from Familius, distributed by Abrams Publishing.

She believes we are all born with an innate need to create, whether it be the best bread on the planet, a cozy quilt to keep our loved ones warm, or words on a page.

She teaches creative writing to children, yoga to all ages, and lives in North Carolina on a tiny farm with one husband, five children, four dogs, three weaving looms, and too many chickens to count.

Today I’m excited to talk about my debut picture book that released earlier this month. The Littlest Weaver is about Laurel, the littlest weaver, who sees a need in her community and responds.

Laurel feels a call to action and works to make a difference after a sad, displaced man moves to Laurel’s small Appalachian town. She recognizes loss in him, the same loss she experienced when she lost her mother. Even though she is small, Laurel understands cloudy days, pain, and the slow process of healing.

As Jen Krarr says, the main character of an activism picture book needs “a personal connection to the … cause that is at the heart of the story. This character’s journey is fueled by a cause they care about deeply.” Because Laurel suffered loss, she is the right person to help the sad man heal.

Even though the sad man initially turns her away, Laurel keeps finding different ways to help, from preparing and planting a garden to bringing fresh eggs and cleaning the cobwebs in his windows.

The most powerful thing Laurel does is use her gift of weaving. She realizes the man doesn’t need a happy story rug (her family specialty), but one that recognizes and honors his loss to help with the healing process. Laurel designs and weaves the rug with her father. I don’t want to spoil it here, so you’ll have to check out The Littlest Weaver for the big reveal.

My hope is that readers will see that even if they feel small and alone, they, like the littlest weaver, can make a big difference in their community.

Thanks so much for joining us, Robin!

You can find Robin on Instagram: www.instagram.com/robinhallwrites or on her website: www.robinhallwrites.com.

And you can find her book at Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-littlest-weaver-robin-hall/19724209?ean=9781641709774 or any online retailer!

Mystery Picture Books with Elaine Bickell

We are so excited to have Elaine Bickell join us today to share information about Mystery Picture Books!

Elaine is from London in the UK but has called Wellington in New Zealand home for the last 17 years. She lives in an old house in the central city with her partner, 3 children and two fox terriers and spends her time writing picture books for children. Her debut picture book, The Little Ghost who Lost her Boo! made it around the world in 2019.

I’m a big fan of Joy Cowley and I owe her a lot. It was winning The Joy Cowley award in 2018 that launched my writing career. I’m starting with Joy Cowley because she said…

“…authors tend to be either plot driven or character driven. Once we recognise which we are, we can do something to strengthen the side that is lacking.”

Joy’s words resonated with me because she made me realise I am a character driven writer. Plot is the side I have to work on to strengthen.

It wasn’t until I was asked to write this guest blog post that I realised The Little Ghost who Lost her Boo! is a mystery picture book. I had never consciously thought of it that way before. You may find this lack of awareness and intent somewhat unusual or confusing, but for me it is typical of being a character driven writer. Now, in hindsight, I realise the mystery picture book genre, that I didn’t know I was writing, served me up a classic plot structure and thereby helped me “strengthen the side that is lacking.”

In typical whodunnit, or rather ‘whereisit’ tradition, Little Ghost loses her Boo and heads off to find it with determination. Her journey spent searching, and the characters she meets along the way, make up the main narrative of the story. My plot “issue” was resolved by adhering to the well-trodden path of a mystery story.

So ubiquitous is the mystery picture book, and so familiar the plot structure, that I find I also inadvertently included many of what might be called its essential ingredients. I owe this I think to a subconscious familiarity born from years of reading widely. Writing this blog post has made me consider how much of my writing is in fact subconscious.

I’m going to return to Joy Cowley again at this point because she also said something along the lines of “…writing a book is much like giving birth. You gestate an idea for a period of time and then suddenly, only when it is ready, it pours out onto the page.” Again I find I can relate. I play around with an idea in my head for weeks, sometimes months, and occasionally years, before it is ready to be released onto the page. During this time a lot of the story gets written by my subconscious, or semi-conscious brain. It’s only at the end that I feel like I step in and actively shape the story.

So back to those mystery picture book plot essential elements that I included subconsciously or accidentally! Of course there must be a compelling mystery to solve, and a sleuth with a big enough reason to solve it because the consequence of not solving it needs to be a big deal. In The Little Ghost who Lost her Boo, the consequence of not finding the lost Boo is serious! A ghost without a Boo cannot do the very thing that ghosts do, scare people.

A mystery story also needs red herrings. Those little moments of hope that the mystery is about to be solved only to prove misleading. The Little Ghost has them in abundance.

And mystery stories need a satisfactory resolution. In this instance the reader steps in and helps solve the mystery. An invested reader is another essential mystery story element.

Once I started to think about the genre of mystery picture books I realised that some of my favourites fall into this category, but the one I have enjoyed reading to my children the most is “The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his business.”

Someone does a little something on Little Mole’s head and he sets out to solve the mystery and find the culprit. A classic whodunnit mystery plot applied in the most unexpected way!

Thanks so much for joining us, Elaine!

You can find Elaine on her website at www.Elainebickell.com, Facebook at Elaine Bickell, Children’s author, or Instagram @eebeenz.

Where To From Here? Traveling Without a Template with Liz Garton Scanlon

We are so excited to have Liz Garton Scanlon join us today to share information about Journey Picture Books!

Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of many beloved books for kids, including the recent middle grade novel Lolo's Light, the upcoming picture book Full Moon Pups, the Caldecott honored All the World, and many others. Liz is faculty co-chair of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at the Vermont Faculty of Fine Arts, and lives in Austin, Texas. Find more on her life and work at  www.LizGartonScanlon.com 

In a game of writerly free association, I’d say journey and you – most likely – would say hero’s. The Hero’s Journey is a story template (popularized by Joseph Campbell) that begins with the hero’s call to adventure, follows him on said adventure, and welcomes him back home, victorious. It’s a way to tell a journey story, for sure. But it’s not the only way.

For one thing, it presumes that only certain, extraordinary characters receive the call when really, life itself is the adventure and if we’ve been born, we’ve been called. It also suggests a journey that’s circular and complete – the hero goes out, faces challenges, learns stuff about himself and the world, and returns home smugly satisfied. For most of us, life’s journey is more like a spiral than a circle, with plenty of side trips and twisty tentacles along the way. And while we certainly learn and grow as we navigate circumstances and interactions, we rarely (if ever) feel complete, much less smug! Finally, the Hero’s Journey is gendered in a way that’s untenable for many writers, readers and adventurers these days.

