Fable Retellings Picture Books with Susan Claus

We are so excited to have Susan Claus join us today to share information about Fable Retellings!

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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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Short and sweet, or long and lush. There is no wrong way to serve them up.

“The Fox and the Grapes… The Boy Who Cried Wolf… The Grasshopper and the Ant” Chances are you could list a dozen Aesop Fables without much effort. You are in good company, since these stories have been delighting and teaching children since at least 400 BCE; long enough to have soaked into every corner of Western literature.

Children in Colonial America read the fables in chapbooks with simple woodcut illustrations, or heard them told as stories attributed to Uncle Remus. Aesop stories were some of the earliest picture books printed especially for children.

Was Aesop a real storyteller? Possibly, or maybe just a story himself. Legend has it he was an enslaved Greek, who managed to finagle his freedom by using his stories to solve his owner’s problems, and went on to council kings

[If you are interested in getting into the weeds of the real-or-imagined enslaved storyteller Aesop and his tales, I recommend Aesop & Company: With Scenes from His Legendary Life by Barbara Bader, illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, 1991). ]

Fables are short stories, sometimes no more than a paragraph or two. They are most often populated by animals (but not always). The animals display their animal natures, but are stand-ins for humans and human nature and foibles.

Fables are meant to be instructive, and while aimed at children, have resonance for adults. Fables generally include a “moral” at the end, a tidy summoning up, just in case you missed the point of the story.

The Aesop tales, being so concise, make them endlessly re-tellable. And conveniently, they’ve been in the public domain since before English was a written language.

An author can convey the lesson of the Tortoise and the Hare in fewer than 50 words, but enrich that summary by adding sensory elements- the smell of the forest, the sounds of the animals cheering for tortoise, the sunshine that lures the hare to sleep while the stalwart tortoise plods along the muddy path, and the story takes on lively depth and color.

Beautiful picture books versions have been done through the years by Arthur Rackham, Milo Winter, Brian Wildsmith, and Eric Carle. Here follows a list of some recent re-tellings of one familiar tale. They range from traditional, to literal out-of-this-world reimagining.

Jerry Pinkney’s retelling of The Tortoise & the Hare relies on the pictures to tell the story. The word count in this book? Twenty-seven.

The Tortoise & the Hare by Alison Ritchie and Nahta Noj has cut-out pages that add an element of suspense, as readers peep at the tortoise drawing closer and closer to the finish line.

Hare and Tortoise by Alison Murray keeps the traditional race intact, but serves up a side of good sportsmanship at the finish.

Tortoise and Hare: a Fairy Tale to Help you Find Balance by Susan Verde and Jay Fleck, part of the “Feel Good Fairytales” series, takes a turn for social/emotional learning with the moral that being too extreme in any direction isn’t healthy.

The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit by Susan Lowell and Jim Harris drops the story into the desert and gives us delightfully different supporting characters like tarantulas, javelinas, and roadrunners. There is a bilingual edition, too.

The Tortoise OR the Hare by Toni Morrison, Slade Morrison, and Joe Cepeda. The Morrisons turn the story on its head by having the hare win the race. Toni Morrison retold several Aesop tales in collaboration with her son in a series called “Who’s Got Game”.

HIP & HOP In The House! A Free-Flowing Tortoise and the Hare Collection by Jef Czekaj. One friend raps slowly, one friend raps fast; leaving the competition in, but the footrace out. Some retellings traveling farther and farther from earth: The titles probably tell you everything you need to know about these iterations of the fable.

The Tortoise and the Hare and the Jet Pack by Steven Novak.

Hare and Tortoise Race to the Moon by Oliver J. Corwin

The Tortoise and the Hare Space Race: Aesop’s Fables in Space by C. Carlyle McCullough

The Robo-Battle of Mega Tortoise vs. Hazard Hare (part of the Far Out Fables series) by Stephanie True Peters and Fernando Cano.

