Novelty Books with Jennifer Preston Chushcoff

We are so excited to have Jennifer Preston Chushcoff join us today to share information about Children’s Novelty Books!

Jennifer Preston Chushcoff’s writing experience includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her writing has appeared on television, in art galleries, anthologies, magazines, a letterpress print, and in her award-winning books, Snowflakes, Easter Numbers and WA is Water. 

There's nothing that pleases her more than connecting with readers and writers through story.

In addition, Jenn is also a painter, photographer, and digital designer. She's completed art installations in large buildings, window displays, and pop-up art shows. Her work sells as both fine art and in commercial and editorial markets. Her paintings and prints are in private collections and have been featured in galleries and art exhibits.

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Novelty books are one of my favorite formats, pushing the boundaries of how a book is defined. Examples include: lift-the-flaps, pop-ups, moving parts, board books, and books packaged with audio and activities.

My first experience with novelty books was working with the book packager, Becker and Mayer. From concept to print, a book packager either pitches ideas to publishers, or they are hired to create a specific product. It was my job to research images to illustrate stories and secure permissions. I worked on a variety of books, from sober recollections of the Holocaust to the American Girls series.

Years later, online research led me to the company Jumping Jack Press. They had a line of pop-ups and were looking for story concepts about winter without a religious or holiday theme. I knew immediately that snowflakes would make an excellent subject, plus I adore them. Everyone remembers cutting out paper snowflakes in elementary school. Envisioning how they could be incorporated into a pop-up book was exciting! 

I wrote a poem and added a proposal to include scientific facts about snowflakes along with a short bio about Wilson Bentley (1865 – 1931), the first person to photograph snow crystals. I was awarded the contract and dug in. I read books like The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty, by Caltech physicist Kenneth G. Libbrecht, and multiple biographies about “Snowflake Bentley.” Mixing poetry with art and science and distilling complex ideas is my “happy place.” How wonderful that these subjects are getting the attention they deserve, even acquiring their own hashtag, #STEAM.

While writing picture books requires room left for the illustrator, novelty books also require thinking in 3-D. What a fun challenge! The publisher handled design in-house, so after I delivered my manuscript, they took care of the rest. Their artist, Yevgenia Yeretskaya, created the beautiful illustrations and paper engineering. Rather than treating the facts and bio as backmatter, they incorporated them by creating smaller pop-ups within the spreads.

Soon after, Jumping Jack Press was working on the counting book, Easter Numbers, and struggling with the rhyme. They asked if I’d take a look and shared the mockup. The story had multiple interactive features, including lift-the-flaps, pop-ups, and pull tabs. I made suggestions to alter a few details and wrote an accompanying poem. Approaching the format from the opposite direction was another wonderful challenge. 

Many delightful novelty books are available now, with quite a few written for older kids, like me.

Warne Publishing reintroduced readers to the fabulous artist Cicely Mary Barker (1895- 1973) and her series: How to Find Flower Fairies, Flower Fairies Magical Doors, and Fairyopolis: A Flower Fairies Journal (co-authored by Glen Bird and Liz Catchpole). Contemporary designers wove Cicely’s original paintings into immersive worlds, full of paper ephemera and interactive features.

In similar fashion, Candlewick’s Ology Series resemble explorers’ journals, complete with sketches and “samples.” Monsterology even contains a “cabinet” with room to attach discoveries. 

Since novelty books are art and format driven, publishers will often want a mockup. People interested in becoming paper engineers, or just curious, can carefully open books to see how they are put together. Paper artists do this to learn new skills. 

Given their complexity, it’s almost impossible to self-publish a novelty book. They take a team to bring them to life, are expensive to manufacture, and have a low profit margin. It’s best to search for publishers already invested in the format. Do this by looking at novelty books you admire to see who publishes them. You can also search for agents or independent presses that accept novelty book submissions. 

Writers determined to pursue this type of publishing can also work with a freelance paper engineer, like Renee Jablow, credited with engineering over 70 children’s books.

My next project takes books “outside the box” by placing them back in it. The Boogie Monster is a square tissue box printed with a silly green monster and a fun, bouncing rhyme encouraging kids to blow their nose. It’s designed so that the opening is his “mouth,” and the tissue is his “tongue.”