So, where does that leave those of us who want to use a journey as story structure or subject matter? Well, if we explode open the limitations around the Hero’s Journey, we see that we’re all on chosen or assigned adventures all the time, and every single one is an act of imagination. We do not know what we will encounter along the way, and yet we move forward – bravely or naively or with deep trepidation or fear – through space and time – fired by need or desire or curiosity or wonder. Sometimes, at the end, we return home, but not always. Sometimes, we’re dramatically changed, but not always. Sometimes, we feel satisfied, but not forever.

I’ve written several journey-based books over the years. I’m thinking of my picture book In the Canyon, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, that tells the story of a girl who hikes to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and, in the end, rather than feeling victorious, feels deeply connected to the natural world. My first middle grade novel, The Great Good Summer, is built partly around a road trip that Ivy and her best friend Paul take via Greyhound Bus, which we can all agree is more humbling than heroic.

But today I want to take a look at I Want a Boat, my collaboration with illustrator Kevan Atteberry. In this book, the protagonist is a young girl who uses her imagination to turn an empty box into a boat and, with that, she’s off an a seafaring adventure, with only her stuffies to serve as crew. The lyrical structure of this book is the repeating phrases I have… and I want…, phrases that were originally introduced to me as journaling prompts by a therapist-friend. The idea behind the words, at least as I understand them, is to express gratitude and presence (I have…) and also, a yearning, a desire, a leaning toward what’s next (I want…)

This, to me, is what moves a story forward. A grounding in the present moment and a pushing off from there. An understanding of where the character is, where she is headed, and what is moves her in that direction. There is no true template to guide that movement or predict the actual, eventual destination, whether we wish there were or not.  The character, like the writer, can only be curious about the journey. In turn, the reader will be, too.

(For more journeys, have a look at Liz’s Would You Come Too? and Frances in the Country, as well as Wishes by Victo Ngai and Muon Thi Van, Journey by Aaron Becker, The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat, and the very classic Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.)

Thanks so much for joining us, Liz!

You can find Liz on instagram @LizGardenSalad, Twitter @LGartonScanlon, or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/liz.g.scanlon.

Epistolary Picture Books with Julie Falatko

We are so excited to have Julie Falatko join us today to share information about Epistolary Picture Books!

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Julie Falatko writes books for children. She is the author of many books, including Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book), which was named one of the ABA’s best books for young readers for 2016, was featured in People magazine, and was read online by David Harbour of “Stranger Things,” and the Two Dogs in a Trench Coat chapter book series, illustrated by Colin Jack (Scholastic), for which she received the Denise McCoy Literacy Award.

I wrote Yours in Books as a challenge to myself. Could I tell a whole story only in letters? I loved the idea of characters getting to know each other through correspondence. 

First I had to ask myself some questions, and these are questions anyone writing an epistolary book should consider.

  1. Why is it in letters (or emails, or sticky notes, or airplanes with banners flying behind)? Epistolary books are fun, but there has to be a reason that the story only makes sense told via correspondence. In Yours in Books, Owl doesn’t want to leave his treetop home to visit Bessie Squirrel’s bookstore, so he orders books by mail.

  2. How do your characters treat the correspondence? Is it strictly professional? What are they trying to convey? What do they want? Does their motivation change as the story goes on? The correspondence between Owl and Bessie in Yours in Books is formal at first but gets increasingly casual as they get to know each other.

  3. Is what they write in the letters the truth? There is an opportunity to have the words of the correspondence contrast with the reality shown in the illustrations – often in hilarious ways. This is a huge advantage to writing an epistolary picture book, because you know some of the story will be told in the illustrations.

One of my favorite things to look for in junk shops is the box of postcards. I love blank postcards to send to people, but I really love postcards that have already been sent. There are so many stories in these small spaces – you know, just like picture books.

Here are some of my favorites. Each of them has layers of story and character hiding behind the words on the card. Your epistolary books should be just as full of juicy unwritten story as these are.

Dear Marian, I felt so sorry, this afternoon, when I realized that I forgot to thank you for your Thanksgiving postal, it was thoughtfully kind of you to send it. Yours sincerely, A.L. Brittain

Ok. So this person is writing a thank you to Marian for her Thanksgiving letter, and is feeling terrible because of neglecting to reply to her. But. It’s posted November 28. I looked it up – Thanksgiving in 1910 was November 24. Unless this is about her letter from 1909, there’s something more here. Does she always demand an immediate reply? Did she send a Thanksgiving postcard weeks early? Does she send postcards all the time and A.L. Brittain is trying to get rid of her? Is this some form of flirtation? 

The Grand Canyon is a wonderful sight to see. Maybe you will see it someday. Dad.

I love this one. On the one hand, he may very well be truly wishing his daughters will see the Grand Canyon some day. On the other hand, there is some fatherly pressure here. Get out! See the world! Maybe visit Arizona every once in a while!

Labor Day. Dear Ann, This has been a very strange vacation. My 4 yr. old niece has had the week off and we’ve been escorting her to her swimming lessons. We’re now staying at a resort for the long weekend and the day’s structured around her pool time – naptime. Her little (6 mo. old) sister is getting short shrift. Even my photo taking ops are defined by my sister. Although it’s beautiful here, it has gotten too hot. I’m all set for NY fall. Hope you are recovering still & less tired. Your friend, Meg

I love the story of this one, the idea of going on a family trip, traveling across the country, only to have everyone revolving around the 4-year-old’s schedule. Even her photo ops are regulated. So good.

Dear E- Where the will is not strong and the flesh is quite weak, the mere mention of food makes the tummy go tweek. Your nice invitation I can hardly refuse. You’ve so little to gain – and I’ve nothing to lose. And so I will close – wishing most truly – “The Top of the Mornin’ to All”—Mr. Dooley

WHO IS THIS GUY? Can you imagine receiving a response to your dinner invitation entirely in rhyme? What do you think Eugenia’s response was? Because it could very well be either delight or wishing she has not, in fact, invited Mr. Dooley to dinner.

The challenge of writing an epistolary book is in stripping away everything but the correspondence. There’s no room for describing the scene or the characters. But we’re lucky as picture book authors, because we know the illustrators can tell that part of the story. Writing entirely in correspondence is like dialog that has taken one step back – it’s not what your characters are saying, but what they think they should be saying, how they think they should sound. An epistolary book is a challenge to create one story in the words themselves, and to have those words hint at layers of story that aren’t being told (just like in all those postcards from the junk shop).  

Thanks so much for joining us, Julie!

To see more of Julie’s work, visit her website: juliefalatko.com, Twitter: @Julie Falatko, Instagram: @julie_falatko, and Substack: Do the Work.

Narrative Nonfiction with Julie Leung

We are so excited to have Julie Leung join us today to share information about narrative nonfiction picture books!

