Inside: 100 Great Children’s Books is the selection of the best-written, most inspiring, beautiful, and entertaining picture books you might not know about. If you’ve read Where the Wild Things Are, Amelia Bedelia, and other classic picture books with your children and wonder if there are lesser-known books that are no less amazing, you
Master the Art of Writing Enthralling Tales for the Youngest pre-and emerging readers! Fully updated and thoroughly revised, Writing Picture Books Revised and Expanded Edition is the go-to resource for writers crafting stories for children ages two to eight. You'll learn the unique set of skills it takes to bring your story to life by using tightly focused text and leaving room for the illustrator to be creative. Award-winning author Ann Whitford Paul helps you develop the skills you need by walking you through techniques and exercises specifically for picture book writers. You'll find: • Instruction on generating ideas, creating characters, point-of-view, beginnings and endings, plotting, word count, rhyme, and more • Unique methods for using poetic techniques to enrich your writing • Hands-on revision exercises (get out your scissors, tape, and highlighters) to help identify problems and improve your picture book manuscripts • Updated tips for researching the changing picture book market, approaching publishers, working with an agent, and developing a platform • All new quizzes and examples from picture books throughout • New chapters cover issues such as page turns, agents, and self-publishing Whether you're just starting out as a picture book writer or have tried unsuccessfully to get your work published, Writing Picture Books Revised and Expanded Edition is just what you need to craft picture books that will appeal to young children and parents, and agents and editors. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9781440353758 Media Type: Paperback(Second Edition, Revised) Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group Publication Date: 11-13-2018 Pages: 272 Product Dimensions: 5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)Read an Excerpt Read an Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Becoming a Picture-Book Scholar "Writing is a craft before it is an art. ..." — DONALD M. MURRAY Having your appendix removed doesn't qualify you to then perform an appendectomy, so why should having heard or read picture books qualify you to write one? You wouldn't start creating a software program without first researching computer theory, but some people think they can write a picture book without ever reading or studying contemporary picture books. Picture books have a unique form and audience. In this chapter, you'll learn what a picture book is and what its audience requires from you the writer. But first I'd like to tell you a true story. Several years ago, my family was enjoying a pleasant summer supper outside and having an animated discussion about the state of education in this country. With five other eager participants, I couldn't get in a word. Frustrated at being ignored, I pounded my fist on the table: "Listen to me! I have something to say!" My sixteen-year-old son Alan looked at me incredulously. "Listen to you? Why should we listen to you? You write books for people who can't even read." We all had a good laugh, and I'm happy to say, they did let me speak my piece. Much later, mulling over his comment, I realized Alan had come up with the perfect way to begin defining a picture book. A BOOK FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T READ Picture books are usually read by an adult reader to a nonreader. To that end, picture books combine words with pictures that entice the nonreader to listen and help her construct meaning from the words. Picture books traditionally find an audience in young children. Today, some picture books and graphic novels are published for fluent readers, even adults, but this book will focus on those aimed at children ages two through eight. Such picture books are divided into two categories. The first is books aimed at the nonreader. The second is picture storybooks written for emergent or newly established readers. These have more text and more complicated story lines. Hard- and softcover published picture books are usually thirty-two pages long, but your manuscript, double-spaced with one-inch (25mm) borders, will be considerably fewer pages. A Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) survey found that picture-book manuscripts range from one-half page to sometimes even fifteen pages. Those at the top range would obviously be for independent readers. The length of the manuscript is determined by the age of the audience and its attention span. Manuscripts for children up to two years old (who tend to have short attention spans) should be between one half and one manuscript page. Usually these are published as board books, where pictures are the most important element. There might be one sentence per page, sometimes just one word. Because pictures are so critical to drawing in the listener, early board books are generally written and illustrated by the same person. Today publishers are increasingly reformatting popular picture books into board books. Although some feel too advanced for the intended audience, I'm not complaining. My story, If Animals Kissed Good Night, was originally published as a picture book. When it was reissued as a board book, sales skyrocketed. Children between the ages of two and five can sit still longer, so their picture-book manuscripts are longer — around two to five pages. With roughly 200 words per manuscript page, that means 400 to 900 words total. When this book was first published, if my manuscripts were in the 700-word range, I searched for ways to cut. Now 500 words seems long to me. Manuscripts between four and fifteen pages are for older children and even adults. The longer the manuscript, the more likely the book pages will increase, always in multiples of eight. One book might be forty pages; another might be forty-eight and so on. A word of caution: Books with higher page counts cost more to produce. Publishers are wary of spending more money than necessary on an unproven product. And new writers are unproven products. If you've never been published, revise to fit your story into the thirty-two-page format. Because a picture book is both words and pictures, the writer can limit words to the bare essentials. In Where Do Pants Go? author Rebecca Van Slyke asks where certain items of clothing go. She leaves the look of each item to the illustrator, Chris Robertson, thereby eliminating much text (some pages have as few as three words). An added benefit is that she gives Chris control of color, design, and the overall look of the book. While we're at it, cutting words: You don't need to describe the house the character lives in, the appearances of his parents, or the breed of his dog. Descriptions, unless vital to your story, should be eliminated. That allows you, the writer, to focus on the action and dialogue of your story. Picture-book writers, even if they're not illustrators, still must have visual images in their minds, particularly when writing