Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)

PiBoIdMo Day 28: Tiffany Strelitz Haber Perseveres

November 28, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Ollie and Claire, The Monster Who Lost His Mean, Tiffany Strelitz Haber | 197 comments

Hey there, PiBoIdMo-ers. Hope you’re all well nourished and ready to roar through these final days! This post is about two things: perseverance and truth. The way I see it, there really aren’t many truths in life at all. There’s Death. There’s Taxes. There’s the fact I will wash every load of laundry at least twice because I will forget to put it in the drier and discover it days later…but I digress.

There’s also another:

“Stopping before you reach your goal guarantees you will not reach your goal.”

Now, that may sound like a bit of “duh” phrase. But is it, really? It’s one of many things I take from this incredibly inspirational cartoon about perseverance:

What do you take from it?

Oh, and here’s a little rhyming pep talk for ya, too:

You’re near the end it’s getting tough.
You’re all tapped out of clever stuff.

You may be thinking, this is it.
I’ve done enough. Who needs this s—?

So give it up. Admit defeat.
Or better yet, just lie. Or cheat!

Who needs blood or sweat or tears.
Respect from who? A bunch of peers?

And who needs real integrity.
Who needs a contract? Eh. Not me.

Empty pages float my boat.
27? All she wrote.

30 is for suckers, dude.
Embrace that downer attitude.

Writing’s hard, you’re filled with dread.
Let other people write instead.

Grab your towel. Throw it in,
and let the giving up begin!

BUT….

if you choose to persevere…
to fight and push, then listen here:

To you, I bow. I bow down low.
You’ll win the battle. Blow by blow.

Your quest to find the best of you
will dominate the rest of you.

Your goals and dreams are yours to lose.
And yours to harness….if you choose.

So choose the challenge. Choose to win!
Dig down deep for what’s within.

And one day gaze upon a shelf,
filled with books,
you wrote
yourself.

You never know!! That little idea on day 30 could be the next NYT Bestseller!!

GO PiBoIdMo-ers….GO!!

Tiffany Strelitz Haber has eaten fried bugs, jumped out of airplanes and lives for adventures. Tiffany grew up in NYC, but is now located in central NJ, and available for workshops everywhere.

Her debut picture book, THE MONSTER WHO LOST HIS MEAN (Holt/Macmillan) was recently featured in the NY Times Sunday Book Review and the art will be featured in the Society of Illustrators 2013 Original Art Show Traveling Exhibit.

Her next book, OLLIE AND CLAIRE (Philomel/Penguin) is due out April, 2013.

Please visit Tiffany at her website: ItsRhymeTime.com, on Facebook, or Tweet her @TiffRhymes.

Tiffany is giving away a signed copy of THE MONSTER WHO LOST HIS MEAN (which is very NICE)! Leave a comment to enter (one comment per person). A winner will be randomly selected in one week. Good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 27: Melissa Sweet Plays at Work

November 27, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: A River of Words, Balloons Over Broadway, Carmine A Little More Red, Melissa Sweet, Tupelo Rides the Rails | 225 comments

This month has been a brilliant crash course in Picture Book Ideas 101. Here it is day 27 and by now you have a myriad of ideas (or one) that you’re excited about. What’s next? How do you begin to flesh out these ideas and keep your enthusiasm up?

Taking classes and doing things like PiBoIdMo rearranges how I think about what I’m doing. A number of years ago, wanting to learn more about collage, I took a class. Adding collage to my art was fun, with the right amount of devil-may-care messiness. It felt like playing—pushing bits of torn paper, letting interesting juxtapositions happen. As the class was winding down, the students wondered how could we bring this same sense of ease back into our studio work. Being in the studio felt like I was supposed to accomplish something. Could something this easy count as “work”? Our teacher said to us, “If you’re in your studio, you’re working.” Whoa! Even when you’re sitting around drinking tea and looking at picture books? Yep. What a great concept! But was it true?

Soon after taking that class, my editor agreed on a picture book idea I had proposed to write and illustrate. My foray as an author was to rewrite Little Red Riding Hood, a story with a ready-made plot. I named my main character Carmine, after the purpley-red color.

The day came when (with a contract signed and dated), I had to begin. I sat at my desk and wrote: “Once upon a time a girl named Carmine…” Hmmm. What was Carmine going do? Who were the other characters? How would she get to Granny’s? I was stumped. A few more forgettable sentences followed. That was enough writing for one day.

Was I working? I was in my studio, so, yes. As I was doing it, it was impossible to know if each exercise would be useful, but it didn’t matter.

After playing, there was more to write about.

Months later, still moving at a glacial pace on Carmine, I made a list of 100 random words that I like: nincompoop, reckon and zillion and attempted to write the story using all 100 words–just as an exercise. It didn’t work at all, but I noticed I had the entire alphabet within that list. I plucked out those words and wrote the story as an alphabet book, (or an abecedarian–a subject told in alphabetical order).

Voila!, CARMINE: A LITTLE MORE RED came to life.

Later, when I was writing Balloons Over Broadway, I made toys and puppets to get to know Tony Sarg better.

More recently I gathered snippets of fabric to inspire the color palette of my next book making a Pinterest-esque wall, but in real time.

Pinned to that wall is this quote that gives me permission to do whatever I need to do when I begin to write or make art:

“I believe that the so-called ‘writing block’ is a product of some kind of disproportion between your standards and your performance … one should lower his standards until there is no felt threshold to go over in writing.

