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Have you ever considered writing a picture book biography?
I’ll be honest. I never did.
My perception of bio writing was that it was snooze-worthy, the stuff read by droning teachers in echoing classrooms. Don’t ask me where I got that impression, although it might have to do with Doc Shapiro’s U.S. History class circa 1986.
Then, at the recommendation of Kelly Fineman, I read Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History!
Wowza. Have you seen this book? The splashy, colorful illustrations grabbed me, but it’s the story that kept me turning the pages. And it’s not about some über-famous woman, either. I had never even heard of Annette Kellerman until I read this book.
Kellerman invented water ballet, introduced the idea of the female athlete to the masses, and became the first woman to attempt swimming across the English Channel. She designed the modern swimsuit, freeing women from their heavy woolen garb.
Shana Corey’s mermaid tale proves that picture book biographies can be imaginative and fun, and they don’t have to be about a president to make a splash. (Yeah, I used that pun twice. Sorry. It’s day 15. Stick with me here.)
Catherine Brighton’s Keep Your Eye on the Kid focuses on the early years of Buster Keaton.
Did you know Harry Houdini gave Buster his name after watching baby Keaton tumble down the stairs? (“Gee, that was some buster the kid took!”) His parents had a touring act and would throw him across the stage every night. These unusual details, told in Buster’s voice, toss you into the story. The sentences are crisp and tight, and Brighton doesn’t dwell on the demanding reality of Buster’s touring lifestyle. She keeps it fun and lighthearted, with illustrations that mimic an old comic book. And the cover? You’ll fall head over heels for it. [Insert corny laugh track.]
Coretta Scott by is a lyrical biography by Ntozake Shange, illustrated with bold paintings by Kadir Nelson.
It doesn’t begin “I was born on April 27, 1927” and thank goodness for that. Instead the first page reads, “some southern mornings/the moon/sits like an orange/sliver by the treetops.” There’s a simple, glorious painting of the glowing sliver above a silhouette of trees, the sky wide open. Yet the next page introduces the reality of segregation. Coretta and her siblings “walked all/of five miles to/the nearest colored school/in the darkness/with the dew dampening/their feet.” The rest of the story sings, as Coretta meets Martin Luther King, Jr., marries, and helps lead the Civil Rights Movement.
These three books represent the best of picture book biographies, telling a story with style rather than bogging it down in facts. This is not your history teacher’s non-fiction. No siree.
Today for PiBoIdMo, do research. Read picture book biographies. Which ones sing to you?
Is there a figure in history who fascinates you? What has been written about that person? Are there picture book biographies or texts for older children? How can you tell that person’s story in 32 pages, in a way that’s suitable for young children? Which details would you keep? Which would you toss? Would you tell the story in verse or prose?
So, how’s it going today?
Picture Book Confessional
by Jacqui Robbins
Here is a confession: I have problems. And I want you to have them too.
I know it’s PiBoIdMo. But I don’t get ideas, really. I get problems, and characters that have them.
It starts with a voice whispering. Usually it’s one line.
“Kayla and Melanie are two of a kind.”
There’s a rhythm in the line and it gets stuck in my head. I try to ignore the voice, but it chases me around. It talks at me while I drive, when I run, when I’m on my fiftieth game of Sorry with my son. I hear the voice, and I start to fall in love with the character behind it. “Who is this poor girl who wants so badly to be the third in the two of a kind?”
Well, once I’m in love with my character, I can’t just leave her there, stuck in her problem. I have to write her out of it.
“What can she do?” I ask myself. And the book is born.
You’ve been thinking of picture book ideas all month. If you’re anything like me, you’ve used up your “been saving this one a while” ideas. You’ve gone through your “Hmm, that might be good” ideas and are starting in on your “well, it’s something, I guess” ideas. By next week, you’ll be on your “please, lord, don’t let anyone read this even if I’m dead I’ll be so embarrassed” ideas.
So today, try this. Start with a character.
Who is he? Where does he spend most of his time? What does he think about? What does his voice sound like in your head?
Now, what does he love more than anything else in the world?
Well, he can’t have it.
Why?
Ooh, now he has a problem. Poor guy. You can’t just leave him there. There’s only one thing to do.
