Learning From a Christmas Classic by Maria Antonia

We are so excited to have Maria Antonia join us today to share about Religious Picture Books!

Maria Antonia learned to write her name at five years old and tried typing with an old manual typewriter at age eight. However, it was when she met the computer that she never turned back. Many years later, she still clickety-taps out her stories onto the screen, stories that have turned into picture books like The Christmas Elephant and Barnaby the Runaway Sheep. In addition to writing, Maria also enjoys sipping a nice cup of hot tea and capturing the world with her camera. She has lived in Sunny Spain, Busy New York City, and currently resides in the Great White North of Canada. Her website is: http://mariaantoniawrites.com

Every year, when I was a kid, I remember gathering around the television to watch The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. And I know we're not the only family who had this tradition. It's become a classic!

However, there was a time when, before the special first aired on December 9, 1965, everybody thought it would be a flop. The executives didn't think jazz music belonged in a cartoon. And then there was the controversial speech near the end of the program ... But wait! I'm getting ahead of myself. 

That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown

The plot of Christmas Special follows underdog Charlie Brown as he's chosen to direct his first Nativity play. What he wants is to find the true meaning of Christmas, but what he gets is all the commercialism surrounding the holiday. Charlie Brown is about to give up in despair. "Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I don't really know what Christmas is all about. Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"

That's when his friend Linus steps forward. "Lights, please. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night..." Linus goes on to recite the whole passage from the Bible about that first Christmas night, ending with: "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Did you know that Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts Gang, had to fight to keep this monologue in the program? Everybody thought it would be the kiss of death, but Schulz insisted. I'm glad he stood firm, because this scene, as simple as it is, holds its own even today. The words Linus speaks from the Bible not only inspired Charlie Brown but countless television viewers. Despite the dire predictions that this half-hour special would be a flop, it went on to win an Emmy in 1966 and would become a beloved classic watched year after year. 

What made this work? I often think about such things as an author. For me, I think it worked because the religious part wasn't forced. It fits in with the theme of the story.

And this is something that can help us when writing "religious books" for children.

Story First

My first rule is that story must come first. People love hearing a good story. And the message needs to naturally flow out from that story. You don't want something to come across as too preachy. This is what I did for my book, The Christmas Elephant. My story takes place during the performance of a Nativity play. I worked hard to make sure the story about two sisters would stand on its own two feet. The message of Christmas needed to naturally flow from what's happening on  the stage.

Hooray for Backmatter

The Author's Note at the end of the book is a wonderful opportunity for picture book authors to convey a little something more to their readers. Because I (and my publisher) wanted to add a little more to the Christian message of the story with an application from the Bible, including Bible verses, we put it all in the backmatter. (I also added some fun facts; so my backmatter is jam-packed with all sorts of extra material for parents and teachers!)

Keeping it Kid-Friendly

A lot of picture books written years ago tended to be wordy. And for many of us, those are the picture books we grew up with. But people's vocabulary has changed over time, and so has their attention spans. Part of the challenge of religious books is how to deal with the jargon that's often involved. Remember your audience and keep your words kid-friendly to today's children. This is not to say that kids can not handle hard things or even hard words. I think we should address all sorts of topics, but we need to make sure it's done in a way so that it's accessible to today's children.

Overall, religious books are a great way for parents and grandparents to share their faith with their little ones. Like Charles Schulz, authors need to find the right balance in bring such stories to life. 

Note about the photo: I told you our family loves the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

About the Book: Ellie wants to be an elephant in the Christmas play but her know-it-all sister says she’ll ruin everything. When Baby Jesus goes missing, Ellie must find him, or the play will be ruined (but not because Ellie is an elephant)!

Thanks so much for joining us, Maria!

You can find Maria on her website is: http://mariaantoniawrites.com, Instagram @ofmariaantonia, Facebook @ofmariaantonia, and Twitter/X: @ofmariaantonia1.

The Secret to Writing Scary Stories for Children.......Humor with Ashlee Ridlon

We are so excited to have Ashlee Ridlon join us today to share information about Scary Picture Books!

I’m Ashlee, aka, Author Ash. I’m a children’s book author of many fun, interactive and engaging picture books! As a former kindergarten teacher, who continues to teach part time in my town’s elementary school, I love to combine my love for literacy and children through writing stories that both touch on important topics in childhood and are FUN!

I live in Southern Maine with my husband, Nate, and two children, Josh and Avery. I also live with my four cats and dog, Ruby! My love for children’s literature started early through my Mother, who is also an educator. I remember the magic of read-alouds and the creativity it sparked. I then shared that passion with my own children and later, students. Through my books, I hope to share the magic, creativity and FUN of children’s literature with others.

