Board Books with Jill McDonald

We are so excited to have Jill McDonald join us today to share information about Board Books!

Jill McDonald is a Midwest based illustrator and designer whose cheery and colorful art can be found on clothing, fabric, bedding, stationery, puzzles, games, and books.

When I was younger, I never imagined I’d be an author one day. I’ll tell you a secret, it still feels strange to me today! In first grade I learned I had dyslexia. While my classmates began to read with ease I was frustrated and confused. Being in grade school in the early 80’s meant I would need to be part of the L. D. (learning disabled) department for a portion of my day. This was a good thing as it offered me extra help, it also helped build my determined spirit that I’m not sure I’d have if I wasn’t dyslexic. This also meant that I stood out and made me feel less capable than my classmates. So, I dove into ART, something that came naturally to me. I knew you could be an artist as my father was one, he had a busy graphic design agency throughout my childhood.

I went to art school at R.I.S.D. and continued to develop my art skills.  When I started my own illustration studio a couple years after graduating, I focused on brightly colored collections to present at shows or to specific clients.  My art had always included words with punchy adjectives here and there but, I was always afraid to add too many words as I didn’t feel like me and words meshed well.

I illustrated books for publishers but never volunteered my own writing.  In 2014 I was contacted by an editor at Doubleday Books (a division of Random House Kids) she saw a solar system wall art piece I made and wanted to discuss some non- fiction science/ nature inspired books.  I was excited but then terrified… when she asked, “would you consider writing them as they will be simple board books”?

Something inside me told me to say YES!  Having my own business and being an artist in general is one opportunity after another to bet on yourself.  So, I did!  My editor wanted to begin with four books- Solar System, Weather, Backyard Bugs, and Birds.  This is how the Hello, World! series began.

My approach was to learn as much as I could about the subject and then distil it down into something more bite sized for the one to four age range. I start by adding a sentence that explains the subject simply on each page slowly figuring out how it needs to flow.  I think of it as a conversation with the reader.  Science and nature are about observing and asking questions, so it was important that I engaged with the reader this way.  There are places in each book where questions are directly asked. 

For older readers I wanted to include fun facts on each spread that a parent, or older sibling might find interesting as well as something the younger reader might grow into as their familiarity with the subject developed.  This is signaled with an asterisk before the text.

My nerves begin at the start of each new book but learning so many cool new things and remembering I have an audience to share it with pushes me through the process.  I don’t have a diverse background in science, but I am very curious and excited about the subjects we get to explore.  My editor is a wonderful help with keeping the range of facts covered fresh, diverse & dialing me back if it starts to get out of age range.  She’s also a pro with cutting out the unnecessary.  By now you can probably see I can get wordy!

When I submit my first draft, I write two different options.  I’m sure this is due to my own insecurities with my writing.  Telling myself that with offering options some of it would work.  And it did in most cases.  My editor then crafts the two together creating what she calls a “frankindocument”. This is how we continue to work today.  With over twenty titles now in the Hello, World! series I think our writing relationship has worked wonderfully! 

Once the manuscript has been approved, I move onto the art, a part of the process I feel much more at home with.  The first couple books I wrote for Hello, World! took longer than the twelve spreads of art that accompanied it.  I’ve gotten quicker and more confident over the past seven years of writing.  Although I’m still not sure I’d call myself an author perhaps a sometimes-reluctant author!  One who is thrilled to have this opportunity to surprise myself and share almost two million books with the growing Hello, World audience!

photo by Suzanne Corum-Rich

*A little side note:  The Hello, World! board book series has expanded into Hello, World! Kids’ Guides picture books for kids who are ready for the next step. (Ages 3- 7 years)  Available now at your favorite place to buy books.

Thanks so much for joining us, Jill!

To see more of Jill’s work visit jillmcdonalddesign.com or follow here @missjillmcdonald on Instagram.

Consider the Humble Board Book By Susan Claus

We are so excited to have Susan Claus join us today to share information about Children’s Board Books!

Susan Claus is a children’s librarian, writer, and illustrator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is happiest outside on slightly rainy days. Susan makes sure to let her inner child out every day to play.

Before the 1940’s, “books for children” meant “books for children who had learned to read”. Publishers pushed out a few books for parents to buy around the holidays, but most of the publishing was aimed at the public library market, and for schools. Librarians, back in the day, were staunch prescriptionists (“We’ll TELL you what’s good for you”), defenders of children’s fragile souls, making sure that nothing harsh, ugly, or silly contaminated the blank pages of their unformed minds. Publishers didn’t see the children’s book market as lucrative.

The post-war baby-boom suddenly delivered to the publishing industry a huge wave of children and parents eager to buy interesting books. Educators at New York’s Bank Street School did an end-run around the gate keeping librarians and produced books about the everyday experience of children, the harsh, the ugly, and the silly included. Books that were fun and engaging. And marketable! Publishers took note, and enlisted an army of writers and illustrators to produce wonderful picture books. But still, these books were targeted at children who could read.

Pre-1940, a baby might be given a cloth book; two cotton rectangles, sewn down the middle, to play with. Cloth books were toys, not brain fodder. Babies and toddlers were viewed as human dumplings, tiny barbarians bent on the destruction of any books that came into their pudgy hands, and, until they could talk, not given credit for having much going on “upstairs”.

The arrival of Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt in 1940 changed the thinking about baby books. Pat the Bunny had sturdy, doubled pages that were hard to tear. Each spread had simple words, a simple drawing, and a texture,  piece of cloth, or hole in the page that related to the image. Parents and the babies on their laps encountered the pages together, and parents could see their babies engaging those pages in ways that proved the “wheels” were turning. Parents began to demand books that fed babies’ minds, and publishers were quick to deliver.

