by Linda Ravin Lodding

Some days, the world feels like it’s shouting in ALL CAPS.

You open the news and there it is again: another story that makes your shoulders creep toward your ears like they’re trying to become earrings. Another big, complicated grown-up problem. Another reason to refresh your coffee.

And if you write for children, there’s an extra layer—because while adults read the news, kids absorb it.

  • Through snippets of conversation.
  • Through the temperature of a room.
  • Through the way we say, “It’s fine,” while our eyebrows disagree.

Children don’t need us to hand them the whole scary world, fully assembled, with all the sharp corners sticking out.

But they do deserve stories that help them name what they sense—stories that don’t slam the door on hard topics, but crack a window open just enough to let in air.

And maybe… a little laughter.

Because picture books—small as they are—are mighty.

  • They are portable courage.
  • They are a hand to hold.
  • They are a way of saying: Yes, the world can be a lot. But you are not alone inside it.

Over the years, I’ve found myself drawn to stories that matter—stories that let children practice compassion, curiosity, and courage.

Stories like WHEN WE HAD TO LEAVE HOME, about the refugee experience of leaving a place you love and trying to carry “home” inside you when everything has changed.

Or FLIPFLOPI: How a Boat Made from Plastic Is Helping to Save the World’s Oceans, which takes a huge issue (plastic waste, the ocean, the future!) and turns it into something tangible: a real-life boat made from flip-flops, a problem turned into possibility.

And now, with my upcoming picture book IT STARTED WITH A BOOK BAN (Albert Whitman, April 9, 2026), I’m stepping into another headline-sized topic—book banning—through a very kid-sized door.

So how do you take something huge…and make it holdable?

When I look back over my shoulder, I realize I return to the same technique again and again when I’m trying to transform a headline into a hopeful story idea. This is my headline-to-heart structure:

Step 1: The World Problem (a.k.a. the grown-up thundercloud)

Start with the big issue—the “headline.” Not the whole tangled mess of it. Just the core.

  • Books are being challenged.
  • Families have to move.
  • The ocean is filling with plastic.
  • A new kid arrives and no one knows what to do with different.

At this stage, it’s too big. Too abstract. Too… adults yelling on the internet.

So we shrink it.

Step 2: The Kid Goal (a.k.a. one small mission with a big heartbeat)

Now translate the world problem into one child’s clear mission.

  • Not a message. Not a lesson.
  • A mission.
  • Because stories don’t begin with themes.
  • They begin with a character who wants something.

And for picture books, I love giving kids one simple action word:

save / find / fix / keep / share

In IT STARTED WITH A BOOK BAN, the world problem might be “banned books,” but the story lives at kid-level: a child trying to protect stories the way kids protect treasures. The tone I aimed for wasn’t “lecture in disguise.” It was humor and absurdity as the flashlight—the kind that makes a difficult topic feel safe enough to explore.

  • Because kids understand unfair.
  • They understand someone took my thing
  • They understand why does that grown-up get to decide?

And they also understand the delightfully ridiculous “logic” of bans that spiral until the town is banning the color green, birdsong, and even the satisfying pop of bubble wrap.

In WHEN WE HAD TO LEAVE HOME, the headline is displacement—but the kid-goal becomes intimate and specific: hold on to one familiar thing… a sunflower. That’s how kids survive big change: one small anchor at a time.

And in FLIPFLOPI, the world problem is enormous (the ocean!), but the kid mission is wonderfully concrete: make something new from what was thrown away. It’s a story of action, ingenuity, and that thrilling moment when kids realize:

Wait… we can DO something?

(And the joy here is that it’s based on the real-life Flipflopi Project in Lamu, Kenya. In virtual school visits, children from around the world get to “visit” the boatyard and watch flip-flops transform into a boat—trash into treasure, problem into possibility.)

  • When you give a child character a clear mission, the story shifts from doom to motion.
  • And motion is hope.

Step 3: The Warm Twist Ending (a.k.a. hope with muddy shoes)

Finally, look for an ending that offers a warm turn—one that feels earned.

  • Not a tidy bow.
  • A real shift.

Maybe the twist is:

  • Community (someone joins in)
  • Laughter (a misunderstanding turns sweet)
  • Imagination (the kid re-frames the problem)
  • A small win (that matters because it’s theirs)

The child doesn’t fix the whole world.

But the child proves something essential:

I am not powerless inside it.

And that—quietly—is what we’re doing as children’s writers. We’re offering young readers practice in empathy. In courage. In the ability to look at a complicated world and still say:

  • I can be kind.
  • I can be curious.
  • I can do something small.

And that small thing counts.

Try It Today: Your StorySpark

Pick a headline theme:

  • books
  • moving
  • ocean plastic
  • new kid

Give your character ONE mission:

  • save
  • find
  • fix
  • share

Add one emotional obstacle (the real engine of story!):

  • fear
  • embarrassment
  • jealousy
  • loneliness
  • the desperate wish to be “normal”

Because the best picture books aren’t actually about the issue.

They’re about the heart inside the issue.

Linda Ravin Lodding is an award-winning children’s author who believes picture books can be a warm hug, a bright flashlight, and a good giggle—especially when the world feels a little too loud. She’s has eleven published picture books, including The Busy Life of Ernestine Buckmeister, A Gift for Mama, Painting Pepette, and Babies Are Not Bears. Originally from New York and now based in Stockholm, Sweden, Linda is also a writing coach who has helped over 100 picture book writers find their storytelling voice, and she founded the Stockholm Children’s Writers and Illustrators Network (a Facebook community open to all!). By day, she serves as Head of Communications at Global Child Forum, championing children’s rights worldwide. Her newest picture book, IT STARTED WITH A BOOK BAN (Albert Whitman & Co.), releases April 9, 2026. Follow her on Instagram @lindaravinlodding_author.