As a person who is fascinated by the supernatural and all things that go bump in the night, I knew that I wanted to write a “scary” story for those who love a spooky tale! Think back to the Halloween picture books your teachers or parents read to you as a child. The dark illustrations, the anticipation of trick or treating, the thrill of a good scare. I wanted to capture that all, but with a twist.

As a teacher, I have first hand experience with different genres of children’s books and how my students react to them. And although they have sat mesmerized by beautiful books, books that taught them life lessons and a chapter from our class book, what really got their attention was humor! Add interaction and you have them hooked!

That was my challenge: write a scary story for children aged 2-8 that encompasses humor and make it interactive. The silliness of the “scary” story brings down the fear level and makes it more approachable to young children. The interactive features keep them engaged. Easy enough, right? Wouldn’t it be great if it always was?

For all my books, I always start with research. Which books in this genre speak to me? What do I like about these types of books? The illustrations, storylines, prose or rhyming? Learning what you like and will be interested in should be the first step in your writing process. Look online, but better yet, get your hands on these stories. For me, it was easy! I work in an elementary school, but a library works too!

Then I outline. Who will be the characters (my daughter helped me decide on a “chicken” as my main character.....get it?), what will be the main events in the story, how will it end? I find having an outline a vital part in the writing process. It’s where I organize my thoughts and it helps me not get lost down rabbit holes while I write the actual story.

I chose to make one of the problems in the story unique, as I set it up to be a challenge to the readers. Can they be brave enough to read this book and hear this spooky story? Or will they be too scared and prove Chicken right? Setting up a type of dare to the readers, especially with anything deemed “scary” is a great way to increase engagement. They want to prove they are brave! Thus, my title, This Book is TOO Scary For You!

I then decided to follow the lead of other great interactive and silly books, such as When I Say Ooh, You Say Ahh by John Kane and ask the readers to do and say something when they see different characters. I did this in my story, when different scary characters appeared. Bam! I found my interactive feature!

I added humor to the story through the main character, Chicken. During the story as he is telling the children his “scary” tale and ghosts, bats, jack-o-lanterns and more are popping up, he is not seeing them. Instead, he believes that the readers are making it up to make him STOP scaring them. The redemption for the readers comes at the end when Chicken finally sees the scary creatures and deems that “This story may not be TOO scary for them, but it is for him!”. The readers feel brave and it adds the last touch of silliness to the story.

Adding humor and interactive features to your scary stories for young children can make being “scared” fun! For older children, you can crank the scariness level up but keeping humor will help readers stay engaged so the “fear factor” isn’t overdone.

Happy writing!

Thanks so much for joining us, Author Ash! 

You can find Ash on her website at authorash.com, Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorash1012, and Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ashlee-Ridlon/author/B0C1P5Y393.

Picture Books for Older Readers with Jeff Gottesfeld

We are so excited to have Jeff Gottesfeld join us today to share information about Picture Books for Older Readers!

Jeff writes for page, stage, screen, and television. He has won awards in America and internationally, including from American Library Association, Association of Jewish Libraries, The Christophers, National Council for the Social Studies, and the American Alliance for Theater and Education. His current focus is picture book texts for children. His prize-winning picture books are The Tree in the Courtyard (Knopf, 2016, illustrated by Peter McCarty), No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon’s Battle for Women’s Rights in Japan (Creston, 2020, illustrated by Shiella Witanto), Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Candlewick, 2021, illustrated by Matt Tavares), The Christmas Mitzvah (Creston, 2021, illustrated by Michelle Agatha), and Food for Hope: How John van Hengel Invented Food Banks for the Hungry (Creston, 2023). Upcoming are We All Serve (Candlewick, 2026, illustrated by TeMika Grooms), about the extraordinary lives of American’s military brat children, Honor Flight (Candlewick, 2026, illustrated by Matt Tavares), about the Honor Flight program that flies aging veterans and their volunteer “guardians” to Washington DC to visit their monuments, and Strike! For the Right to Read! (Creston, 2025), with Michelle Y. Green, illustrated by Kim Holt), about the 1939 Alexandria VA sit-down strike to integrate its then-segregated library. A native of Teaneck, New Jersey, he now lives in Los Angeles. Visit him at www.jeffgottesfeldwriter.com

I always admit that I am the most imperfect messenger for a picture book about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC, and the Tomb Guards who protect the sacred rest of our three Unknown Soldiers every moment of every day. I didn’t serve in the military. In fact, none of us four Gottesfeld brothers, nor my parents, nor grandparents, served. But as I grew up, I have become passionate in my belief that the United States military is the greatest fighting force for good the world has ever known. And so, passion for a subject is the starting place for every nonfiction picture book. I had it, in spades.

