Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)

by Chana Stiefel

Hello, Storystormers! This post is about YOU and I. I know, grammarians, you want to say YOU and ME. But please bear with me. Today’s challenge is to play with Point of View (POV). As Mary Kole writes in her craft book WRITING IRRESISTIBLE KIDLIT, “POV is the lens through which a story is told….If you think of the story’s narrator as a camera, where is the camera?”

Our POV options are first, second, or third person: I, You, or He/She/They/It/.

(See? YOU and I!) Let’s start by brainstorming a story idea told in first person: Hand the camera over to a person, place, or thing and see things through their POV.

This can work for both fiction and nonfiction. My next picture book is an autobiography. But it’s not about me! It’s about my co-author Barrington Irving, who broke records as the youngest person and first Black man to fly solo around the world. I’ve worked on this story for about eight years. Initially, I subbed it in third person, but received a plane-load of rejections. Then I thought back to my children’s years in preschool and how their favorite thing was imaginary play. They loved to line up chairs and pretend they were flying an airplane. And I thought, why not tell Barrington’s story in first person, with the reader in the co-pilot seat? Thankfully, Barrington was on board! The first lines read:

“I’m a dream chaser. A solo flier. A world-record breaker.

I’m Barrington Irving.

People said I’d never make my dreams come true.

But I powered through! Want to know how?

Buckle up! Flight controls…check. Fuel…check. Electrical power on. Cockpit door locked. Start the engine. Ground control, ready for takeoff.

Let’s fly!”

See how a first-person narrator can draw in the reader? Stay tuned for LET’S FLY: BARRINGTON IRVING’S RECORD-BREAKING FLIGHT AROUND THE WORLD, illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice, coming from Dial/PRH on October 15, 2024. Enjoy this sneak peek!

Here are some other recent books told in first person:

A RIVER OF DUST: THE LIFE-GIVING LINK BETWEEN NORTH AFRICA AND THE AMAZON by Jilanne Hoffman, illustrated by Eugenia Mello (Chronicle Books, 2023). The first lines:

“I am dust, the dust of North Africa. I connect continents.”

This book takes readers on a journey of thousands of miles with dust from the Sahel and Sahara, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, bringing essential nutrients to the Amazon rainforest. It’s a story about global connectedness, the environment, and how tiny particles can have a major impact…all narrated by dust!

Jilanne says, “In my first draft of A RIVER OF DUST, third person omniscient felt distant, like a travelogue. To bring the reader in closer, I wrote the second draft from a child’s perspective, but it still felt too distant from ‘the real action’ of the story. When I finally tried to write from the perspective of dust (thank you, Miranda Paul for suggesting!), I wrote several openings: quirky dust, sassy dust, silly dust, etc. before finally landing on regal, yet vulnerable, a fitting voice for a phenomenon of global importance.”

I SHIP: A CONTAINER SHIP’S COLOSSAL JOURNEY by Kelly Rice Schmidt, illustrated by Jam Dong (Lerner 2023). The first line reads:

“Made of steel,

colossal,

strong,

I ship around the world.”

Another round-the-world adventure, kids will love this inside look at a container ship’s journey transporting toys, food, and medicine. Kelly says, “I chose first person POV (and present tense) to help better convey the emotions of this gigantic journey and to let readers feel like they were taking the journey with the crew and ship. It also allowed for succinct, sparse writing that works well for creating a poetic, rhythmic feel to the text—like being on a ship.” The second book in the series, I FUEL, (Fall 2024) is the story of where our energy (both old and new) comes from—narrated by oil himself!

A few more favorites: I AM HAVA: A SONG’S STORY OF LOVE, HOPE AND JOY by Freda Lewkowicz and Siona Benjamin. This is the story behind “Hava Nagila,” (“Let’s rejoice!”) the Hebrew song sung at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other Jewish celebrations. It’s told from the perspective of the song itself, depicted as a blue woman in a sari, reflecting the illustrator’s Indian-American Jewish heritage. (Now that I’ve searched “Hava Nagilla” on my computer, lots of renditions have been showing up on my feed. I love this one!)