Books with cardboard pages, that were hard to tear, and fine to chew on, gave babies and toddlers books of their own. Most were simple concept books; word books, opposites, counting books and ABCDeries. A few had simple, linear stories.

Researchers in the 1980s began to study brain development in children in new ways, courtesy of technology like magnetic imaging, and proved that babies’ brains were not just little unformed blobs, but full of billions of busy neurons firing and making connections. Other researchers studied how babies process vision, and discovered that the gentle pastel colors that traditionally surrounded them were actually hard for babies to see.

Publishers responded with board books designed to stimulate babies’ brains with bold black and white images, and colorful pages with sharp contrast.

The early brain development research also showed how very interested babies were in looking at faces, so board books with photographs of babies soon crowded bookstore shelves.

Most board books were created by publishers in-house, with writers and illustrators uncredited. But the explosion of board book publishing caught the attention of author illustrators like Rosemary Wells and Sandra Boynton, who pushed the small publishing niche into a full-fledged genre.

As the demand for board books expanded, publishers looked to their back lists and began to repackage picture book classics in board book format.

Board books as a genre continues to expand. In the past few years, writers and illustrators have developed cheeky high-concept one-word-per-page board book “retellings” of literary classics like Moby Dick and Jane Eyre.           

Biographies were once a school-library exclusive, but board book biographies of Freida Kahlo and Coco Chanel can now be found in many strollers, along with “baby’s first book of physics”.

Babies & toddlers now have hundreds of sturdy, high-quality board books to handle and enjoy. But beyond enjoyment, having books they can handle sets them up to be successful future readers. They develop print awareness, print motivation, small motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and a visual vocabulary.

Hooray for the humble board book!

PS: Want to take a gander at some fresh new board books? Try this list from Book Riot.

Thanks so much for joining us, Susan!

You can find Susan on Instagram @fernpondart, on Facebook @fernpondstories, or on her Website!

Creating Novelty and Board Books with Nina Laden

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We are so excited to have Nina Laden join us today to share information about Children’s Novelty and Board Books!

Nina Laden is an award-winning, best-selling children’s book author, illustrator, and cartoonist who lives on Lummi Island, WA. The daughter of two artists, Nina grew up in the New York City area and received a BFA from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. She has over twenty books in print, including “The Night I Followed the Dog,” “When Pigasso Met Mootisse,” and “Roberto the Insect Architect.” “Peek-A Who?” has sold over a million copies. She has a graphic essay in “Drawing Power” which has won an Eisner Award. Her most recent book is “You Are A Beautiful Beginning,” written by Nina and illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley. More books are coming soon. We’re grateful to have her with us today!

I wasn’t planning to do “baby books” when I started out. My plan had been to write and illustrate picture books, and I was doing great with my early books, “The Night I Followed the Dog,” “Private I. Guana,” and “When Pigasso Met Mootisse.” Then all of my friends starting having babies, and I wanted something to give them. I didn’t like board books that were basically, “A is for Apple, B is for Ball, etc…” I wanted to create something clever and interactive- and I had no idea that I was going to accidentally come up with a million seller…

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“Peek-a Who?” came out in 2000. My publisher, Chronicle Books, wasn’t really doing board books back then, but my editor liked the dummy I created for “Peek-a Who?” (more about this coming) and asked me if I could create a second book to go with it and they’d give me a contract for both. So I came up with “Ready, Set, Go!” but it wasn’t the pure idea like “Peek-a Who?” and never sold well. 

Board Books are Not Simple

Kids always ask me how long it takes to write my books. Some of them take years, decades, even… but “Peek-a Who?” came to me whole, and I wrote it in twenty minutes. It is repetitive- and uses the “oo” sound. “Who, Moo, Boo, Zoo, Choo-Choo, You.” But- it builds- and it is a guessing game- as the child guesses what they are looking at through a window, and when they turn the page, there is a reveal… and the piece de resistance: on the last page there is a mylar mirror so they see themselves, Peek-a YOU! I know that children love to see themselves in the mirror- and I wanted to end the book on the child. I glued a piece of aluminum foil into the book when I submitted it- wondering if they could put in a mirror.

From my original dummy.

From my original dummy.

The actual book.

The actual book.

The Illustrations

The writing for “Peek-a Who?” was simple, but the illustrations were not. Most board books are brightly colored. Babies love bright colors and especially a lot of contrast. I was bored by just big areas of color. I wanted texture, too, so I created my own technique to fake the look of woodcut. I painted the paper black, and then painted over it, leaving outlines and little flecks to give the art energy. It became a signature look for all of my board books. 

Peek-a Zoo from “Peek-a Who?”

Peek-a Zoo from “Peek-a Who?”

We Want Some More

My publisher wanted more novelty/board books from me after “Peek-a Who?” and I came up with “Grow Up!” which had kids guessing “little to big.” Then I did “Who Loves You, Baby?” so babies could see themselves as cute animals. “Daddy Wrong Legs” was a mash-up book with mix and match tops and bottoms. Then my editor finally convinced me to do more “Peek-a Books,” and I did four more: “Peek-a Zoo!,” “Peek-a Boo!,” Peek-a Choo-Choo!” and “Peek-a Moo!” I have a very cool interactive novelty book coming out in ’22 called “Trainbow” that is an accordion fold that teaches the colors of the rainbow and the different cars on a train.

Novelty books must engage the smallest readers, be interactive in some way, be universal and appeal to any child, and have a simple concept that is immediately understood. That’s a pretty tall order for a small book. But if you can connect with your own inner child and remember what sparked your imagination, you can create a book that you can both read and play with. That’s a good novelty book.

Thanks so much for joining us, Nina!

You can find Nina on the following:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nina.laden

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nina.laden 

Her Facebook Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/NinaLadenBooks 

and visit her website here: http://www.ninaladen.com