“Where will it go, what can you do

when you cry or leak? ACHOO!!

Have no fear, I’m guarding you.

I’ve got a tissue for a tongue.

Now, blow your beak and feed me some!”

(excerpt)

Now, to decide next steps . . . 

Whichever direction you decide to travel, I hope you enjoy the journey!

Jenn

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Thanks so much for joining us, Jenn!

You can find Jenn on her website at www.byjenn.com, Twitter @byjenn, or Instagram @byjenn.

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Links:

American Book Producers Associations, a list of book producers: 

https://abpaonline.org/find-book-producer/

Becker and Mayer: https://www.quartoknows.com/BeckerMayer

Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song by Les Beletsky: https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Songs-North-American-Birds/dp/0760363269/ref=sr_1_

Flower Fairies: Magical Doors by Cicely Mary Barker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0723263515/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4

Kenneth Libbrecht’s website: http://www.snowcrystals.com/books/books.html

The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty: https://www.amazon.com/Snowflake-Kenneth-Libbrecht/dp/0896586308/ref=sr_1_4

Children’s Book Council, a list of publishers mentioning if they accept submissions and in what formats: https://www.cbcbooks.org/publishers/our-members/

Chronicle Books: https://www.chroniclebooks.com/pages/submissions

Monsterology by Dr. Ernest Drake, edited by Dugald A. Steer and illustrated by Wayne Anderson, Douglas Carrel, Tomislav Tomić and Helen Ward: https://www.amazon.com/Monsterology-Complete-Book-Monstrous-Beasts/dp/0763639400/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/146-2574845-0393553

Renee Jablow, freelance paper engineer: http://www.reneejablow.com.

Snowflakes: A Pop Up Book by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff: https://www.amazon.com/Snowflakes-5th-Anniversary-Pop-Up-Book/dp/1623482631/ref=sr_1_2

Easter Numbers: An Interactive Counting Book by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1623482038/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5

Flurry: A Mini Snowflakes Pop Up Book by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/162348653X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

Up With Paper: https://upwithpaper.com/careers/

Two more “Out of the Box” examples:

Explore a T.Rex by Dennis Schatz, illustrated by Davide Bonadonna and Christian Kitzmüller https://www.amazon.com/Explore-T-Rex-Dennis-Schatz/dp/1626863954/ref=sr_1_17

How to Build the Human Body written by Richard Walker and illustrated by Mark Ruffle https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160710413X/ref=as_li_tl

Creating Novelty and Board Books with Nina Laden

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!

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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…

“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.

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?”

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.

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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

Children’s Novelty Books with Susan Claus

We are so excited to have Susan Claus join us today to share information about Children’s Novelty 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.

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Reading material is brain food for children. Chapter books are the healthy carbs. Narrative non-fiction is the meat. Informational texts are the veggies, and graphic novels are dessert. In this healthy reading diet, novelty books are the bag of gummy bears your grandpa slips you when nobody’s looking.

Known in the library world as Toy/Moveable books, these literary confections break the rules of standard book format in every way imaginable. Forget multiple pages layered between two covers, reading (in the West) from right to left, front to back, sequentially. These books have built-in features, usually physical, that break the tidy-pages-between-two-covers format.

The definition of novelty is something new, unexpected, and surprising. In novelty books, anything goes. The only constant is charm and delight.

Here are some of the most recognizable novelty styles, with an example or two of each. (ISBNs are included if you would like to look them up.)

Touch-and-Feel / Tactile Books

Board books with fabrics and different textures glued on, for very young children. Little or no narrative is needed. 

Lift the flap

The most basic style of novelty books, with physical flaps that lift up to reveal a hidden part of the illustration. Often marketed for babies and toddlers. Examples abound, but let’s go with the Spot books as a wonderful exemplar.

• Where’s Spot! By Eric Hill ISBN 978-0-3992-4046-1

Pop-Up books

Pop-Up books are marvels of paper engineering with complex figures that go from flat to three dimensional as the cover opens or at page turns. Often there are pull tabs that create an animation. Robert Sabuda has designed a shelf-full of these treasures, many fairy tales, classic children’s books, and a non-fiction series with author Matthew Reinhart. (The one below was new to me, and I intend to order it for the library tomorrow.)