Of course, passion is less than useless when there’s no focus. For me, the starting place is the idea. Ideas come from everywhere. Some writers mine their own lives. That’s not me. I travel widely, read voraciously, and am always on the lookout. Museums? Check. Foreign newspapers in English or French? Check. Obituaries? A gold mine. The idea for Twenty-One Steps came on a visit to the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 2016, when I saw a tombstone that said, UNKNOWN. That flashed me back to a boyhood trip to Arlington, and to the realization I knew practically zero about our nation’s secular shrine. I was determined to write the book by the time we left the cemetery that day. 

Next, a point of view. There’s a lot of ways to tell a story. Some may be okay, some may be good, and usually one is just awesomely great. I struggled with this text until I got the idea that maybe I could tell the story from the point of view of the first Unknown, interred in 1921. That turned out to be the perspective, because that Unknown could be anyone, and thus belong to all of us. Try a few points of view. All it takes is time. 

The next step for me is to figure out the story beats. Every story has beats, like music. The beats are the big notes of what happens. In Twenty-One Steps, a few of the main beats are meeting the first Unknown, his homecoming, his burial before 150,000 people, and the posting of the first Tomb Guard at midnight on July 2, 1937. There are others. If the writer knows the beats, the story is easier to tell. Of course, good research will help figure out the beats. 

Then, I write. And write some more. Until I’ve got a draft. 

Finally, I fix it. This can happen in a month, two months, or sometimes it takes five years and forty or fifty named drafts. Maybe if I’m stuck I’ll put it away for a few months. But there also comes a time when I’m fixing and fixing, and it isn’t getting any better or worse. 

That’s when I know it’s time to stop. I’ve got a manuscript. And so will you. 

I do want to add a few words about figuring out the right audience. I’m pretty ruthless about the subjects I choose. It’s not just that I’m interested in them, but it’s that I think there’s a universe of readers and book buyers out there that care, too. I try to match subject, grade level, and language, but always with no upper limit on whom the reader might be. That is, K to age 120 for The Christmas Mitzvah, first grade to age 120 for Food for Hope, and grade three to age 120 for Twenty-One Steps, a book about which I have presented to as many adult audiences as kid ones. 

I was a young athlete before I ever became a writer, and would counsel young writers to approach writing like an elementary school or middle school athlete approaches a sport. Basically, no school-aged tennis player will beat Carlos or Serena, and no school-aged soccer player is going to start for the USMNT or USWNT. Being young is the time to learn from the best, and practice. So, young would-be writers need to read, read, and read some more. Smash the screens, and read. Reading good writing gets it inside you. And then, when they write, keep the expectations reasonable. Strive every day to get just a little better, or make it just a little better. There’s a long way to go, and you will get there one good sentence at a time. 

Thanks so much for joining us, Jeff! 

You can find Jeff on his website at www.jeffgottesfeldwriter.com. You can also check out his books Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, The Christmas Mitzvah, and Food For Hope: How John van Hengel Invented Food Banks for the Hungry.

Writing on Important Moments and Milestones for Children with Mariam Gates

We are so excited to have Mariam Gates join us today to share information about Milestones Picture Books!

Mariam Gates, M.Ed is the bestselling author of the Good Night Yoga series and many more books for young people. She has a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and years of experience in the classroom as a Mindfulness Educator and Special Education Teacher. Mariam and her work have been featured in numerous publications to include Parents, Time for KiDS, and New York Magazine as well as teacher, parent and kid lit blogs. As a Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness expert, she teaches children and adults at workshops and conferences around the country. She also teaches weekly at public schools in Northern California. Her forthcoming (9th) book OLIVE ALL AT ONCE (Sounds True, September 2024) follows the titular character as she navigates the many (and sometimes contradictory) ways she feels about significant events in her life (the first day of school, a friend’s birthday party, being with her baby sister, and more.) As Olive sorts through her sometimes mixed-up feelings she teaches young readers that it’s okay, and part of being human, to feel many different ways---all at once.

As a children’s book writer, I am always looking for and receiving inspiration. To me, almost anything has the potential to be a story. (If I see Girl Scouts selling cookies, I start imagining a cookie that gets sent around the world delivered by a little chipmunk postman or a cookie competition between a group of friends that goes somehow awry). For those of you who are writers, you may relate to that moment of hearing a turn of phrase, or seeing an image and getting that feeling that this could be something. Of course, some of those pan out and others don’t (like the aforementioned cookie ideas) but the ones I find most compelling are those that feel like a window into the rich inner lives of children.