Write him out of it.
Jacqui Robbins has filed resumes, sold books, written grants, worked the grill at a snack bar, and taught students from ages 6 months to 65 years.
Jacqui’s first book, The New Girl…And Me was published in June, 2006 (illustrated by Matt Phelan, Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books). Jacqui’s next book, Two of a Kind, came out in July, 2009 (also illustrated by Matt Phelan, Atheneum).
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Alva Edison
“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.” – Ben Kenobi
Happy Friday the Thirteenth and happy Picture Book Idea Month! My name is Ryan Hipp, I am an author-illustrator of picture books and today’s guest writer for Tara’s blog.
Black cats crossing your path, 13’s abounding, broken mirrors shattering, and walking under ladders are dangerous portents. To an author, these omens cannot compare to the terror of writer’s block! Today I will present the two most important words in picture book publishing: Ideas and luck…and I’ll share why I feel both of those words are meaningless superstitions.
Really.
Let’s start with IDEAS.
When people enjoy a book, they often say, “what a great idea.” As someone who makes books for kids, I often get asked, “where do you get your ideas?”
I answer, “Finding ideas is not the challenge for me. The challenge is knowing what idea is the one to build on.” (Tara’s note: see the PiBoIdMo grand prize announcement.)
I don’t know why I have come to this conclusion, but I never understood why so many people focus on the “idea” as being so critical to a successful book. I have exactly 47 great ideas and even more acceptably average ones; more than enough ideas to feed my family for the next 60 years. Unfortunately, before you can spend ideas, you have to invest them––and the exchange rate in the publishing world is blood, sweat, and tears.
Sometimes people want to share with me that they also, “have a great idea for a book.”
Similarly, I am not impressed with people with ideas. Never. Ideas are cheap. They come too easily to all of us. The truth is, there is not a shortage on ideas. Everyone has ideas. Everyone. I am more impressed with something more rare and valuable than an idea: perseverance, practice, dedication, commitment, hard work, and patience. The best idea in the world is a moot point until you start climbing that mountain and joining the other hard workers on the summit.
I don’t want to discount the importance of ideas. Every good book starts with a good idea; but they are just building blocks, not a castle. So my advice is to keep dreaming, and keep generating ideas; but don’t forget the more important step: bring those ideas to life.
Now let’s move on to LUCK.
“Luck is simply how something is explained after it has happened. It isn’t real,” says editor Tim Travaglini.
Your car breaking down is not bad luck. Finding a silver dollar on the ground is not good luck. These events are simply the eventuality of your radiator overheating and someone else having a hole in their pocket. It is that simple. Things happen.
I sometimes hear authors and illustrators humbly say, “I was in the right place at the right time,” when answering questions about their “good luck” in the world of publishing. Needless to say, talent and work may have played a more significant part. To get a picture book deal, good luck is not real. Bad luck is not real. Perseverance, practice, dedication, commitment, hard work, and patience are real.
So on this day filled with luck in this month filled with ideas, I ask of you: keep building, keep working, and have an unlucky Friday the Thirteenth!
Ryan Hipp is a published author-illustrator of picture books who lives in Grand Rapids, MI. His style is whimsical and obtainable for all ages. Another big part of Ryan’s career is giving presentations: Ryan has developed seminars for teachers, parents, and students––to get kids excited about creativity and to help adults facilitate creativity in kids, too.
(Ryan created the PiBoIdMo logos, so let’s hear a Hipp-Hipp Hooray!)
This week author/illustrator Carin Berger visited our public library with her box of tricks: thousands of pieces of cut paper in wavy, curvy shapes. Children grabbed the pieces—cut from catalogs, magazines, newspapers and ephemera—and arranged them on black construction paper to create animals, rain forests, people, trains, robots…just like Ms. Berger does in her books. She’s a collage artist—quite possibly the world’s most delightful vocation.
Did Ms. Berger always know she wanted to be an author/illustrator? Not necessarily, although she was always interested in telling a story through images.
Carin shared with us a book she created when she was 10 years old, called The Naughty Jester. Already she was using cut paper to help tell her tale, and her talent is apparent, even at this young age.