• Ten Horse Farm by Robert Sabuda ISBN 978-0-7636-6398-8

See-through Books

See-through books have holes in the page that reveal a part of the illustration on the following page or all the way to the last page of the book. One well-trofdden trope is a book where a parent or grandparent glues a picture of the child on the inside back cover, so the hole makes the child’s face appear on every page. Others, like Allan Ahlberg’s Peek-a-Boo, hint at the action on the following page.

• Peek-a-Boo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg ISBN 978-0-6708-7192-6

Altered Books

Back in the 1920s, a manic artist named Peter Newell wrote and illustrated some delightfully subversive children’s books. In The Rocket Book, a hole drilled through the pages shows the path of a bottle rocket blasting its way from the basement of an apartment building up through many floors and the mayhem it creates on its way to the roof. The Hole Book is similar, but follows a stray bullet through many walls and misadventures.

• The Rocket Book by Peter Newell ISBN 978-0-8048-0505-6

• The Hole Book by Peter Newell ISBN 978-0-8048-1498-0

More recently, John Scieszka and friends created Battle Bunny in a standard book format, but the illustrations make it seem that a kid has taken a sweet little book about a Birthday Bunny and used a marker to change the story. The two stories overlap in a comical and (dare I say) novel way.

• Battle Bunny by John Scieszka, Mac Barnett, et al. ISBN 978-1-4424-4673-1

Transparent/Projectable books

Projectable books are printed on plastic or acetate, and are meant to be read in a darkened room. The reader shines a flashlight through the page, and an image is projected onto a ceiling or wall.

Whoo’s There: a bedtime shadow book by Heather and Martha Zschock ISBN 978-1-5935-9904-

Toy books

Toy books are books that can be played with as toys. Some have wheels and can be zoomed along the floor. Carousel and House books stand up on their own when the front and back covers are attached together with laces or magnets, and are made to look like a dollhouse or other building. 

Way back in the 18th century, children just learning to read used hornbooks, and some enterprising publisher realized the paddle-like books could be made slightly bigger to be used as a racket in a badminton-like game (presumably when the teacher was busy elsewhere)!

• DK Wheelie Books: Tractor ISBN 978-0-7894-4307-6

• A Victorian Dollhouse by Maggie Bateson ISBN 978-0-3120-6228-6

• 18th century Battledores (if interested, you may start down this antiquarian rabbit-hole by searching for Hornbooks on the internet. You’re on your own!)

Shape Books

Shape books were popular in the late 1800s. The covers and pages were die-cut in the shape of animals or toys, but the stories inside could just have easily been printed in a standard format.

• Only a Doll  https://maxwell.bridgew.edu/exhibits/shape/only.html

The shape had no influence on how the story unfolded. Unlike…

… Peter Newell again! The Slant Book, has a skewed cover that creates a big “V” when opened. The story involves a baby in a baby-buggy, and the odd cover shape gives the illusion that the buggy is careening downhill.

• The Slant Book by Peter Newell ISBN 0-8048-0532-0

Interactive books

These books are novel because of the way the reader interacts with them. The Choose Your Own series requires the reader to make decisions about what should happen next in the story. This results in one book being able to be read a different way each time through. I have heard them described as a maze book. (And I suppose books with actual mazes, and seek-and-find books could land here, as well.)

Press Here by Tullet asks little readers to push, shake, and clap to make things happen on the next page. Minimalist and extremely low-tech, this book is a marvel. [If you are ever full of ennui or down in the dumps, search out Herve Tullet on YouTube and watch him marshal a whole bunch of little kids in a giant art project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xCcKk_wNUE   ]

Pat the Bunny could be shelved here, or back with the Touch-and-Feel books.

• Choose Your Own Adventure series

• Press Here Herve Tullet ISBN 978-0-8118-7954-5

• Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt ISBN 978-0-3071-2000-7

Books With Accessories

Some books come with little extras that are necessary to tell the story. In There’s a Mouse About the House, the reader manipulates a little cardboard mouse (with string tail) through holes in the pages to find a snack while avoiding the cat. 

The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg follows a postman around fairytale country as he delivers letters. Tiny envelopes contain letters from the characters that add a second layer of story to the book. 

