There’s nothing better than a good, character-driven picture book. The best ones get read, and re-read and become classics to the teachers, librarians and families that love them. If your character is going to be a friend to generations of young readers, it makes sense to choose a name that …
Even though hundreds of character-driven picture books are published every year, great ones are still a relatively rare thing. They need a likable/relatable main character, a compelling story, emotional resonance, a distinctive voice, etc., etc., etc. It’s only occasionally that lo, those many elements magically mesh to create something special. …
I’m a collector of ideas. Though not a very good one. I have a tendency to let brilliant, world-changing picture book ideas escape by not writing them down. Great ideas slip into my head at inopportune times. Almost never when I am at my keyboard or sitting with pen and …
I like it when authors talk to me. In their books, I mean (although it’s nice when they do it in person, too). And when they do, I feel compelled to respond. So when Hervé Tullet tells me to Press Here, I press. Right there. When Jan Thomas asks Can …
Fairy tales and folktales are favorites to many, and for some (myself included) they’re what made us fall in love with storytelling from a very young age. They’re often beautiful, haunting, mesmerizing; sometimes bizarre and confounding. One of my favorites is Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”. The protagonist, …
Have you ever reached an I-can’t-take-it-anymore kind of moment? A moment in which you are so filled with emotion that words just fly out of your mouth in one big rant? It’s probably not adorable when you do it, but I love when this happens to a beloved character in …
Long before I wrote picture books, my sons literally had to beg me to take “true” picture books out of our library. I assumed picture book nonfiction was a shorter version of a social studies text. It didn’t take long before I found myself rereading these books after my boys …
Welcome, Rabbi Benjamin’s Buttons! I just got to celebrate a book birthday. Rabbi Benjamin’s Buttons, written by Alice B. McGinty, published by Charlesbridge Publishing, launched just a month ago. Books take so darn long to make ( I was offered the manuscript on my own birthday, in October, 2011), holding the finished …
If you’ve been trying to write picture books, you’ve probably heard that they ought to be short: 800 words, 600 words, 500 words. Or even LESS. This can seem scary. But it can be done without sacrificing plot or story. In fact, many pre-published manuscripts I see could lose 200 words …
One of my favorite books of 2014 is Poor Doreen – A Fishy Tale, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by *Alexandra Boiger. Want a book with a superlative VOICE? This is it. When reading this story for the first time, I smiled all the way through. But then I heard …