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By day, Julie Leung is a marketing director at Random House, specializing in sci-fi/fantasy. By night, she is a children’s book author. Her debut series, Mice of the Round Table was praised as a “winning new adventure,” by Kirkus Reviews. She is also the author of Paper Son: The Story of Tyrus Wong, The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee, and more.

I first read about Tyrus Wong through his New York Times obituary. It was December 2016, and I was reckoning with the anti-immigrant policies that came with the new presidential administration. I was also looking for my next writing project after completing my middle grade series, Mice of the Round Table. 

It was the perfect time to encounter this incredible life story of a man who lived to be 106 years old -- a visual artist who made groundbreaking contributions to American animation and art, particularly through his work on the Disney classic, Bambi. He was also a man who, according to the laws of the time, immigrated to the United States illegally as a paper son. 

During the many decades that the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place, a few exceptions were made: if one were a person of high status (such as a merchant or scholar) or related to a Chinese person already living in the country. These exceptions kicked off a black market of false identification papers sold in China, where desperate immigrants would often claim blood relations to Chinese who were already in America, i.e. becoming a son or daughter to someone ‘on paper’ only. 

Tyrus and his father, bearing papers claiming to be of merchant class, arrived in San Francisco in 1919. When they were stopped at Angel Island Immigration Station, 10-year-old Tyrus was separated from his father and detained for over a month. When you watch video interviews where Tyrus recounts that experience, you can see how that trauma still haunts him. 

I wanted more people to know about Tyrus Wong’s legacy and this little-taught history around the Chinese Exclusion Act and the ‘paper son’ phenomenon. I wanted to convey how immigrants, wanted or not, make huge contributions to this country. How could I encapsulate all this in a nonfiction picture book? 


Step 1: I drafted an initial outline of the manuscript based on the obituary alone, establishing the key beats in Tyrus’s life I thought would be important. 

Step 2: I began my research in earnest. I read as many articles as I could find and watched numerous interviews with Tyrus on YouTube. My agent helped me source this fantastic documentary called Tyrus directed by Pamela Tom. I also found a retrospective art book published by the Walt Disney Foundation. Both proved to be instrumental. 

Step 3: After I fleshed out the manuscript with these researched details, I began to look for places to infuse poetic impact. From the beginning, I always knew I wanted to end the book with old man Tyrus flying his kite, facing the same ocean he crossed as a child. But other moments came to the forefront at this research stage -- when I read about how Tyrus would work as a janitor at his art school, I added a moment where he imagines that his mop is a paint brush. 

The motif of paper surfaced insistently: paper as Tyrus’ medium for his art, the newspapers his father used to teach him calligraphy, the fact that he was a paper son. I thought about my own parents who immigrated from a similar village just 40 miles away from where Tyrus’s family lived. 

Becoming an immigrant is rewriting one’s own fate—throwing out what has been written for you and determining your own story on a new page of paper. 

And thus, my refrain of “life in America could be like a blank paper” where Tyrus could leave his “mark” came to be. 

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Step 4: At this point, my agent and I felt that the manuscript was in good shape to go on submission. It eventually landed at Random House Children’s, in the capable hands of Anne Schwartz, where she helped me streamline and clarify certain concepts so that children could grasp them more easily. I also reached out to the Wong family at this time who provided additional insights and most importantly to me, their blessing on the project. 

Step 5: A final round of fact-checks and copy edits later, and my words went to the brilliant illustrator Chris Sasaki. How did he manage to take that 1,500 word manuscript and transform it into pure visual poetry? You’ll have to ask him! 

Thanks for joining us, Julie!

You can find more information about Julie and her books on both Twitter and Instagram @jleungbooks.

Metafictive Picture Books and the Process of Writing Them with Claudia Rueda

We are so excited to have Claudia Rueda join us today to share information about metafictive picture books!

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Claudia Rueda is a Colombian author and a New York Times Bestseller illustrator of over thirty picture books. Rueda's books have been published in the United States, Mexico, and Spain and have been translated into fifteen different languages for Asia and Europe. She’s a 2016 Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren Awards nominee. Claudia went to Law and Art school and worked as a political cartoonist in Colombia. She then studied Children’s Book Illustration at UC Berkeley. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, and she’s the 2009 recipient of the Billie M. Levy research grant awarded by the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection. Claudia is a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia MFA program in Creative Writing.

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Stories we tell reflect the cultural environment of the times. The 20th century began with a remarkable spirit of innovation, and picture books followed that path. Peter Newell’s inventive Slant Book (1910) is a great example of experimentation and probably the first to draw attention to the picture book as an object. The self-referentiality his book introduces is part of what we now call metafiction.

The reader interacts with the book

Metafictive is the option we give the reader to interact with the book or to take part in the story. We can find early samples of the former in Dorothy Kunhardt’s bestseller Pat the Bunny (1940). The book is an invitation to lift and touch in order to “feel” the same things as the characters—a picture book idea that inspired hundreds more.

The reader takes part in the story

The other form of interactivity–taking part in the story–came with the 21st century. The digital revolution changed the way we read, and co-authorship became the new normal. Children got used to fiction reacting to any gesture of their fingers over a glass surface.

As a picture book author, I was aware of the impact that screen entertainment could have on children’s reading habits. I wasn’t to compete with that, but I set out to find ways to increase children’s engagement with books and develop their awareness. I wanted to create a story where the readers would believe they were interacting to change the story. It was a challenge for me and also a playful thing to do. 


The reader as a character 

The first interactive picture book I created was a retelling of The Three Little Pigs. What if there were a hole in the middle of a page which asked the reader to blow for something to happen? What if the reader plays the role of the Wolf and huffs and puffs into the hole to blow the pigs’ houses? And that’s how Huff & Puff  (Abrams, 2012) came to life. The readers become characters in the story, and their actions move the story forward.

In Huff & Puff, the reader plays the part of the wolf by blowing into a real hole on the page

In Huff & Puff, the reader plays the part of the wolf by blowing into a real hole on the page

The reader as co-author

Next, I wanted to create an original story that would ask the reader for help. Perhaps inspired by Pat the Bunny, I had a bunny as the main character. How could the reader help Bunny? The first gesture that came to my mind was shaking the book for something to happen! What if Bunny wants to go skiing, but there is no snow? If you shake the book, snow will fall on the next page. And if you tilt the book, Bunny will go downhill. In Bunny Slopes (Chronicle, 2016), the reader is co-authoring the story.

In Bunny Slopes, when the reader shakes the book, snow appears, and the story changes

In Bunny Slopes, when the reader shakes the book, snow appears, and the story changes

The book was very well-received, so I was invited to create two more Bunny books. The first one was already in my sketchbook: the reader would help Bunny reach for apples hanging from a tree (Hungry Bunny, Chronicle, 2018). Later, I thought about another Bunny experience that would require the reader's action—providing the wind for a sailing trip!  (Bunny Overboard, Chronicle 2020).