• There’s a Mouse About the House by Richard Fowler ISBN 978-0881101546

• The Jolly Postman by Janet & Allan Ahlberg ISBN 978-0-3161-2644-1

Bath books/cloth books

Waterproof and/or chewable, these books seldom have more than six pages.

Books with Sound

These books, with buttons to push as a kind of aural rebus, are the bane of my existence. Every once in a while (usually by mistake), one of these noisy books makes it on the shelf at the library and hoots/moos/clankity-clanks/wee-oh-wee-oh-wee-ohs until the battery wears out. It is an excellent gift choice for the child of a frenemy.

But wait! There’s More! This is not an exhaustive list of all the kinds of books that could be considered novelties. There are some novelty books that defy categorization. Sam’s Sandwich by David Pelham comes to mind. (ISBN 978-0-7636-7808-1) Is it a shape book? Toy book? Lift the flap book? Where do we put The Little Fur Family by Margaret Brown (ISBN 978-0-0607-5960-5)?

(Actually, I can answer that question. We should put The Little Fur Family into the hands of every four-year-old on the planet.)

Are you intrigued? Has this sparked some ideas for books you would like to make?

Here is some real world advice from author Salina Yoon, in response to a question about writing novelty books. (If you aren’t familiar with Salina Yoon’s books, stop reading and run to a library or bookstore. Go. Right. Now. Finish reading this later.)

“Did someone say NOVELTY??? I’ve been alerted… and snuck out of my work cave to answer this question.

…I am an author/illustrator/designer of novelty books…and I can assure you that a novelty market exists. But I can also tell you that publishers rarely acquire novelty-text only, unless you are a bestselling, well-known author. (I am not one of these… so I’ve never sold text-only to anyone!)

When I submit novelties, the entire package is created. In fact, I hand-build a dummy that looks like a finished, printed book so that the publisher can see, touch, and feel how well all three elements work together: the format, the art, and the concept/text.

Most publishers either create novelties in-house OR (more commonly), they are bought from the book packagers who’ve already developed the novelties… and publishers simply get to choose from a catalog what they’d like to add to their list. This makes novelty acquisitions even trickier.

This is to say unless you have a complete vision for this book, it would be a very tough sell. Most novelty books are art and format driven… so art and format is KEY in making a decision about a novelty submission. Also, novelties are super expensive to produce,…BUT…they have to keep the retail price low… so the profit margins are much less than a traditional picture book. This means the expectations on a novelty (sales qty wise) is much higher… meaning, … it’s a very tough sell.

Board books are a completely different animal. These are typically board-book editions of previous picture books. Many classic picture books have board book editions. If you see a 24 page board book (or longer), it was mostly likely a picture book first. If you want to go this route,… you must sell your ms first as a picture book. And if it’s age appropriate, it could have a life in board book edition down the line. But typically, a storybook doesn’t go straight to board.

So… my advice is this. If you strongly feel this should be a novelty book, develop it that way! And show it that way. Even if you can’t draw, put together a dummy and include the flaps, and do a rough sketch to show what’s beneath the flaps… to explain the Interactive experience. You can find the imprints that publish novelty simply by looking at published novelties, and see their info. Most major houses require agents.

Best of luck!!!

PS: My experiences are only with the major houses (Scholastic, S&S, Random House, Macmillan, Penguin…) so it may not apply to smaller presses. Perhaps smaller presses or book packagers take novelty ms? I do not know.

Back to my cave…”

[August 17, 2012 03:13 PM       SCBWI.org/boards/index.php?topic=64071.0]

And a little bit more…

John Newbery’s Pretty Little Pocket Book (1744) could be considered one of the first novelty books for children. The book itself was straightforward, but came with a ball (if the recipient was a boy) or a pin-cushion (if the recipient was a girl) that was red on one side, black on the other. Pins were meant to be stuck in one side or the other for good and bad deeds. I’m guessing even in the 18th century a child would give an eye-roll on being given this as a gift.

More early novelty books can be explored at the National Library of the Netherlands. Genieten! (Enjoy!)

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Thanks so much for joining us, Susan!

You can find Susan here:

Instagram @fernpondart

Facebook @fernpondstories

Website