by Bridgitte Rodguez

When I was a kid, I hated creative writing. I just wasn’t good at making up stuff. I loved reading, and getting lost in other worlds and characters. But I just could not come up with my own ideas. It was stressful and I did not enjoy it.

And now, here I am, a writer, all these decades later, coming up with my own story ideas. However, I still don’t make things up in my stories. All my stories stem from some experience I have had either recently or back when I was a kid and are grounded in the real world. I am a writer who writes what they know. Though I marvel at writers who can weave a tale from anything! Alas, this post is about using your own experiences to write informational picture books.

Informational picture books are fiction. But they are fiction grounded in reality. Where the people, places, things, events are real, or could be real. Most often the reader will come away having ‘learned’ something. Sometimes they include an author’s note or back matter or factual sidebars within the text. They come in a variety of formats.

The book is somewhat dated now, but PICTURING THE WORLD Informational Picture Books for Children by Kathleen T. Isaacs, published in 2012, states, “Nearly all informational books are about concrete subjects, things that can be seen and heard and touched, the lives of real people, places that can be visited or the stories of real events. That connection with the real world is the heart of the attraction of informational books.”

I am a huge fan of informational picture books—I like real things, I like learning about real people, real places. My debut picture book, A WALK THROUGH THE REDWOODS, illustrated by Natalia Bruno, and published by Reycraft Books, is an informational picture book.

It’s based on my real experiences of walking through the redwoods. The story itself is fictional—though, I am the “aunt” in the story. When I initially wrote the draft for this, in the summer of 2020, sitting on a bench in Central Park, the adult started out as a mom, then a dad, and then I decided I wanted to be in the story! As I don’t have children—but have a host of nieces and nephews, I figured, that could be an additional layer to the story, an aunt with their niece/nephew—we are so often not seen.

Before writing this book, I had never walked through the redwoods with my nieces/nephews, but I myself had taken many walks through the redwoods during my college years at the University of California, Santa Cruz, which is nestled among a redwood forest. So I drew upon all the experiences I had then, to fill out the story.

Additionally, as the story was taking place in a real place, the redwoods, I wanted the animals and plants mentioned to be real. Initially, the facts were included in the text, and the aunt was imparting this knowledge to the little girl. It was my editor who suggested I remove those facts and include them as sidebars, which is what happened.

The story doesn’t need to be the entire experience but the experience serves as the initial spark. Use your real life experiences to tell a story that others can experience through your words—and learn something along the way. That is what I wanted to do with A WALK THROUGH THE REDWOODS. I wanted folks, kids, anyone, who’d never seen or been to the redwoods, to get that experience of what it would be like to walk through the redwoods.

In my preparation for this post, I began researching for informational picture books. There are a ton! I am now keeping a spreadsheet of the ones I liked. But I came across some basic themes: Place, Activity, Food, Culture, Personal Stories, Nature, Emotions. Some books touch on multiple themes. Below are a few books in each of the themes that I thought did a great job. Of course, there are many, many more!

  • For nature: check out any of Nell Cross Beckerman’s books and Kate Messner’s Over and Under series.
  • For a food/culture theme: Freedom Soup by Tami Charles/Jacqueline Alcantara, Watercress by Andrea Wang/Jason Chin, and Masala Chai, Fast and Slow by Rajani LaRocca/Neha Rawat.
  • Books that take you to different places: My Two Border Towns by David Bowles/Erika Meza, Homeland My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck/Reem Madooh, and Sari-Sari Summers by Lynnor Bontigao.
  • For books about an activity: Challah Day by Charlotte Offsay/Jason Kirschner, Woven of the World by Katy Howes/Dinara Mirtalipova.
  • For books about emotions: A Blue Kind of Day by Rachel Tomlinson/Tori-Jay Mordey and Whatever Comes Tomorrow by Rebecca Gardyn Levington/Mariona Cabassa.

So my challenge to you for today is to mine your experiences and see which ones might make for a compelling picture book! Some experiences to think of: Food, Cultural Events, Nature Activities, Places, Emotions. Really the topics/themes are endless!

Bridgitte Rodguez is giving away  a copy of her book A WALK THROUGH THE REDWOODS and a virtual classroom visit to one lucky winner.

You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered Storystorm 2024 participant and you have commented only once on today’s blog post.

Prizes will be distributed at the conclusion of Storystorm.

Bridgitte Rodguez currently lives in New York City by way of Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Santa Cruz, San Diego and Puerto Rico. When she’s not rearranging her apartment for the thousandth time, she writes books for kids of all ages mostly stemming from her personal experiences focusing on nature, family and culture. You can find her at BridgitteRodguez.com and occasionally on social media at @KidsBookWriting.