Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 83

Picture Books and Poetry

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Poetry

by Nikki Moustaki

I’ve really enjoyed reading through this book on how to write poetry.

But I don’t just want to read about poetry.

I want to try writing it.

So I like to take trips to our local library and got out a whole bagful of children’s poetry books. I just go into the nonfiction aisle in the children’s section and browse through their poetry section.

Of course, I read titles by Jack Prelusky, the current king of children’s poetry, but I also like to read books I have at home by Shel Silverstein, the genius of children’s poetry, and Robert Louis Stevenson, the master of children’s poetry.

And then, after I practice writing short poems for children as I read through this how-to book on poetry, I also want to read entire picture books written in rhyme.

That’s my ultimate goal for studying poetry…to improve my skills at writing picture books in rhyme.

How is your picture books celebration coming along?

Picture Book Writing Exercise

Prudence Wants a Pet is ADORABLE!!!

If you haven’t read it yet, run out and grab a copy at your local library or buy it online and read it!

But not only is it a fun read, but it’s a super duper launchpad for a funtastic writing exericse. Here’s what to do to get your picture book writing juices in gear as you learn from PRUDENCE WANTS A PET:

1. Write a picture book about a universal theme such as wanting a pet, getting a new tooth, having a birthday party etc.

2. Make the slant be that the main character (MC) WANTS this thing, but as in PRUDENCE, she can’t get it.

3. So the MC gets a bunch of inanimate objects and personifies them or makes them have the qualities she wants. (This is the exercise that is great to focus on.) For example, if the MC wants a birthday party, she gets all her stuffed animals together to celebrate and pretends they are real (like Prudence pretended Branch and Twig were real) and makes them try to eat a mud pie cake, etc.

4. Then she gets what she wants at the end with a unique twist.

5. An extra bonus would be to have the twist be poignant such as when Prudence cried when she was happy but didn’t know about those kinds of tears.

Have fun doing this exercise! I did it and was amazed at the results.

List of Even More Favorite Current Published Picture Books

Here’s a list of more of my favorite recently published picture books.

Order these books in from your local library or go read them at your local bookstore. Fill out a picture book rubric for each one and put it in your personal writer’s notebook so you can evaluate each picture book from a writer’s point of view. Post reviews about these picture books on your blog. Give 5-star reviews of these books on Goodreads and Amazon. Use these books as springboards of inspiration to help you become a better picture book writer.

Read these and enjoy!

Neville by Norton Juster

Perimeter, Area, and Volume: A Monster Book of Dimensions by David A. Adler

A Pirate’s Guide to First Grade by James Preller

Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Poetrees by Douglas Florian

Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly

Red Sled by Lita Judge

Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

Split! Splat! by Stever Bjorkman

Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

When My Baby Dreams by Adele Enersen

You Will Be My Friend! by Peter Brown

Author Interview: Jody Jensen Shaffer

Meet Author Jody Jensen Shaffer!

Blog: Just Kidding: On Writing for Kids and Other Life Stuff

Bio:

Jody Jensen Shaffer is a poet and the author of several fiction and nonfiction books for children. Her magazine work has been featured in Highlights High Five, Babybug, Turtle, Humpty Dumpty, COLUMBIAKids, and coming soon in Highlights, Hello, and Clubhouse Jr. Jody lives in Missouri with her husband, two kids, and dog.

Featured Books:

Stars of Today: Lea Michele

Stars of Today: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

Stars of Today: Taylor Swift

Stars of Today: Taylor Lautner

These photo-illustrated picture books from The Child’s World feature popular entertainers that children will recognize. Each book follows the life of its star from childhood through today.

Interview:

Q: How did you break into writing biographies for kids?

A: I owe my introduction to biography writing to Patricia Stockland, former Editorial Director of Red Line Editorial and current Editorial Director of Lerner. I had written two social studies books for Patricia, published by The Child’s World. When she asked if I’d be interested in writing some celebrity biographies, I jumped at the chance. Writing four biographies for The Child’s World helped me land more celebrity biography-writing jobs for other publishers.

Q: Describe the research process it takes to write a book about a current celebrity.

A: Researching a current celebrity is a lot of fun, but it also has its challenges. The internet is a vast source of information about celebrities, some of it reliable, some not. So I found reliable sources, like trusted newspapers and online magazines, that had interviewed my subjects. I was able to quote directly from the stars’ own words. I also found youtube videos of my subjects giving interviews. Finally, my local library subscribes to many searchable research databases, like Biographies in Context, which I used as well.

The challenging part about writing about a current star is that they’re still living! And every day that goes by, there’s more to write about! Thank goodness I had deadlines, or I might never have finished those books!

Q: Describe your typical writing schedule.