Carin didn’t start writing children’s books until she had a child of her own. When her infant daughter didn’t sleep well, she stayed up in the wee hours writing silly poetry, illustrating her words with collage. Turns out the notion wasn’t so silly and the sleepy little project became her first book, Not So True Stories and Unreasonable Rhymes.
Ms. Berger told us secrets. If you look at the items the naughty jester is juggling, you’ll find those same images repeated in her books. The blue bird is one of the main characters in her Spring 2010 title Forever Friends. And her daughter’s name Thea appears in every book. You have to look hard to find it.
So today’s idea tip is to walk over to that pile of junk mail on your kitchen counter (come on, you know it’s there) and start cutting. Take an interesting pattern, perhaps from a clothing catalog, and cut a fancy little shape. Not just a circle or square, but perhaps a swirl like a wisp of a cloud on a windy day. When you’ve collected enough shapes, put them down on a piece of paper and shuffle them around. Overlap them or spread them out.
What did you make? Is it a character? A place? A strange object that needs a function? What does it do and why? What could appear in the negative space?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy with scissors and glue.
So how’s it going today?
Before I start receiving umpteen emails pointing out the misspelled title of this post, let me make it clear: that’s not a typo.
A few days ago, Ruth Spiro encouraged you to take a walk, read the newspaper or bake cookies instead of waiting for your big idea.
But what if it’s too cold to go outside? What if the paperboy forgot to stop at your house? And what if you’re out of flour and sugar?
Well, then Flickr.
You can travel the world on your computer. You can see things you wouldn’t find on a stroll around the neighborhood. It’s not as depressing as the paper, and while you can’t eat the photos, I’m sure some delicious goodies will pop onto your screen…eventually.
Use the Flickr interestingness link (again, not a typo) and you can view a selection of recent photos culled from millions of images. Why, just a few clicks of the “reload” button and I came across these beauties:
Photo Credit: Miss ellan eous
Where is that little girl? Who made the lantern for her? Her body language appears to be apprehensive. What or who is she approaching?
Photo Credit: just_ginge2007
Where is this mysterious land of milk and honey with skies like pumpkin pie?
Photo Credit: Clara Don
Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars.
So, how’s it going today?
Remember when I promised PiBoIdMo’ers that if you ended the month with 30 ideas, there would be a special prize? But I just hadn’t figured it out yet?
Well, it’s been figured.
Everyone who takes the December 1st PiBoIdMo pledge (“I do solemly swear that I have 30 ideas stashed in a Word doc, doodled in a notebook, or scrawled on the back of grocery receipts”) will be placed in a random drawing for a grand prize:
A literary agent will review your best five ideas and suggest the picture book concepts worth pursuing.
(What did you think? That I would let your ideas sit around the house in their jammies all day? Well, maybe YOU can but your ideas shouldn’t. This prize will dress them up and get them out into the world. In other words, it will help you decide which ideas should become manuscripts.)
The agent will tell you if an idea has been done before or if it’s unique and well-suited to today’s market. Then the writing is up to you. This isn’t a critique, but simply an agent’s best professional opinion regarding which ideas are worth your time. And time is gold in this industry.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, there’s THREE grand prizes!
One winner will be assigned to Jill Corcoran of Herman Agency Inc.,one will be shipped off to Lauren E. MacLeod of Strothman Agency, and the third gets Elana Roth of Caren Johnson Literary Agency. Thanks to the agents for their time (remember, time=gold) and expertise!
So, as you’re formulating your ideas this month, make an effort to flesh them out. The agents will want at least a sentence about each concept. You can only send five ideas if you win a grand prize, so polish them like you would a trophy! A grand prize trophy!
To recap:
December 1st: Take the PiBoIdMo “30 ideas in 30 days” pledge
December 4th: Grand prize winners chosen at random from pool of pledgers, receive agent assignment
December 7th: Grand prize winners must contact agent by today
December 14th: Grand prize winners receive feedback by today (this date subject to change)
Reach for a Memory
by Nan Marino
When it comes to writing, there are good and bad days. On a good day, you’ve got tons of ideas. Words flow. The sun shines. Everything is easy. But there are times when idea spigot gets a little clogged. Don’t worry. It happens to everyone.