During the pandemic, and for quite a bit afterward, I was struck by the ways in which many children had a mixed experience of the world being shut down around them. Of course, for so many it was incredibly challenging, but for others, having that much time at home with their families was not all negative. It made me start to think about the ways in which, even in less extreme times, in many of the important moments and milestones in our lives, we do not feel just one way.

As adults, we know that taking a child to kindergarten (or off to college) is a combination of joy and sadness. We know we can feel both fulfillment and loss a the same time. We even have relationships that we appreciate and also struggle with, and the list goes on. I started being more aware of how true this is for children. But what also felt clear is that we don’t often reflect to them that having ‘mixed feelings’ and holding the contradictions of life is a part of being human. Instead we want them to feel ‘happy’ on the first day of school, when they get a new sibling, or attend a birthday party. I wanted to create a book where the protagonist was able to explain feeling ‘more than one way’ at a time. I wanted to celebrate the importance and humanity of that.

The question was, how to do it? I knew Olive, in Olive All At Once, was going to go through the first day of school, a new sibling, a birthday party, and grandparents visiting and do it all with the accompanying complex feelings each of those events brings. But that still felt hard to show. What really helped me was when I found a way to have her have agency in all of it. In Olive All At Once, the narrator is in a dialogue with Olive. Olive is the one explaining that she does not feel just one way while the unseen narrator is trying to tell a more traditional (and predictable) story. Giving Olive the ability to ‘correct’ the narrator throughout made the story, and her character, really come alive for me. She was the one who knew how full her range of feelings could be. She was the one teaching that to the narrator, and then to the reader. 

I am thrilled with how Olive All At Once turned out and as with all of my books, I hope it helps kids feel more welcome and more a part of this big world. 

 Thanks so much for joining us, Mariam! 

You can find Mariam on her website at mariamgates.com or Instagram @mariam.gates.

Identity Picture Books with Laura Obuobi

We are so excited to have Laura Obuobi join us today to share information about Identity Picture Books!

Laura Obuobi was born and raised in Accra, Ghana but has been living in the United States since 2003. Laura received an MA in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and taught for 8 years as a preschool teacher. Her time in the classroom with preschoolers set the stage for her transition into writing for children. Laura is a graduate of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Besides creative writing, Laura also finds joy in drawing, collaging, and painting.

When I wrote Black Gold, I didn’t set out with the theme of identity at the forefront of my mind. I was simply thinking about myself as a child, and the physical, psychological, cultural, and even spiritual attributes I have that make me who I am. And isn’t that what identity is about? 

When I think about what identity means, I consider the following: 

What is your name? Where are you from geographically? What is your ethnicity? Which neighborhood did you grow up in? What kind of family do you come from? Who are/were your caregivers? What values and moral codes were instilled in you? How were you raised? What values, moral codes, or belief systems have you adopted? What is your personality? How do you like to dress? What colors are you drawn to? What is unique about you that no one else in the world has? Which socio-cultural groups do you affiliate yourself with, feel most connected to, and/or at home with? Where were you raised? Are you religious? Which religious societies are you a part of? Where do you worship? How often do you visit this place of worship? What festivals and holidays do you celebrate? How do you celebrate these festivals and holidays, and with who? What habits, behaviors, and activities do you like to participate in? All these questions and more, point to the kind experiences that shape our perspective of self, impact how we show up in the world, and reveal who we are.  

The beauty about writing picture books about identity is that you can take any one of the questions above and use that to craft a story or poem that answers the question: who are you? 

The following picture books all answer the question “who are you?” and highlight various aspects of identity. (These are just a few books that stand out to me, and is not at all prescriptive, but I hope it gives you a sense of how the topic of identity can be written as a picture book.)

Your Name is a Song - Jamila Thompkins-Bigelow and Luisa Uribe

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners - Joanna Ho and Dung Ho

Say my Name - Joanna Ho and Khoa Le 

I’m From - Gary R. Gray and Oge Mora 

I am Golden - Eva Chen and Sophie Diao 

I am Brown - Ashok Banker and Sandhya Prabhat 

Alma and How She Got Her Name - Juana Martinez-Neal 

Where Are You From? - Yamile Saied Méndez and Jaime Kim 

Hair Twins - Raakhee Mirchandani and Holly Hatam 

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story - Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal  

The Day You begin - Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael Lopez

Mommy’s Khimar - Jamila Thompkins-Bigelow and Ebony Glenn

Sankofa: A culinary story of resilience and belonging - Eric Adjepong and Lala Watkins 

Even books where the character shows or describes their understanding of a universal concept such as love, can fall under the theme of identity because in these books, the character is exploring and explaining what love means to them, and how they express this universal concept called love. 