I could not resist adding :

Tortoise Vs. Hare: a children’s book on Tort Law by Jessica Barnhart Stackhouse. This book proves there are no limits to retelling this Aesop tale. If you need inspiration to do your own retelling of these classic fables, search out a copy of The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter. Originally published in 1919, it has been a staple of library shelves ever since. The illustrations are lovely, and you get a banquet of 126 bite-size Aesop fables to choose from.

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Thanks so much for joining us, Susan!

You can find Susan on Instagram @fernpondart, on Facebook @fernpondstories, or on her website: https://susanclauswriter.wixsite.com/writer.

Expository Nonfiction Picture Books with Susan Claus

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

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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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Exposition:

1. An explanation of something

2. A piece of writing that explains

3. The first part of a piece of music in which the theme is presented

4. A public exhibition

Webster’s Kids’ Definitions  merriumwebster.com   accessed via Ecosia, January 11, 2023

Picture Book:

A magical container for words and pictures working together.

Me Just now.

Once upon a time… a few author-illustrators began to write books, not to tell stories, but to satisfy children’s curiosity about the world. For a while these fact-but-not-dusty-dry-fact books had the bookshelves in bookstores and public libraries all to themselves.

Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry 

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton 978-0690047684

Boats by Anne Rockwell  978-0140549881

Manners by Aliki 978-0688045791

Tornados! by Gail Gibbons 978-0823441877

Sometimes they sat on the shelves with the storybooks, sometimes they sat with the field guides and how-to books on the shelves for bigger kids. But the curious children who needed them always found them. 

A brief detour into the world of publishing is needed to appreciate how unique the Expository Picture Book really is. Non-fiction books for children have mostly been produced for the school and public library market. “Just-the-facts” books on one subject or concept, usually about science, technology, engineering, geography, social studies, or math, with big chunks of text and sidebars, with a table of contents, index, and glossary. The books are meant for students to use for research, not read for enjoyment. (Though plenty of kids do.) The author’s voice is formal, as is the language.

The books are published in sets, at different reading levels, and per-book, are expensive enough to give school librarians and public library librarians angina. 

Publishers like ABDO, Enslow, Capstone, Cavendish Square, Child’s World, Gareth-Stevens, and Lerner use in-house staff or authors-for-hire to write their series. 

Celebrating Holidays: Celebrating Chinese New Year 978-1503853829

Earth’s Four Spheres: The Atmosphere 978-1502664341

Community Helpers: Pilots 978-1503858336

Two non-fiction publishers; Dorling Kindersley and Scholastic, have one foot in the school and public library market, and one foot in the retail market. 

Children Just Like Me by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley 9780789402011

The DK Eyewitness series, with colorful photographs and spare text, made an impact on traditional publishing when they debuted in 1988. The success of the Eyewitness series incentivized non-fiction publishers to put as much thought into exciting design as in the quality of information.

The DK Eyewitness series became a retail staple, and interest in non-fiction books for children began to boom. Children and parents wanted more, and the publishing world was happy to comply.

In contrast to the made-for-research books, Expository Picture Books are delightfully idiosyncratic. The author’s voice is playful, and facts are presented in informal ways, as if the author is in conversation with the reader. Humor is often served up in both the text and the illustrations, without losing the authenticity of the subject matter.

Here are some examples of recent books that entertain while educating. 

The Case of the Hanging Food Catcher by Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford 978-0228103387 [This has as much story as it does information, but these nature mysteries are too darn cute not to include in this list.]

Tiny Dino by Deborah Freedman 978-0593352649

Digestion! The Musical by Adam Rex and Laura Park 978-1452183862

Blue by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond 978-1984894366

Action! How Movies Began by Meghan McCarthy 978-1534452305

Check out the Kirkus Review’s “Best Nonfiction Picture Books of 2022” at www.kirkusrevies.com/Book-lists/best/nonfiction-picture-books-of-2022 for more great expository picture book picks!

Thanks so much for joining us, Susan!

You can find Susan on Instagram @fernpondart, on Facebook @fernpondstories, or on her website https://susanclauswriter.wixsite.com/writer.

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