On days when I’m looking for the mental equivalent of bottle of liquid Drano, I reach back to my childhood memories. First I think of a particular moment and try to recall the feelings surrounding it. Then I write. When I’m done, I move things around, alter it a little (or a lot), and turn it into fiction.
My debut middle grade novel, Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, is filled with altered memories. When I was about ten, a boy who lived on my street challenged the entire block to a game of kickball. All of us against one kid! In real life after about five minutes, we got bored watching him chase after the ball, and we moved onto something else. In my book, that game stretches out for an entire week.
Childhood memories make great writing prompts. Below are more memories I incorporated into my book. Feel free to write about any of them to get your creative juices flowing:
The Ice Cream Truck: When 4th or 5th graders send me drawings of scenes from my book, someone always draws the ice cream truck scene. Everyone connects with Mr. Softee. It’s an iconic symbol of summer. Remember waiting for the ice cream truck to come around? Did you have a favorite flavor ice cream?
Kickball, baseball, handball: Did you play? Were you one of those kids who took it seriously or did you sit on the sidelines?
Barbeques: I like barbeques because they happen over and over again. We eat the same kind of food and gather together with the same group of family or friends. It creates that feeling of endless summer days. What happened at your barbeques? Did you have an uncle who made great cherry pies? Was there a neighbor who sang a special song?
Dandelions: Nothing separates adults and children more than their feelings about dandelions. It’s the first flower you probably picked, and the first one you gave to someone you loved. I dare you to find one person under the age of ten who thinks it makes perfectly good sense to spend your precious weekend hours trying to eradicate them from your front lawn.
Songs and Dances: Madonna or Nirvana? Springsteen or Sinatra? A single song can take you back to that day when you were seven… Need more inspiration? Download it and dance!
Historical events: What happened when you were young? Do you remember the first time a man walked on the moon, the bicentennial, the assassination of John Lennon, the Berlin Wall coming down, the first Gulf War, the Y2K scare? From a child’s eyes, these events are seen differently.
Your secret place: Was it up in a tree? Behind the couch? Or up on the garage roof?
Remembering ordinary moments from your childhood is a great way to begin writing. Next time you need some inspiration for your fiction, reach for a memory.
Nan Marino spent her childhood climbing trees and hanging out on garage roofs in the town of Massapequa Park, New York. Since then, she’s ventured a hundred miles south to the Jersey shore where she works as a librarian and lives with her husband and their dog. Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, published by Roaring Brook Press (May 2009), is her first novel.
Waiting for the Big Idea? Don’t!
by Ruth Spiro
What do a macramé owl, Celia Chompers, and a town called Fate have in common? Nothing, really, except that they’re all written in my little green notebook.
I’ve always been amused by that iconic light bulb that appears above a cartoon character’s head to symbolize a bright idea; too bad it doesn’t actually happen in real life. (Although, it may be a good thing––imagine the effect on global warming…) When I first started writing, I often sat at my desk, waiting for that moment to occur––the Big Idea. When I tired of waiting, I did something else: Walked the dog, read the newspaper, baked some cookies. I soon noticed it was at those times that “ideas” began to appear.
I’d write these “ideas” on scraps of paper and throw them into my purse. Later, I might find them while digging for the dry cleaning ticket; sometimes, the scraps ended up being used for bubble gum disposal. I needed a notebook.
Every writer should have a notebook. Not one of those fancy, leather-bound ones. You know, the kind that’s so nice, you hate to mess it up by writing in it? No, I recommend the little spiral ones that usually sell for 39¢. And, they’re easy to find in your purse, because the end of the spiral wire is always sticking out, just waiting to jab you. Perfect.
You may be wondering why I’ve put the word “idea” in quotes. (See? Like that.) It’s because the things I write in my notebook are actually “details.” (There, I did it again.) They’re observations, snippets of conversation, or even cool names I notice in the obituaries, like Celia Chompers. (By the way, if any of her relatives are reading this, I’m sorry for your loss.) They don’t have to be full-blown ideas, just the potential for an idea. Takes some of the pressure off, doesn’t it?