for the very young. Your text should allow the illustrator space for a variety of interesting picture possibilities to keep the listener involved in the book. This may be accomplished through one or all of the following: 1. writing scenes with different actions 2. introducing new characters into the story 3. moving characters to different settings 4. changing the emotional intensity of a scene In picture books for the two- to five-year-old range, the text requires pictures to tell the story. Writers should strive to leave room in their manuscripts for the illustrator to develop an independent picture story line. For example, read the classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. On one page in the book, Numeroff writes that Mouse painted a picture but gives no indication of what the picture looks like, allowing the illustrator, Felicia Bond, to create an artist-quality portrait of a mouse family in front of their tree-trunk house. Sometimes, as in If Animals Kissed Good Night illustrated by David Walker, not having all the details in the words allows the illustrator to add his own story. A rabbit never mentioned in the text is frightened by a bear's growl. A little girl in bed, again never mentioned in the text, is illustrated warmly at the beginning and near the end of the book. Good illustrators add their own story so children too young to read can have fun "reading" the pictures. Good writers leave artists the space to do that. In longer picture storybooks, words can more easily stand on their own. Although they are illustrated, the pictures, while showing aspects of the story, rarely add a new story line. The balance tips from heavy illustration to heavy words; the writer has more room to add details. Often these books have large chunks of text that might take up the entire page. The Great Moon Hoax by Stephen Krensky is nearly 1,500 words and contains many imaginings of life on the moon. The illustrations by Josée Bisaillon echo the action and the imaginings but don't add a second story line. This is true of many historical-fiction and nonfiction picture books. Noah Webster & His Words by Jeri Chase Ferris is 1,417 words long. The illustrations by Vincent X. Kirsch enhance the text but do not add a separate story. Regardless of length, picture-book writers keep the reader wondering what will happen next by creating stories filled with action and little contemplation. THE UNUSUAL TWO-PART PICTURE-BOOK AUDIENCE This is subdivided into two separate groups: children too young to read and adult readers. CHILDREN TWO TO EIGHT YEARS OLD Bearing in mind this targeted audience, it behooves writers to get to know what matters to children. You will have difficulty writing for them if you don't have a strong memory of your childhood or firsthand experience with children. However, you can educate yourself by spending time with nieces, nephews, and neighbors and by visiting parks, nursery and elementary schools, etc. Here are some characteristics of children to keep in mind while you write. 1. EVERYTHING IS NEW. Adults have been in cars so often our minds travel elsewhere when we're driving, yet children are fascinated by every tree, house, and shop they see fr
Over 50 classic children's picture books from the 1920s to the 1970s that will never grow old! Share them with the kids in your life!
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An engaging book of hide-and-seek filled with peek-through pages! When Spots, the ladybug, wants to play hide-and-seek but Beepo, the lightning bug insists that he will find Spots and all of his friends because they are so bright and spotted. Children will meet a variety of bugs and insects on the pages of this hide-and-seek book filled with fun die-cut pages!
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T oday's post is all about building a portfolio, and it's a timely one for me. Even though I've had a working portfolio for over a decade, I'm in the middle of a career shift so I'm currently doing all the things I'm sharing with you today - planning, building, editing and soon, presenting. Whether
THERE'S NO "EARTH" WITHOUT "ART."
With a list of 100 children's books to read in a lifetime, you're sure to find what you're looking for. These classic children's stories are great gifts!
These are the funniest picture books of 2019. Discover the top 10 funny picture books of the year that kids will want to hear again and again. Enjoy a good laugh with the kids during story time, and feed that sense of humor and joy.
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T oday's post is all about building a portfolio, and it's a timely one for me. Even though I've had a working portfolio for over a decade, I'm in the middle of a career shift so I'm currently doing all the things I'm sharing with you today - planning, building, editing and soon, presenting. Whether
This is an excellent resource for vintage children’s books.
A nonfiction picture book exploring a deceptively simple but unexpectedly crucial resource for wildlife: puddles! This lyrical, gorgeously illustrated nonfiction picture book is perfect for young science learners and nature lovers. Hello, puddle! Who's here? A normal everyday puddle may not seem very special. But for a mother turtle, it might be the perfect place to lay her eggs. For a squirrel, it might be the only spot to cool off and get a drink when the sun is shining down in July. And for any child, it can be a window into the elegant, complex natural world right outside their window. With lush, playful illustrations and fun facts about the animals featured, Hello, Puddle! is a joyful celebration of the remarkable in the ordinary, and the importance of even the most humble places in fostering life. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9780358381440 Media Type: Hardcover Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Publication Date: 03-22-2022 Pages: 40 Product Dimensions: 7.90(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.40(d) Age Range: 4 - 7 YearsAbout the Author Anita Sanchez is the author of many books for children, including Itch!: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About What Makes You Scratch, Rotten!: Vultures, Beetles, Slime, and Nature's Other Decomposers, and Hello, Puddle!. Visit Anita online at anitasanchez.com. Luisa Uribe is an illustrator living in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a graphic design degree from the National University of Colombia and an MA in art and design from Loughborough University.
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Post by Jenny Thomas from Smallprint Make reading an essential part of your children’s lives is one of the best gifts you can give them. Books are one of my favorite ways to foster imagination in children. Reading quality books sparks the creativity, enriches the vocabulary and can throw open a window to the world. Books […]
She is the strongest girl in the world, lives by herself in a colourful house in the forest, and has a pet monkey and a horse. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with Pippi Longstocking? We have shared our favourite quirky quotes to convince anyone who thinks otherwise