In Bunny Overboard, the reader blows the wind for the sails and rocks the book for the waves to get bigger

In Bunny Overboard, the reader blows the wind for the sails and rocks the book for the waves to get bigger

It’s been a challenging and interesting journey. I believe we can explore much more into the creation of metafictive books. It all begins with curiosity and experimentation. 

Thanks for joining us, Claudia! You can find more information about Claudia and her books on her social media links below:

www.claudiarueda.com

Instagram: @claudiarueda

Circular Stories with Dan Yaccarino

We are so excited to have Dan Yaccarino join us today to share information about writing circular picture books!

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Children the world over know Dan Yaccarino's children's books and award-winning animated series. In addition to his own stories, Dan's bold, stylized illustrations add wit and energy to the work of such distinguished authors as Margaret Wise Brown, Jack Prelutsky, and Kevin Henkes.

He's also the creator and producer of several animated series based on his books, Doug Unplugs (AppleTV), Oswald (Nickelodeon), Willa's Wild Life (NBC and Qubo), as well as the character designer behind The Backyardigans (Nickelodeon). Animation Magazine hails him as "an American original."

Dan's internationally recognized art style has earned him a large following in Japan, exhibits in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Bologna, and a visit to the White House. He is also a contributing children's book reviewer for the New York Times.

Dan's books have been translated into many languages, and in addition to animated series, his work has inspired toys, ebooks, children's musicals, and video adaptations.

His work has been recognized with a host of prestigious awards, including the Bologna Ragazzi, The New York Times 10 Best Illustrated, ALA Notable, and the Parents’ Choice Award. Over 2.5 million of his books have been sold to date.

Stand back far enough, and you’ll see the repeating pattern of life.

I believe we mostly perceive time as linear, which is reflected over and over in stories with a beginning, middle, and an end, but I feel that it’s a short-term way to look at it. Occasionally when I create a story, I’ll take the long view, which is that time is cyclical. 

According to the tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism, time doesn’t end. It’s only recently that we as humans perceived time as linear, but we know it really doesn’t stop there. It begins all over again. And again. And again. And again.

Classics like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom are great examples of circular stories. They end as they begin. I love that! I get a feeling of satisfaction when the story renews itself and the reader turns back to the first page to continue to experience the story.

In my autobiographical picture book, All the Way to America- the Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel, not only did the text in the beginning mirror the text at the end, but the cyclical nature of the story is mirrored visually as well, which is evident in the first and last images. However, as the book moves from generation to generation, the theme remains the same, “Work hard, enjoy life, and love your family.”

My picture book, I am a Story, is a journey through time examining the different ways stories are told. It begins with a clan of prehistoric humans gathered around a fire in rapt attention as one of them tells a story. Then we move through history, from cave paintings, hieroglyphics, and illuminated manuscripts, to printed books and digital devices, then finally to a contemporary family gathered around a campfire in rapt attention as the father tells a story. Full circle.

I would suggest the next time you’re conceiving a story, stand back far enough and you’ll see the repeating pattern of life (see what I did there?).

Thanks for joining us, Dan! You can find more information about Dan and his books on his social media links below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dan-Yaccarino-44891347589/?fref=ts

Instagram: danyaccarino

Twitter: DanYaccarino1

‘Round and ‘Round We Go: Circle Stories with Meghan Voss

We are so excited to have Meghan Voss join us today to share information about writing circular picture books!

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Meghan Voss is a lifelong lover of stories. A writer and a teacher with degrees in English and Secondary Education, she loves to both share her favorite stories and tell her own. She taught middle and high school English for close to a decade, completed the National Writing Project, and has written literature modules and web copy for award-winning academic companies & websites. Her own creative work has been published in literary and local magazines. She attends writing conferences regularly and enjoys exercising her writing (and photography) chops on her social media accounts. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her baking pies or adventuring with her husband and kids in the Montana mountains she calls home.

Find her on Instagram (@meghanvosstudio) and Facebook (Meghan Voss Studio)!

I’ve never been good at hula-hooping. Every time I step into that plastic circle, the question burns at the back of my head—Will it stay up, or will the blasted hoop clatter to the floor in seconds? The question itself creates enough tension to inspire me to pick the hoop off the floor and shove it into motion.

In like fashion, circle stories begin with a question. There’s a problem to be solved, a challenge to overcome, a question that needs answering. And that burning question lends tension to the entire story. Take Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. That burning question exists from the very first line—If you give a mouse a cookie… what happens next?? The question inspires children (and adults) to flip the page and keep reading. In Mo Willems’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, readers are forced to ask themselves, will this pigeon get to drive the bus? And in Cynthea Liu’s Bike On, Bear!, Bear’s ineptitude on a bike prompts the question, will Bear ever learn to ride?


That’s the beauty of circle stories. The question drives the story as the tension rises and crests. When I set that hula hoop flying, it has nowhere to go but round and round my waist, my patootie, my legs, and/or my ankles. Similarly, circle stories circle ‘round and ‘round the question, often in a cause & effect structure. If I shift my hip that way, then the hoop will…but if I bend my knee like so, it will…and so on. 

In this way, circle story plots wrap around and around the question, building in intensity as the story progresses. The cookie leads the mouse to keep asking for more and more linked things, with more and more disastrous consequences. The pigeon refuses to give up his quest to drive the bus, becoming more and more agitated with every page. Bear’s frustration rises higher and higher—

—until finally, the hoop clatters to the ground, right back where it began. Only this time, the question’s been answered— yes, this was the time I rocked that hoop round and round my waist until I finally collapsed, or no, once again, it rattled around my thighs and plunked straight down to my ankles. Either way, the hula hoop is back where it began, the question has been answered, and I’m different (sweatier, at least) for it. 

Let’s circle back to our examples (see what I did there?): In If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the story ends where it began—the mouse asks again for a cookie—but now, he’s in a chaotic heap with a boy who’s become a friend (they’ve changed). In Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, the bus driver returns, just as he’d left on the first page, and asks the inevitable question—did you let the pigeon drive the bus? To which there is now a concrete answer (and let’s face it—some relief (we’ve changed)— that pigeon was relentless!). And in Bike On, Bear!, despite his ultimate success at riding a bike, we’re reminded in the last line that, well, Bear also has issues with swimming—a twist that circles us back to his initial struggle and reminds us that yes, indeed, Bear did ride a bike after all (he’s changed). 

So ‘round and ‘round we go. A circle story begins with a question, circles around that question, and ends where it began—albeit changed for the effort.

I’ve never been good at hula-hooping— and yet, I keep picking the dang things back up. 

So will your readers. 