I am Love by Peter H. Reynolds, is one; my picture book - What Love Looks Like illustrated by Anna Cunha - is another.  

Reynold’s book shows the character describing the various ways they express and embody love, while my book shows the main character exploring and experiencing what love looks like with her father. 

Picture books about identity aren’t only restricted to fiction. They can be non-fiction too. A perfect example is Before She was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome. In this biography picture book about Harriet Tubman, we get to see and learn the various roles and jobs Harriet Tubman took on, in her life’s journey and work as an activist and abolitionist. These various roles and jobs all reveal and answer the question: who was Harriet Tubman?

And so, I think that identity covers a wide range of subjects that inevitably answer the question, who are you, and what makes you special, different, unique, powerful, interesting? 

If you were to write a picture book about identity, what would you write about? 

Thanks so much for joining us, Laura!

You can find Laura on Instagram: @lauraobuobi or her website at
lauraobuobi.com.

You can also preorder her new book, What is Love here! It comes out on 06/18/24! 

Movement Picture Books with Rachelle Burk

We are so excited to have Rachelle Burk join us today to share information about Movement Picture Books!

Rachelle writes fiction and nonfiction for kids 2-12. She is a council member and mentor for the Rutgers One-On-One Conference, and is a freelance picture book editor. She loves to visit schools across the country with her dynamic author visit program. Find out more at: www.RachelleBurk.com. Or email: rachelleburk@gmail.com. Need writing/publishing/marketing resources? You can find pretty much everything you need on Rachelle’s award-winning kidlit resources site: www.ResourcesForChildrensWriters.com.

STOMP, WIGGLE, CLAP, AND TAP  (Callisto Kids) by Rachelle Burk, Illustrated by Alyssa De Asis. Written in perfect read-aloud rhyme, with gentle prompts and lively illustrations that will encourage kids to move and make some noise.

To be honest, writing this book was not my idea. Stop, Wiggle, Clap, and Tap: My First Book of Dance was a work-for-hire project for an educational publisher (Rockridge Press, now Callisto Kids—an imprint of Sourcebooks). They reached out and offered me the project. Writing the book was a challenge for several reasons, one being that I had never written for the toddler-age audience.

The bigger challenge was that I’m not a dancer. This probably makes me a total fraud. In fact, anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a complete klutz with a tendancy to trip or twist in ways that break and tear body parts. Yet, even though “they” say to write what you know, I don’t agree. I believe you should write what interests you. I’ve written about all kinds of things with no background in the subjects, including science, music, and bios of people I’d never heard of. You just have to be enthusiastic and willing to do the research.

My daughters, now adults, watched an insane amount of baby dance videos back during the VHS era, which tends to imprint itself on a mother’s brain forever. The outline for Stop, Wiggle, Clap, and Tap had me isolating different body parts in a progressive format… a stanza focusing on hands and fingers, the next on arms, followed by feet and toes, then legs, and finally putting them all together. Because the target audience is between the ages of one and three, I had to reach way back in my memory to remember what children of those ages can do developmentally. I wrote and then nixed several ideas for being a bit too complicated.

I also considered what most intrigues toddlers and worked those things into the little movement poems. That’s why animals appear on several pages—a flapping bird, a prancing pony, a hopping frog, a wagging dog, and an elephant swaying its trunk. This creates a additional layer of learning and adds a fun aspect to the illustrations as well.

I found myself crawling, wiggling, twirling, and doing all kinds of weird movements around my family room as I worked to develop the movements and figure out how to describe them. I couldn’t help wondering what my neighbors would think if they happened to see me though the window. 

The text needed to have a musical feel that would inspire kids to move. For this young age, the sing-song quality that rhyme adds is a big plus. For an older audience, a good rhyming text usually entails unpredictable, complex, and multi-syllable rhymes. But for a toddler book, it was better to aim for the opposite:simple, predictable, and repetitious rhymes, with a rhythm that toddlers and caregivers can easily chant and clap to. For inspiration, I read a lot of classic nursery rhymes and watched YouTube videos with simple movement songs for toddlers.  

The amazing illustrator, Alyssa De Asis did a brilliant job bringing the book to life and giving it a joyous party atmosphere. I love how, once an animal character is introduced, it sticks around in all the following illustrations, dancing along with the human characters. 

Stop, Wiggle, Clap, and Tap will soon be coming out as a board book as well.

Thanks so much for joining us, Rachelle!