Don’t wait around for your Big Idea. Take a walk, buy a notebook and start collecting details. Put them together, take them apart, pick one and just start writing. Oh, and feel free to use the macramé owl. It’s been hanging around for a very long time.
Got any details you’d like to recycle?
Let’s have a Detail Swap.
Leave a detail as a comment below.
Leave a penny, take a penny. You know how that goes.
Ruth Spiro is the author of the award-winning picture book, Lester Fizz, Bubble-Gum Artist. (Reviewed on this blog.) It’s the story of a boy who feels he doesn’t fit in with his family of artists, until he discovers his own unique talent in an unexpected medium––bubble gum! Her articles and essays have appeared in The Writer, FamilyFun, Child, and Chicago Parent, and her stories have also been published in popular anthologies, notably The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2, edited by Marlo Thomas, and several Chicken Soup for the Soul titles.
A frequent speaker at schools and conferences, Ruth may be contacted through her web site at www.ruthspiro.com.
What Tara Doesn’t Know…
by Karma Wilson
Shhh…don’t tell Tara, but she’s become one of my biggest inspirations. More specifically, her alphabetical list of 365+ Things Kids Like has become one of my biggest inspirations. In fact, I never would have guessed that a blog entry could become so central to my writing process.
Whenever I sit down to write children’s poetry I have two websites up at all times. One is a rhyming dictionary and the other is Tara’s list.
I scroll down the list and I try to come up with one poem for each item.
For me, when writing poetry, it is often the basic idea that eludes me. Sometimes all I need is a word or a thought and WALA, presto-chango, alakazam—a poem finally makes its way into my befuddled brain matter! I used to ask my kids, “What should I write a poem about?” But now, instead of harassing my “couldn’t care less” tweens and teens I just click open Tara’s list.
Here’s an example of a poem inspired by the first entry…acrobat.
AcroBat
He flies through the air
With greatest of ease
He flies and he doesn’t
need a trapeze!
He dips and darts
through the darkest of night
he doesn’t needs nets
and he doesn’t need lights.
He hangs upside down
for hours, no less.
Who is this gymnast?
Who? Can you guess?
He sees with his sonar
imagine that!
The amazing, stupendous,
Acro Bat!
So, if you’re just desperately thirsty for an idea I’ve found Tara’s list a wellspring of inspiration.
Karma Wilson is the author of more than 20 popular picture books, including Bear Snores On, Baby Cakes, A Frog in the Bog and a new volume of poetry called What’s the Weather Inside?
Karma is generously giving away one of her books as part of PiBoIdMo! (Your choice: Don’t Be Afraid, Little Pip or Mama Always Comes Home.) Please leave a comment to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be randomly picked at the conclusion of our month-long idea extravaganza. Good luck!
So how’s it going today?
This post comes as I’m frantically preparing for 25 guests later this afternoon. I’ve already cooked my grandmother’s homemade tomato sauce (which she called “gravy”), two enormous trays of baked ziti (with fresh ricotta from the Italian grocer), five pounds of chicken marsala, and a cannellini-spinach dip with crostinis. Oh yeah, there’s a cake, too.
I love to cook. I love to eat. I have fond childhood memories of three generations of Italian women in the kitchen. They were graceful to watch, their movements from counter to oven, oven to table. And the table! Covered in stuffed artichokes, fried cauliflower, string bean salad, veal cutlets, meatballs and cannoli.
I get a warm, tingly feeling whenever I think of Sundays at Grandma’s house.
I bet you have those same memories, too, albeit with different foods. Biscuits with milk gravy? Dolmades and baklava? Perogies? Irish soda bread? Empanadas? Pork dumplings?
Yes, start revving up those taste buds. Renee Ting of Shen’s Books would like to share just a few food-inspired picture books with you, those that celebrate dishes from around the world:
(OK, I must read Squeamish About Sushi!)
Books with food as a theme aren’t necessarily about cooking. The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven features a little girl who makes a dried-apple doll as a way to calm her anxiety over starting school. In Little Pea, Amy Krouse Rosenthal introduces a main character who hates eating candy for dinner and can’t wait until his vegetable dessert.
Grab a fork and a knife and dig in! There’s much to celebrate when food is involved!
So how’s it going today?
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 