Other Circle Stories include:

I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino

Secrets I Know by Kallie George

There’s a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins

You Matter by Christian Robinson

Bob, Not Bob! By Liz Garton Scanlan

Thanks for joining us, Meghan!

You can follow Meghan on Instagram @meghanvosstudio or Facebook at Meghan Voss Studio.

Why I Love Lyrical Picture Books with Pat Zietlow Miller

We are so excited to have Pat Zietlow Miller join us today to share information about writing lyrical picture books!

Pat Zietlow Miller knew she wanted to be a writer ever since her seventh-grade English teacher read her paper about square-dancing skirts out loud in class and said: “This is the first time anything a student has written has given me chills.” 

Pat started out as a newspaper reporter. Then, she joined an insurance company – and then another – and edited their newsletters and magazines.

Now, Pat focuses on writing picture books. She's sold 23 books – including the New York Times bestselling Be Kind and the Golden Kite winning Sophie’s Squash – and is always working on more.

Her two upcoming books are Be Strong, a follow-up to Be Kind, coming Aug. 10, and What Can You Do with a Rock? coming Oct. 12. 

First, let me be clear. I love all types of picture books. 

To me, one of the coolest aspects of picture books is how many ways there are to structure a 32- or 40-page book to tell an effective, engaging story. Picture books can be a cumulative story, a story told in dialogue, a story with contrasting views, a stream-of-consciousness story, a series of poems that tell a story, or a classic story featuring a main character with a problem to solve.

But, if you sit me down with a stack of picture books and ask me to choose my absolute favorites, it’s likely a lot of them would be lyrical picture books. Those are also the sort of books I find myself writing lately.

So … what IS a lyrical picture book? 

To me, lyrical picture books are picture books that focus on:

  1. The beauty of the language.

  2. The strength of feeling that language evokes.

Let’s break these focuses down.

Beautiful language.

Words are my favorite thing to play with (except maybe kittens). When I write picture books, I spend so much time arranging them and changing them until they are in just the right order. 

A truly lyrical picture book is one where the words are arranged to such perfection that you could read the text out loud, without even thinking about what the words mean, and still be struck by the beauty of the sound. Lyrical language has a poetic feel and rhythm – whether it rhymes or not.

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I had a lot of fun working and reworking the words in one of my books, Remarkably You, a rhyming ode to celebrating all the qualities that make people special. I’m not saying I reached perfection, but one of my favorite parts is:

Like maybe you’re funny. Or bookish. Or fast.
Or maybe you’re always decidedly last.
Perhaps you like counting. Or drawing all day.
Or finding invisible dragons to slay.
You have your own spirit, unparalleled flair.
So rock what you’ve got – every day, everywhere.


Two books that are lyrical in entirely different ways are Blue on Blue by Dianne White and Beth Krommes and My Cold Plum, Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood by Tameka Fryer Brown and Shane W. Evans. Both are an absolute joy to read aloud due to their lovely language.

Strength of feeling. 

Lyrical books can have a traditional plot, but sometimes, they’re more about an emotion – encouraging the reader to think about or feel something. And the emotion that’s generated – whether it’s hope, laughter, nostalgia, or love – is what makes readers come back to the book again and again.

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For example, I wrote When You Are Brave as a pep talk to myself when I faced a setback. The message of needing to have faith and persevere drove the story instead of a particular plot. I also didn’t name any characters, and talked directly to the reader, saying:

Sometimes, when everything around you seems scary, you have to be brave …

Eliza Wheeler, the supremely talented artist who illustrated the book, added a plot about a child moving to a new house, but that’s only shown in the art and never mentioned in the text. I wanted the text to be universal, so anyone of any age needing bravery in any situation could relate.

Two recent books that evoke feelings well are Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin and A House that Once Was by Julie Fogliano and Lane Smith. Watercress is based on a childhood memory of Wang’s and is told in beautifully crafted prose. House is fictional and told in moving rhyme. But both make the reader feel.

So, if you want to write a lyrical picture book, find an emotion that tugs at your heart. Then, play with language till you’ve evoked it in the most beautiful possible way.

Thanks for joining us, Pat!

You can follow Pat on Twitter at @PatZMiller or visit www.patzietlowmiller.com

Writing Lyrical Picture Books with Lisa Wheeler

We are so excited to have Lisa Wheeler join us today to share information about writing lyrical picture books!

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Lisa Wheeler is the award-winning author of over 50 children’s books including Someone Builds the Dream, People Don't Bite People, and the popular Dino-Sports series. Lisa's book, The Christmas Boot, was the 2017 SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner for Picture Book Text. Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum was the 2017 Michigan Reads! One Book, One State Children’s Book Program recipient. Her awards include The Michigan Mitten, Texas Bluebonnet, and the Theodore Geisel Honor given by the American Library Association. Lisa shares her Michigan home with some terrific characters--one husband, one dog, and an assortment of anthropomorphic characters. Check out Lisa’s website at: www.lisawheelerbooks.com

Even as a child, I had the uncanny ability to memorize silly rhymes. Jump-rope songs, goofy commercial jingles, hand-clap games on the playground. . .I loved them all. I can still recite many of my favorites. (Number 9 Cutie is a song from Sesame Street which my dad asked me to sing often. He still calls me his Number 9 Cutie!) So it's no surprise that I was drawn to writing picture books in rhyme. I feel that my job as an author who writes rhyming lyrical books is to make it look easy. But it's not.

While all rhyming books should be lyrical, all lyrical books are not in rhyme. So having an ear for meter and flow is an important skill for any picture book writing. It helps with timing. If you don't have an ear for rhyme, prose might be a better choice. If you really want to write in rhyme, try taking classes. Years ago, I joined a poetry group to strengthen my meter.

If you are writing a book in prose, read it aloud. Listen to the cadence. Does it match the mood of the piece? For instance, if you are writing about a river that is slow moving, make sure your sentences aren't short and clipped. Use lines that feel as if they are floating and flowing along like the river. 

If you choose to rhyme for your story, make sure that you have more than just rhyming end lines. Meter is the basis of all good rhyme. Study the masters--Maryann Hoberman, Margaret Mahy and Dr. Seuss are all good choices for meter. I also have to mention my old friend Mother Goose. Mary Had a Little Lamb has perfect meter.

In my lyrical book, A Hug is for Holding Me, I explored the idea of "things that hold other things" and compared them to hugs. I chose a an ABCB meter right from the first draft. But the book went through many revisions along the way. When my editor at Abrams bought it, I had sold her my third draft. While she saw the promise of what could be, we went through twelve more drafts and over a year of revisions before the aha! moment arrived. In the course of all that time and those many revisions, the book had wonderfully changed. While I always had nature scenes throughout, they were originally interspersed with other types of 'holds'--buckets, sheds, and mittens to name a few.