You can find Rachelle at www.RachelleBurk.com, Facebook @ facebook.com/rachelleburk, X (Twitter) @Rachelleburk, or Instagram @ instagram.com/rachelleburk/.

2024 Picture Book Writing Challenge

Our 2023 Picture Book Writing Challenge was a great success! About 35 of you participated as we tried new genres, flexed our creative muscles, and grew as writers! I ended up writing nine of the ten genres, plus three other picture books. Even if none of these books ever get published, I love trying new things, challenging myself creatively, and getting stories down on paper. I 100% believe it’s worth every minute!

Who’s in for 2024? We’ve already covered the main picture book genres, so we’ll be digging a little deeper to explore some new, fascinating topics. Remember, anyone can join the challenge—and no one needs to read what you write! We’ve designed this experience to inspire you to learn and grow as a writer and creator, not to pressure you for results. 

How it Works: 

  1. Register by commenting on this blog post. 

  2. Read the blog posts posted throughout the month for inspiration: an intro to the genre, ten favorite picture books in that genre, and author blog posts.

  3. Write a picture book manuscript in the prescribed genre! 

Remember—the Picture Book Writing Challenge is designed as a personal challenge for yourself—no critiquing or sharing manuscripts is needed!

Let the World Know:

Save this image and post to your social media—let the world know you are participating! Tag me at @stefaniehohl so I can like and share your post!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Here’s the 2024 Picture Book Writing Challenge genre list!

Can’t wait to have you join us! Happy writing!

Chronological Picture Books with Joyce Hesselberth

We are so excited to have Joyce Hesselberth join us today to share information about Chronological Picture Books!

Joyce Hesselberth is a writer and illustrator based in Baltimore. She studied graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University and later earned her master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her children’s books have been published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, HarperCollins, and Chronicle Books. Her book Mapping Sam won a special mention award in the Bologna Ragazzi non-fiction category and was also named one of New York Public Library’s Best Books. Her most recent book, When Molly Ate the Stars was published by Chronicle Books in Fall 2022. Her illustrations have also appeared in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Scientific American, and many others. She and her husband David Plunkert co-founded their studio Spur Design in 1995. Joyce also teaches illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art.

When you start really studying picture books, chronological books are everywhere, right? Something happens, which leads to something else, which leads to something else, and so on until the end. Picture books naturally lend themselves to this type of storytelling. In longer formats, you have more flexibility to explore flashbacks or tell the story in some other non-linear format. Technically, you can do that in picture books, but because of the short format, picture books need to be succinct. And that’s where chronological order can really help out.

Sometimes the chronology is the main point of the story, but sometimes the chronology is more of a tool that ties the story together. I find myself using this tool more and more often as I write. I’m going to talk about two ways to approach chronological stories: event-based and time-based.

Mapping Sam is a narrative non-fiction picture book that I wrote and illustrated. It is a book about maps. But the story is told as an event-based chronological tale: a cat sneaks out of the house at night and wanders around the neighborhood, visiting key sites along the way, before returning home to fall asleep in the kids’ bedroom. The story of a cat roaming the neighborhood is the way to thread the things I’m actually talking about – different types of maps – together. When I first started writing this story, I had a bunch of types of maps I could talk about, but there wasn’t enough to hold it together. But then I thought about telling it by exploring where a cat goes at night and – aha!– I had a story. Most importantly, I had a solid beginning, middle, and end. It also gave me an excuse to draw lots of cats, which was a big plus!

I used a time-based chronological structure in my book Pitter Pattern. Here, the main topic is patterns in nature, sports, music, etc. In this picture book, we follow a girl named Lu through the days of the week. Each day, there are new patterns to find. While I was writing this book, I had a bunch of types of patterns that I thought were interesting, but without some sort of structure, it felt like a list. And while there are certainly books that use a list approach, I always am more excited by having more of a narrative. I think the person who used this type of chronological structure the best was Eric Carle in the classic picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle walks us through the days of the week and ends his story with the transformation into a beautiful butterfly.

You could write a story around hours, months, seasons, or any time-based construct. Of course, there still needs to be some sort of satisfying end to the story. For Pitter Pattern, I had already established that the days of the week were a pattern too, so looping back to Sunday and repeating the opening line “Pitter, pitter, pat! Pitter, pitter, pat! Pitter, pitter, pat!” made the story feel like it came full circle.

So think about chronology as the structure to hang your story on. What events are happening while your story unfolds? Whether your main character is counting down the days until a big event, or setting out on an exciting journey, chronological storytelling is there to keep your reader entertained along the way.

Thanks so much for joining us, Joyce!