A: During the schoolyear, I get my kids to school then sit down at my computer. I work until it’s time to pick them up at the end of the day. Summers are a lot spottier in terms of my writing time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love summers with my kids!

Q: Share one word of advice you’d like to give to a children’s author who wants to write biographies of famous people.

A: Use reliable sources! (Oops, that’s three.)

Picture Books: Commercial

Some agents and editors (especially the ones at the big New York publishing houses) want to acquire picture book manuscripts that are commercial.

“What’s commercial?” you may ask.

To help you learn about commercial, read picture books with the following characters:

Fancy Nancy

Ladybug Girl

Skippyjon Jones

Pete the Cat

All of these books have several things in common, all of which add up to making them be “commercial.” These qualities include:

A main character who is very, very unique with lots and lots of pizzazz

The potential to have licensed toys or a cartoon or even a movie, usually because the character is so strong and the plot is strong as well.

If you want to write commercial picture books, grab as many commercial ones as you can that have been published in the last year or two. Then write a brand new picture book with a quirky, unique character who could star in a zillion stories and really grab your readers.

Have fun!

Two New Favorite Picture Books

My husband Jeff and I popped into a local Barnes and Nobles yesterday so I headed for the children’s section with notepad and pen in hand.

The front display in the children’s section was overflowing with “back to school” picture books, so I grabbed a stack, found a comfy chair, and sat down to read, read, read.

To my delight I found two titles that became instant favorites, topping my starred reviews with 6+ stars each!

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You is all about celebrating the joy and love of reading…together. Meant to be read aloud by two readers who take turns, the endearing rhymes are so catchy and meaningful that you just want to grab a friend and read this book aloud together!

Wild About Books is another picture book that celebrates the joy of reading. In this story, the librarian parks her book mobile at the library and all the animals in the zoo discover the fantastic love of everything books. In fact, they love reading so much they decide to become writers, too! The art is hilarious with their attempts at storywriting.

So add these to your summer list of must-reads!!! And if you have any favorite picture books you’re discovering, please let us know so we can read them too!

List of More Favorite Current Picture Books

Here’s a list of more of my favorite recently published picture books.

Order these books in from your local library or go read them at your local bookstore. Fill out a picture book rubric for each one and put it in your personal writer’s notebook so you can evaluate each picture book from a writer’s point of view. Post reviews about these picture books on your blog. Give 5-star reviews of these books on Goodreads and Amazon. Use these books as springboards of inspiration to help you become a better picture book writer.

Read these and enjoy!

Grandma’s Smile by Randy Siegel

Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator by Mo Willems

I Don’t Want to Be a Pea by Ann Bonwill

If I Could Keep You Little Marianne Richmond

I Must Have Bobo! by Eileen Rosenthal

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum

Just Because You’re Mind by Sally Lloyd-Jones

The Kiss Box by Bonnie Verburg

The Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand

Listen to My Trumpet! by Mo Willems

Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic by Monica Carnesi

Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes

Lizards by Sneed B. Gollard III

Love Waves by Rosemary Wells

Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman

Marshmallow by Clara Turley Newbery

Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell

Me and Meow by Adam Gudeon

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Join the Picture Book Celebration!!!

If you’d like to join in the celebration of picture books going on all summer long here on my blog, click here to find out how to hop on board.

If you’d like to post my logo on your blog, click here to find out how to do this.

If you’d like to visit other sites of picture book writers who are joining in the celebration by posting on their blogs about picture books this summer, click here to find the list. And follow the directions there to add your own blog to the list, too!

Picture Book Author Interviews

Over the years, I’ve posted various interviews of writers of picture books. Here are a few of these interviews for you to enjoy:

Stephen Aitken

Toni Buzzeo

Mary Kay Carson

Brian P. Cleary

To read more interviews of picture book authors (as well as authors of other genre) CLICK HERE to visit my interviews page here on this blog.

And if you have a picture book published that you’d like me to feature here on my blog, contact me at jeffandnancys@gmail.com. I love featuring picture book authors here on my site!

Gotta Keep Writing!

Want to get inspired to be a writer? Just watch this Youtube video of kids getting excited about books. Even though these students are holding novels, this video inspires me to keep working on my picture books, too. After all, picture books are the first opportunity children have to fall in love with reading and books!

Enjoy!

Gotta Keep Reading

Picture Book Book Trailer

One of the things that picture book publishers want authors to do today is help market our books.

One of the ways we can do this is to create our very own book trailers or have a book trailer professionally done.

And one of the best book trailers I’ve ever watched is for Mo Willem’s book, Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator.

To see this amazingly awesome book trailer, watch it by clicking here. Use it to brainstorm ideas for the book trailer of your picture book!