When my editor wanted to keep it all about nature, it felt perfect for the book. Then, when she suggested we cut the text in half, the magic happened. The sweet lyrical text became a loving ode to nature and the relationship between a caregiver and child. Lisk Feng 's art fleshed out the story and made the book into a perfect package.

This book taught me that less can be more.  A perfect lesson for anyone writing picture books.

Thanks so much for joining us, Lisa!

You can find more about Lisa on her website on the following:

Instagram: @littlelisais6

FB: Lisa Wheeler Children's Books

Twitter:  @LisaWheelerBook

Writing Lyrical Picture Books with Michelle Vatulla

We are so excited to have Michelle Vatulla join us today to share information about writing lyrical picture books!

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Michelle  was born in Boston but spent most of her life in Erie, PA. After she received her Bachelor degree from Miami University of Ohio, she ventured back to Boston for her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Northeastern University. Michelle currently lives in the beautiful rolling hills of North Pittsburgh with her Finnish husband, two golden retrievers, and two beautiful boys who are her true inspiration for writing.

Michelle’s debut picture book, THE STALKING SEAGULLS, was released by MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing on April 20, 2021. Michelle is part of the Western Pennsylvania SCBWI leadership team as their New Member and Critique Group Coordinator. She is also a proud member of the Twitter group #Newin19. Michelle is represented by T.J. Kirsch from JCH Literary. She is open for interviews and virtual visits.

What do we think of when we hear the word lyrical? Most of us probably think of music, hence the name “lyric.”  But how does that transform into picture book writing? Is it all about the language and how that language allows the reader to create a vivid world inside their mind? YES!

The words you choose when you write a lyrical picture book need to be vivid and “alive” in order to paint an internal image in the reader's mind. The more descriptive, the better. Great writing devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, and onomatopoeia help with imagery. The more action shown, the easier it is for the reader to make a connection with the story.

Using lyrical language follows one of the most important “rules” in picture book writing: show, don’t tell. According to reedsyblog, “show, don’t tell” is a writing technique in which story and characters are related through sensory details and actions, rather than exposition. It fosters a style of writing that’s more immersive for the reader, allowing them to “be in the room” with the characters.

Thus, showing is about using description and action to help the reader experience the story. Telling is when the author summarizes or uses exposition to simply tell the reader what is happening.

Now you would think that lyrical picture books are all rhyming, but they are a mix of prose rhyming stories and poetry. For example, Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon is a perfect example of a lyrical writing style in prose. In her story, to make the reader know that her Pa is tall and the girl is little, she writes,  “Pa made a long shadow, but mine was short and round.” She also allows the reader to relate to coldness by saying, “I could feel the cold, as if someone’s icy hand was palm-down on my back. And my nose and the tops of my cheeks felt cold and hot at the same time.”

Language is vital to get the reader actively involved in a lyrical story. Having the right rhythm allows the reader to enjoy the patterns of the language and enjoy reading the book aloud over and over. Julia Donaldson has created beautiful, heart-warming stories for years, using perfect rhyme and meter coupled with descriptive language. In her story, The Snail and the Whale, Ms. Donaldson uses vivid verb choices to describe a scene with water: “These are the waves that arched and crashed, That foamed and frolicked and sprayed and splashed The tiny snail On the tail of the whale.”

Lyrical picture books can also relay emotional or sentimental lessons. Some great examples of beautiful lyrical picture books are by Pat Zietlow Miller.  Her books When you are Brave and Be Kind allow readers to relate to everyday situations and solutions to tough day-to-day issues.

This type of genre can be so fun to write! I love writing in rhyme, so when I find the perfect cadence to a manuscript, it’s exhilarating, and, of course, so fun to read out loud. Do not be fooled by the wonderful lyrical/rhyming picture books out there. Writing a story that has perfect rhyme and meter, along with a great arc and satisfying ending, is very difficult to accomplish. Rhyming books can also be a hard sell to agents and publishers, especially if they are not considered “perfect.” 

Lyrical stories that are read to us as children often stay with us throughout our lifetime. We then read them to our own children. Here are some examples of lyrical picture books, old and new, that will certainly withstand the test of time and will be enjoyed for generations to come.

SOMEONE BUILDS THE DREAM by Lisa Wheeler

REMARKABLY YOU by Pat Zietlow Miller 

OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW by Kate Messner

OWL MOON by Jane Yolen

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE by Julie Fogliano

AND THEN IT’S SPRING by Julie Fogliano 

GERALDINE  by Elizabeth Lilly

STERLING, BEST DOG EVER by Aidan Cassie

THE LITTLE ISLAND by Margaret Wise Brown

https://www.childrensbookacademy.com/blogfish/its-all-about-lyrical-language-in-picture-books


Thanks so much for joining us, Michelle!

You can find Michelle on Twitter @Mmvattula.

From Inkling to Inked: Crafting a Haiku Collection with Betsy Snyder

We are so excited to have Betsy Snyder join us today to share information about crafting a haiku collection!

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Author and illustrator Betsy Snyder made her publishing debut in 2007 after several years working as in-house artist and trend group leader at American Greetings. She has since created over twenty picture and novelty books, teaming with a diverse mix of publishers and earning recognition from groups such as the Society of Illustrators, The New York Times, Amazon Best Books lists, Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine, Indie Next List, and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Betsy’s smile-inspiring art has also been licensed for other products including games, puzzles, greeting cards, gift wrap, party goods, plush, decor, fabric and wallpaper.

From Inkling to Inked: Crafting a Haiku Collection

by Betsy Snyder

The inkling

I wasn’t a prolific poet or haiku guru—my interest in haiku came more from my artist side, sparked by a love of Japanese woodcuts and their nature-related subjects. Alongside this passion, I saw an opportunity—in researching the market, I didn’t see many, if any, haiku books meant for baby. What if I could make the art of haiku more friendly and accessible to the youngest readers?

Like most elusive book ideas (aren’t they all?), the inkling of Haiku Baby twinkled in my heart and mind for some time until I was finally called to capture it on paper. That calling was quite literally a phone call from my agent—an editor at Random House was interested in my art, in search of baby book ideas, and inquiring if I had any writing of my own to share. I said “Yes!”, panicked a little because I didn’t (yet), and got to work.

The pitch

I hadn’t quit my day job (yet), so I moonlighted, working to shape my inklings into more concrete concepts. In a few weeks, I sent my first-ever book pitches out into the universe, including the one shared below. Soon after, I received an email from my agent with the subject line “Get out the champagne!!!” Much to my surprise and delight, I had been offered a three-book contract with that inquiring (and so talented) editor, Heidi Kilgras, at Random House. Haiku Baby would be my first authored book, a mini board book collection centered around baby’s first experiences with nature.