You can find Joyce on Instagram: @hesselberth or her website: https://www.joycehesselberth.com/

Global Historical Fiction Picture Books with Meg Wiviott

We are so excited to have Meg Wiviott join us today to share information about Global Historical Fiction Picture Books.

Meg Wiviott is the author of PAPER HEARTS, a young adult novel-in-verse based on a true story of friendship and survival in Auschwitz. PAPER HEARTS made the 2016 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and the Amelia Bloomer lists. It was also a Cybils Poetry Finalist and a 2015 Nerdy Poetry and Novel in Verse Winner. Meg is also the author of the award winning picture book, BENNO AND THE NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS, which tells the story of Kristallnacht through the eyes of a cat. She holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

I got the idea for BENNO while attending an SCBWI NJ conference many, many years ago when an extremely well known and respected publisher was asked, “What’s the one project you’d like to see come across your desk?” The publisher responded, “A picture book on Kristallnacht.” Those of us in the room who knew what Kristallnacht was gasped. It was a small gasp, there weren’t many of us.

I blinked. I stared. I blinked again. A picture book on Kristallnacht? How do you do that? How do you write a story on what is essentially the beginning of the Holocaust for young children? The wheels started turning.

It took me years—YEARS—to figure out how to do it (and quite frankly, I still don’t know how I actually did it because I haven’t been able to do it again). The idea stayed in the back of my mind and every once in a while, I pulled it out and played with it. I did tons of research. I read about Hitler and Goebbles, the Nuremberg laws and the expulsion of the Polish Jews. I read about Ernst vom Rath and Herschel Grynszpan. (Note that none of those things are mentioned in the book).But I had to know everything before I could make sense of how to write it. It is my philosophy that it’s not what we tell our children, but how we tell them. This story had to be honest.

When I had a reasonably presentable draft (there were many, many unpresentable versions prior to this one) I took it to my critique group. Like any good critique group, they read my work seriously and then as gently and kindly was possible told me it was boring. They explained that draft lacked a story arc, tension, and a character with whom the reader could identify. They were right. It was missing everything a good story needs.

One person suggested I tell the story from the point of view of a child. This was something I really did not want to do! I did not want to tell it from the pov of a non-Jewish child for several reasons, foremost because I did not want to get inside of the head of that non-Jewish parent. I refused to have any character spew antisemitic sentiments. Nor did I want to tell the story from the pov of a Jewish child because, quite frankly, the story is scary. I decided instead to write what I know…

Me around 6 years old with my first kitten named Lucky.

Cats. I know cats. I have had several in my life. The inspiration for Benno came from a cat I met when my husband and I were newly married and lived in an apartment. The super allowed a stray cat named Hobo to live in the basement of the building. He was a big, gray cat. He looked like the kind of cat who would roll a pack of cigarettes up in his t-shirt sleeve. Everyone in the building knew him. Everyone loved him.

Once I had Benno the rest of the characters fell into place. The facts are still there, but Benno adds the heart that was missing from previous versions.

Thirteen years on and BENNO AND THE NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS is still in print! I am immensely proud.

My most recent cat, Slide (who we had until he reached the ripe old age of 17).

Thanks so much for joining us, Meg!

You can find Meg on her website https://megwiviott.com/, Instagram @megwiviott_writer, or Facebook @ Meg Wiviott- Author. 

Expository “Extras” with Katy S. Duffield

We are so excited to have Katy S. Duffield join us today to share information about Expository Nonfiction Picture Books!

I LOVE a good story. You know the feeling—falling headfirst into a good book with an enticing beginning, a flowing middle, and an oh-so-right ending—only to come out hours later asking: what time is it? Narrative storytelling (whether fiction or nonfiction) has a compelling “pull,” because it typically has conflict, a distinct story arc, and a satisfying ending.

But storytelling wasn’t a good fit for my topic when I was writing my nonfiction picture book, Crossings: Extraordinary Structures for Extraordinary Animals (illustrated by the amazing Mike Orodán). If I’d wanted to write about one particular animal using a certain wildlife crossing, I could have written in a story-oriented narrative style. But what I most wanted was to feature a variety of fascinating crossings along with the wide range of animals that use them, so instead of narrative nonfiction, I knew expository fiction was the way to go.

(*for more about expository and narrative nonfiction, nonfiction structure types, and everything kidlit nonfiction, visit author Melissa Stewart’s website http://www.melissa-stewart.com).

But without “story,” I needed to come up with other ways to pull readers in. I asked myself: How can I write about wildlife crossings in an engaging way? So, I did what I often do—I dove headfirst into the books on my bookshelf. The expository nonfiction books I adore have all kinds of yummy—what I call “extras”—spare text, lyrical language, refrains, and a big dose of heart. These would be the elements that would make my manuscript sing!

