The magic of picture books is how they tell a complete story in few words. To help that happen, picture book authors often use repeating elements. Repeating elements are words, phrases or sentence structures that occur several times in the story. They provide a strong framework and help the plot …
I’ve read a lot of picture book manuscripts — written by current and aspiring authors — during the past year. Some have been from conference critiques I’ve done, some from contests I’ve helped judge and some from mentorship programs or writing seminars I’ve been part of. And, recently, as I …
Get Ready! There’s a LOT in this one little post.Whether you’re a book creator, teacher, librarian, or reader, you’ll find a gold mine of craft tips from authors and illustrators of inspiring 2020 nonfiction picture books who banded together to form a group called 20truePBs. Plus, we’re doing a huge …
I write picture books. And I love doing so. But many of you probably know my day job is being a corporate editor. I turn jargon into conversational language and try to make complicated topics simple. While the two roles may not seem similar, there’s actually a lot of overlap. …
I do not possess an MFA. I can count on one hand the number of formal writing workshops or classes I’ve attended as a student. I’m sometimes confused on the more complex parts of speech and still can’t easily spout the definition of “second person.” I’m a voracious reader of …
I’ve wrestled with my fair share of picture book manuscripts. A “brilliant” idea at 9 a.m. that falls apart by noon. That wonderful first sentence that pops up while making coffee, only to fade to confusion an hour later in the shower. An entire book theme that carries through perfectly, …
Recurring elements are one of my favorite features in picture books. Picture books are shorter affairs, so the writer has to fit a plot into a tighter-than-normal space. To make the story hang together and feel like a coherent whole, there often are words, phrases or themes that repeat throughout …
During a school visit a few months ago a teacher commented that my upcoming picture book, The Inventor’s Secret, would be the perfect title to kick off a school Genius Hour program. Well, not being much of a genius myself, I had to admit to her that I’d never heard of Genius …
I’m deviating from our usual kind of post to mark a personal milestone of sorts. Twenty years ago this month, I quit my job at UCLA to write children’s books. Not exactly something I’d recommend—the quitting your job part—especially since I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But …
It’s killing me, it’s genius…Patricia MacLachlan wrote a perfect nonfiction picture book using only one sentence. Well, technically there’s two question marks, but still…The Iridescence of Birds is a biography of Henri Matisse that manages to convey most of his childhood environment, his relationship with his mother, his interests, his personality …