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The collection

I had an editor who shared my vision and a signed contract. But now what? In addition to honing my haiku writing (I share some haiku-specific writing advice here), I needed to find a way to string each poem together into a cohesive whole. I created an arc, ordering my poems from spring to winter, and also day to night. In the art, I gave readers a bluebird to find and follow through the scenes and seasons.

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Voice was another tool that helped hold the collection together and set it apart from other haiku books. I sought word choices that felt playful, bouncy and more approachable to my young audience.

Paying homage to haiku’s Asian roots was important to me. True to haiku, I incorporated a kigo, a season word, into my poems. Each haiku was paired with a first word in English and its calligraphic kanji counterpart. In my illustrations, I adopted nuances of Japanese woodcuts into my imagery, line work, sky gradients and collage patterns.

The tabbed board book format also helped support the collection’s theme. Side tabs featured icons for each haiku and helped guide little hands through the pages. The book’s small size created a more intimate, cozy reading experience.

The companion

Nine years after Haiku Baby was published, I was asked to create its companion book, which became Haiku Night. I already had a formula and format to follow, but this theme presented some new challenges. One hiccup was that some of the kanji for the night animals and icons I was considering were two or more characters long—I had to omit the options that felt too clunky in the layout. And landing on the correct kanji wasn’t always straightforward—sometimes there were multiple kanji options for the English word, and some had negative connotations in the Asian culture. I consulted friends and experts to help me translate.

I also struggled with choosing the right little critter to follow throughout the book (like the bluebird in Haiku Baby). I liked the idea of a moth, but it didn’t feel quite right alongside some of my featured night animals (for example, wouldn’t the bats eat a moth?). Fortunately, I had an epiphany that suddenly seemed so obvious—a metamorphosis! The moth could begin as a hatching caterpillar, transform into a cocoon (hanging upside-down with the bats!), and finally emerge as a moth in the final spread. As it turned out, a moth was the perfect character to unite my night collection—I just needed to see it in a new light.

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The insight

Looking back, it’s much easier to see what brings a collection together. But when I am in the midst (and sometimes muck) of writing, the answers aren’t always so clear. I was new to haiku, but I found resources along the way and learned as I went—and you can, too! So, I’ll part with some collection-writing tips and tricks I gleaned along the way that may help you craft your poetry collection.

•Find your glue

What is that special something that holds your poems together as a family? What’s at the core? This will be your ultimate barometer when curating your collection.

•Seize the opportunity.

Are there gaps in the marketplace? Can you answer a publisher’s need? Shape an opportunity into the hook for your book.

•Remember your muse.

Who is your audience? I always start and go back to this. You may have written the best poem ever, but is it right for this collection and audience?

•Start with the title

Feeling stuck with where to start? Many of my best book ideas have been sparked by a catchy and original title. Play with words, rhymes, alliteration, puns, idioms—even make up your own words! Get creative and you may find your collection. Or, maybe a subtitle would help? Motor Goose: Rhymes That Go! (by Rebecca Colby, illustrated by Jef Kaminsky) is a great example of a strong title hook.

•Build an arc

Can you create more continuity by ordering your poems in a certain way, or giving your collection a beginning and end? The whole collection of When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons (by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Julie Morstad) follows a calendar through the seasons, with each poem dated as if it is a journal entry. It has a brilliant circular arc, ending with the same poem it begins with. 

Or—would a recurring character, or cast of characters, help your arc? (Remember, the art can pull a lot of weight here.). All the World (by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee) has smaller arcs within a bigger arc, with families of characters woven throughout the art, and brought together at the end.

•Pay homage

Does your poetic form have roots in a certain culture? Can you make creative choices that feel authentic to your theme?

•Physical Format

If your book is for babies, toddlers or preschoolers, is there a unique format or feature that might help hold your collection together? You can include format ideas in your book pitch (or editors often have their own ideas for this).

•Challenge yourself

Are you procrastinating, or feeling overwhelmed? Create your own mini assignments and make yourself accountable! One year for National Poetry Month, I committed to writing and tweeting one haiku per day. My haiku writing improved quickly, and I ended up with extra, unused ideas in the hopper for next time. I also found it made me more observant and tuned into my everyday life.

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Thanks for joining us, Betsy!

You can learn more about Betsy and her books at www.betsysnyder.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betsysnyderart

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betsysnyderart/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/betsysnyderart

Poetry with Allan Wolf

We are so excited to have Allan Wolf join us today to share information about his poetry collections!

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Allan Wolf is the author of picture books, poetry, and young adult novels. A skilled and seasoned performer for the past 30 years, Allan Wolf’s dynamic author talks and poetry presentations for all ages are meaningful, educational, and unforgettable. Florida Reading Quarterly calls Wolf “the gold standard of performing poetry.” Wolf believes in the healing powers of poetry recitation and has committed to memory nearly a thousand poems. Wolf has an MA in English from Virginia Tech, where he also taught. He moved to North Carolina to become the artistic and educational director of the touring group Poetry Alive!. Wolf is considered the Godfather of the Poetry Slam in the Southeast, hosting the National Poetry Slam in 1994, forming the National Championship Team in 1995, and founding the Southern Fried Poetry Slam (now in it’s 27th year). He has won many awards, including Bankstreet College’s prestigious Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. His latest book of poems for kids, The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Poems To Take You Into Space and Back Again, is now in bookstores!

Welcome, Allan!

So You Wanna Write a Poetry Collection? by Allan Wolf

Okay, let’s cut to the chase. Poetry is a “hard sell” in ANY economy, so keep that in mind. Even if you are the best of the best, your best may not make you a household name in the world of children’s book publishing. That, of course, never stopped me. Nor does it stop the very dedicated, talented, and prolific group of poets writing for kids today. Just check out any of the titles from WordSong Press (a press devoted solely to children’s poetry). The first thing you’ll notice is that 99.9% of the poetry collections published today are “thematic.” Poems about the seasons, poems about the weather, poems about bugs, poems about sports, etc, etc. That’s because it is the theme, and not your unknown name, that will be THE main marketing hook to sell your book. Sorry folks, unless you are Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky, you’ll need to get thematic. 

At first this may seem limiting—(Q: How many poems about penguins can a poet write? A: Check out Antarctic Antics by Judy Sierra!)—but in the end, you will find that it will make each individual poem more focused, and it will give the overall collection cohesiveness and continuity. I have written poetry collections about anatomy (The Blood-Hungry Spleen), about the solar system (The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Poems to Take You Into Space and Back Again), and about a school garden (Welcome to Our Magic Garden—due out in 2023). See what I mean? So, find a topic that has some potential, see what other books are already out there, and then go to it. 