Spare Text

The main text of the first manuscript that my editor saw was around 400 words (the book also includes layered text on each spread to expand on what is shown in the main text). Pretty spare, right? But my super-sharp editor had her super-sharp revision scissors at the ready. I’ll admit, I hesitated at first. I’d worked hard on my beginning “set-up” and on my evocative descriptions, but I pruned them even more. And…my editor was right. The final main text clocked in around 250 words and felt much “tighter” overall. Here’s a “before” and “after” example:

Original text:

The roar of the tide calls—a massive wave of red crabs floods the forest floor,

then scuttles up, up and OVER a specially-created crab bridge toward the ocean.

Final text as it appears in the book:

Refrain

Luckily (thankfully!), the refrain I used throughout the book: “Over. Under. Across. Through.” came to me quite early in the process. I wanted the piece to feel “active,” and since the text focuses on the animals’ movement throughout the crossings, using prepositions that denote movement seemed to be an interesting and appropriate choice. As a bonus, the refrain, (along with a focus on poetic word choice) added a lyrical element to the text.

Heart

I knew that the endangered animal topic would have a strong heartstring tug of its own, but I also wanted to highlight the people who care so much about these animals and how they go about helping them. My first attempt was okay, but I felt it needed more, so I kept working on it to find the just-right approach.

Original:

Animal-loving superheroes, don their capes, pick up their pencils, set their minds to Figure. It. Out.

And they come up with ideas, answers—

—Ideas and answers that will help save the world’s animals.

The following is a look at the revised text which has been reworded and tightened and, which now includes the “Over. Under” refrain. The addition of “opening their minds and their hearts” also allowed me to use a version of that phrasing on the final page which helped the text come full circle (bonus!):

For me, studying the elements of books I love can help me see my manuscript in news ways. So, if you’re working on a piece of expository nonfiction, don’t fret that you don’t have a built-in story. Instead, take a look at some of the expository nonfiction books that you love and see what “extras” you can find to enhance your work-in-progress.

Happy writing!

Thanks so much for joining us, Katy!

You can find Katy on her website at www.katyduffield.com or on instagram @katysduff.

Creating Expository Nonfiction Picture Books that Sing with Melissa Stewart

We are so excited to have Melissa Stewart join us today to share information about Expository Nonfiction Picture Books!

Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science-themed nonfiction books for children, including the Sibert Medal Honoree Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen, and her upcoming title Whale Fall:Exploring an Ocean-floor Ecosystem. She maintains the award-winning blog Celebrate Nonfiction , and her highly-regarded website features a rich array of nonfiction reading and writing resources.

Most children’s book agents and editors chose to careers in publishing because they’re naturally drawn to stories and storytelling. And because they receive many, many more submissions than they can possibly accept, they’re taught to select manuscripts they fall in love with. So it’s no surprise that, when it comes to nonfiction, they’ve traditionally tended to favor submissions with a narrative writing style.

But many children think differently. These budding scientists, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and more are drawn to expository nonfiction —text that explains, describes, or informs in a clear, accessible way. This is also the kind of nonfiction teachers focus on during informational writing units, so increasingly, publishers are looking for engaging, innovative manuscripts with an expository writing style. As a result, editors and agents are becoming interested in expository nonfiction picture books and, in the last few years, there’s been a uptick in the number being acquired and published.

For many writers, the most challenging thing about writing expository nonfiction is text structure. While nearly all fiction and narrative nonfiction has a chronological sequence structure, as I explain in this series of articles published in School Library Journal, expository nonfiction can have just about any text structure you can think of.

If I’m lucky, I know the text structure of a book before I start writing, but often it takes years of experimenting. This interactive timeline describes my 4-year journey in search of the perfect text structure for my book Can an Aardvark Bark?

As Lydia Lukidis explains superbly in this Storystorm blog post , another important element of an expository nonfiction picture book is “the hook.” The information has to be presented in a way that makes kids care. It’s all about fueling their natural curiosity.

Beyond that, elements like strong voice and rich language make editors and agents sit up and pay attention. You can find informative video mini-lessons on these topics here. While they’re intended for teachers, they’re just the kind of information children’s book creators can benefit from, too.

And finally, I’d like to recommend the anthology Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing, which I edited. It includes inspiring and informative essays from all your favorite nonfiction authors talking about their creative process.

Good luck with your expository nonfiction picture book manuscript!

Thanks so much for joining us, Melissa!

To see more of Melissa’s work, you can visit her website at www.melissa-stewart.com or visit her on instagram @melissastewartscience.