In I AM SMOKE, by Henry Herz, illustrated by Mercè López, Smoke itself acts as narrator, telling us how it has served humankind since prehistoric times in signaling, beekeeping, curing and flavoring food, religious rites, fumigating insects, and myriad other ways. And a second book is coming soon: I AM GRAVITY! Now that’s heavy!

And remember, we can go plural too! Check out this stunning book: WE ARE STARLINGS: INSIDE THE MESMERIZING MAGIC OF MURMURMATION by Robert Furrow, Donna Jo Napoli, and Marc Martin.

As you journey through your day, consider taking on the first-person perspectives of the objects, people, or places in your path. Any story ideas come to mind?

HEY, YOU! SECOND PERSON

Now consider second person. Here the action is driven by a character known as YOU. It’s like handing the camera over to the reader and asking them to see themselves in the story (kind of like a selfie). YOU are here! My favorite mentor text for second person is THE IRIDESCENCE OF BIRDS: A BOOK ABOUT HENRI MATISSE, by Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper (Roaring Brook, 2014). The entire book is essentially two sentences, an incredible feat that begins:

“If you were a boy named Henri Matisse who lived in a dreary town in northern France where the skies were gray

And the days were cold

And you wanted color and light

And sun…”

With second-person, the reader is immediately immersed in the life and imagination of the artist Matisse. Simply sublime!

Several recent books that promote social-emotional growth use second-person to invite readers to connect with their feelings. One of my favorites is WHATEVER COMES TOMORROW by Rebecca Gardyn Levington, illustrated by Mariona Cabassa (Barefoot Books, 2023), which empowers children to manage anxiety. It begins:

“Tomorrow may bring changes that are scary, strange or new.

Tomorrow may bring chances to embrace your truest you.”

Now it’s YOUR turn! What ideas come to mind that address the reader in second-person?

COMING HOME: THIRD PERSON

Most picture books are written in third person, with the camera hovering above the scene. And that’s fine. But consider flexing your creative muscles in terms of perspective. One great example is SCHOOL’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL by Adam Rex, illustrated by Christian Robinson (Neal Porter, 2016). How does a new school perceive the students and all of the drama and learning that takes place inside its walls?

Another third-person creative flex: Try a dual narrative. Here’s what author Lydia Lukidis says about dual narrative in her upcoming book (April 4, 2024): “DANCING THROUGH SPACE: DR. MAE JEMISON SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS [illustrated by Sawyer Cloud] began as a simple narrative biography told in the 3rd person. Five years later, inspiration finally struck and I found my hook: the intersection of science and dance. I wrote several more drafts but was struggling to find a way to incorporate both Jemison’s love for science and dance. It felt like two separate stories. One day, inspiration struck and I realized it needed to be written as a dual narrative. The POV never changed, it’s still third person, but it was fun to chronicle two stories relating to one person. The dual narrative eventually merges together and illuminates how art and science are both essential parts of our world.”

So people, play with POV! I hope this sparks some fresh, new ideas for YOU (& ME)! Let me know how it goes in the comments.

Chana is offering a 30-minute AMA on Zoom and a signed copy of LET’S FLY! 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.

Chana Stiefel is the award-winning author of more than 30 books for children. Her picture book, THE TOWER OF LIFE: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs (Scholastic), has won many honors, including the 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Award, a Robert F. Sibert Honor, the Margaret Wise Brown Prize, and the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Chana’s other nonfiction titles include LET LIBERTY RISE: How America’s Schoolchildren Helped Save the Statue of Liberty (Scholastic) and the upcoming LET’S FLY (10-15-24, Dial/PRH) co-written with Barrington Irving, who broke the record as the youngest person and first Black man to fly solo around the world. Chana is a member of 12 x 12 and PBSpree 2024. Learn more at ChanaStiefel.com and follow @chanastiefel on Instagram.