The Day the Universe Exploded My Head almost wrote itself. Automatically I knew I had to write a poem for each planet, and so I had to figure out what made each one special. You can see, already, how the ideas might begin to just spring from the research. Did I say research? Yep. Research is your bestest friend. All fancy springs from facts. Consult other nonfiction books on the topic and you’ll see how other authors have divided up the content. You can write all your poems in the same format or vary the format to fit each poem’s subject. I usually do the latter. Longer poems are better suited for older elementary. Shorter for younger elementary and pre-K. I LOVE to rhyme cause that’s how I’m wired, but rhyme is dangerous if you have to force it. Rhyme without rhythm is a clunky train wreck. When in doubt, try free verse. Free verse can be beautiful, lyrical, and even contain musical internal rhymes that turn your poetry into flow-etry. Finally, remember that kids are not stupid, so don’t write stupid poems. 

Good luck with this month’s PB writing challenge. Keep it simple. Have fun. And metaphors be with you!

You can find Allan on his website, on twitter @AllanWolf100, or instagram @allanwolf100.

Thank you for joining us, Allan!

Meghan Browne's Picture Book Biography Journey

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We are so excited to have Meghan join us today to tell us about her journey to becoming a picture book author! She has graciously offered to give away a picture book biography critique (up to 1,000 words) to one lucky winner! Please comment below to enter.

Meghan P. Browne is working towards her MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut picture book, Indelible Ann will be released June 22, 2021. Meghan lives on and runs a farm in South Austin, Texas, called the Honey Browne Farm. Visit her on Instagram and Twitter at @meghanpbrowne or www.meghanpbrowne.com

Welcome, Meghan!

Stef, thank you so much for inviting me to “chat” with your readers about picture book biographies.


I stumbled upon this form accidentally in 2018, but it has been a fun (and important!) part of my writing and publishing journey. After taking my first-ever class in writing for children at The Writing Barn, I was eager to keep my creative momentum high. I signed up for a picture book weekend intensive that was months away, only I didn’t realize I’d accidentally signed up for the Picture Book Biography intensive. Whoops.

Rather than ask for a refund, I decided to try my hand at biography. When I couldn’t decide whom to write about, I went back to my roots: What was I interested in reading about as a kid? What kinds of nonfiction stories excited me?

Rewind Time

When I was young, I desperately wanted to be a pilot.

Meghan (L) and cousin Seána wearing their grandfather’s leather flight caps for a game of cards

Meghan (L) and cousin Seána wearing their grandfather’s leather flight caps for a game of cards

Meghan and Dorothy Smith Lucas, April 2018

Meghan and Dorothy Smith Lucas, April 2018

When it came time for a semester-long research project in eighth grade, my grandmother suggested I interview her friend, Dorothy Lucas, who flew for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II. My mom drove me to a town two hours away so that I could interview Mrs. Lucas in 1998. Fast forward two decades to the year of the accidental biography intensive, and I decided I needed to interview Dorothy again. At the time, Dorothy was a spirited 96 years old, and we got to catch up at her home in San Antonio.

I continued my research all summer, and my first picture book biography manuscript, The Brave Life of Dorothy Lucas, was born. The work sold to Tamar Brazis at Viking, whom I met that fall at The Writing Barn, and illustrator Brooke Smart has been brought to illustrate. That book is due out in Spring 2022, and I cannot wait for Mrs. Lucas to hold it in her hands. She’ll be 99 years old when it is released.

Dorothy Smith Lucas, WASP

Dorothy Smith Lucas, WASP

So, what are you passionate about?

 I firmly believe that any story, written from a place of passion, is viable for publication. There are many folks who believe that picture book biography has had its heyday, the market is saturated, and that biography is not selling right now. I think there is some truth to that – of course editors with one or more biographies on their list will be searching for other kinds of stories. However, there are still so many interesting life stories yet to be told. Writers and illustrators from underrepresented communities telling #ownvoices stories are especially needed in the kidlit landscape. Also, lives of lesser-known history makers continue to beg to be told. True creative passion about any subject, no matter how niche, can make for irresistible storytelling. 

Finding the Story Portal

When I’m brainstorming story ideas, I try to get back into the head of my younger self and the more playful side of my adult brain to figure out which elements of a story are the most exciting and memorable for my intended audience. When I was researching Dorothy Lucas’s life, I found myself on Ancestry.com looking at her high school yearbook. Next to her portrait, teenage Dorothy had listed “pineapple ice cream, learning to dive, and being a jitterbug” as a few of her favorite things.

Dorothy Smith Lucas’s high school yearbook photo, courtesy of Ancestry.com

Dorothy Smith Lucas’s high school yearbook photo, courtesy of Ancestry.com

I just knew those details had to make it into the story. My agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin told me later that the pineapple ice cream bit was one of the most delicious mid-century Americana details in the manuscript for her. One of my favorite parts of writing non-fiction is the treasure hunt of finding the kid-centric details of a subject’s life that can act as a story portal for a child reader.

 

 Indelible Ann cover by illustrator, Carlynn Whitt

 Indelible Ann cover by illustrator, Carlynn Whitt

Gather up your Awkwardness!

In working on my debut picture book, Indelible Ann: The Larger-than-life Story of Governor Ann Richards, my editor Ann Kelley at Random House Studio and I were hoping to get a jacket blurb from a few power-hitting women in the world of politics and pop culture. I felt extremely self-conscious about asking anyone with a very busy and important schedule to read my work and do me the huge favor of offering a public endorsement. I managed to gather up my awkwardness anyway and send out those requests. I didn’t always get the response I was hoping for, but I was able to secure one extraordinarily kind and important blurb for my efforts.

This act of feeling nervous and awkward but moving forward anyway has been an important practice in my journey as a writer. It doesn’t ever seem to get easier, but it has helped me land incredible interviews (see image below), and perhaps more importantly, it’s allowed me to share my work with people who have helped me make my writing better.

Meghan beekeeping on the rooftops of Paris after gathering up her awkwardness to interview the Notre Dame beekeepers for The Bees of Notre Dame (Illustrated by E.B. Goodale), due out Fall 2023 from Random House Studio.

Meghan beekeeping on the rooftops of Paris after gathering up her awkwardness to interview the Notre Dame beekeepers for The Bees of Notre Dame (Illustrated by E.B. Goodale), due out Fall 2023 from Random House Studio.

I hope you’re feeling excited to try your hand at writing picture book biography. Be sure to return to your childhood brain, find your passion, get your hands dirty in the research, and buckle up for some out-of-comfort-zone adventures.

Be great! I’m rooting for you!

Thank you, Meghan! You can preorder her book here! And remember to write a comment below to enter to win a manuscript critique! Good luck!