It’s easy to write. You just shouldn’t have standards that inhibit you from writing …I can imagine a person beginning to feel he’s not able to write up to that standard he imagines the world has set for him. But to me that’s surrealistic. The only standard I can rationally have is the standard I’m meeting right now … You should be more willing to forgive yourself. It doesn’t make any difference if you are good or bad today. The assessment of the product is something that happens after you’ve done it.”

—William Stafford, writer

What’s next for me is printing out the piboidmo posts and putting them in a notebook. I want to revisit them at my leisure far away from the black hole of my computer.

Then I’m headed to the studio where I’ll take my mom’s advice, as she told us a zillion times:

“Now, you kids go out and play!”

Melissa Sweet has illustrated many award-winning books. She wrote and illustrated CARMINE: A LITTLE MORE RED, a New York Times Best Illustrated, TUPELO RIDES THE RAILS and BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY which garnered the 2012 Sibert Medal. She illustrated A RIVER OF WORDS: The Story of William Carlos Williams, by Jen Bryant, a 2009 Caldecott Honor book. Jen and Melissa’s next book, A SPLASH OF RED: The Life and Art of Horace Pippen will be out January, 2013.

She collages up a storm in Rockport, Maine. See more at MelissaSweet.net.

Melissa is generously giving away a SWEET prize pack! You are eligible if you comment here *and* complete the 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge by taking the PiBo-Pledge in early December. You can win a signed copy of BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY, CARMINE: A LITTLE MORE RED, A Splash Of Red coloring pencils, plus whatever SWAG she can find. Remember, one comment per person. And good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 26: Ward Jenkins Rides the Bus

November 26, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Chicks Run Wild, NEW YORK BABY!, SAN FRANCISCO BABY!, Ward Jenkins | 167 comments

Being an artist and doodler at heart, I thought I’d share with you my sure-fire way of getting creative ideas flowing for me. It’s quite simple really: sketching. I carry two sketchbooks with me everywhere I go: a large one for anything work-related, and a smaller sketchbook for on-the-go sketching whenever the mood strikes me.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, not all of us are as artistically inclined to just pick up a pencil and start drawing!” No problem. The same thinking that I use for drawing while looking at people and places around me can be applied for you writers who might need a jumpstart for coming up with ideas for characters.

When I first moved to Portland, I would ride the bus back and forth to work daily. I loved noticing all the different assortment of people who’d ride along with me—some regulars, some not so regular. I began to bring along my 5 x 7 inch notebook to record some of these interesting characters and to at least capture the moments that might otherwise be lost if I didn’t somehow sketch them down.

At first, I was drawing my surroundings, mostly:

Then I’d muster up the courage to start drawing others around me while sitting, hoping that maybe no one would see (or care) that I was perhaps drawing them. I had to be stealthy.

As I found my groove, I’d capture the little things, the little moments that might’ve been overlooked: the pencil with a large eraser stuck in a young woman’s hair, the tilt of a hat on an older gentlemen’s head, the way a woman would read the morning paper.

Every once in a while, a really interesting person would show up on the bus and I’d start sketching feverishly, capturing the details the best I could, as well as jotting down notes:

The regulars were always an interesting bunch, as well. One day I decided to draw only them, since I’d see them every morning, along with some notes and details to help me remember the little things:

Out of these daily sketching sessions, I’d eventually gather a great deal of character ideas. Great for character development. For some, I’d make up backstories in my head while I was sketching them. This character building would even spill over into my work while coming up with characters for the picture books I’d illustrate, especially the City, Baby! books. It might’ve been a simple pose that someone on the bus did for a brief moment, and the ideas would snowball into a fully-fledged character with pathos and perhaps their own story arc.

If you don’t have a sketchbook, that’s fine. A notebook or anything with pages for you to write something down should work out perfectly. Or, if it’s more convenient, Post-It notes. Whenever creative lightning would strike, but a sketchbook is nowhere to be found, Post-It notes always did the trick for me! And you can always collect and stick them into your sketchbook when the time is right:

It’s all about observation. Being aware of your surroundings, of the people around you, and taking in all the details.

Here’s a spread from NEW YORK, BABY! with plenty of characters gathered on—yup, you guessed it, a city bus:

Like I said earlier, you don’t have to be an artist to do this sort of thing. You can simply write down what you see. And you don’t have to be on the bus, either. This exercise can be done while waiting for your flight, while eating in the food court at your favorite mall, or watching TV. Recording the little moments that happen all around you. By building up this assortment of details, of moments, you are adding on to your cache of characters. Whether it be actual sketches or scribbled down notes, being aware of the canvases around you can be constant jumping off points for any type of character, whether human or human-like. The ideas for character development are limitless.

Best of luck with creating your characters!

Ward Jenkins is an animator, illustrator, and lover of all things aesthetically pleasing. He is the designer behind PiBoIdMo 2012’s logo and badges, and his sketchbook shared here today is online at Flickr. Ward illustrated Michael Phelp’s HOW TO TRAIN LIKE A T-REX AND WIN 8 GOLD MEDALS, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen’s CHICKS RUN WILD as well as Chronicle’s NEW YORK, BABY! and SAN FRANCISCO, BABY! Catch him blogging at Ward-o-Matic and if you like his art, you can get some for your walls at his Ward-o-Matic shop (Tara’s favorite, which hangs in her home, is “Speaking in Color”).

Ward is generously giving away a signed copy of NEW YORK, BABY! and SAN FRANCISCO, BABY! to two winners who comment below. Remember, one comment per person, please. Winners will be selected in one week. Good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 25: Mike Jung Lacks Limitations

November 25, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: GEEKS GIRLS AND SECRET IDENTITIES, Mike Jung | 94 comments

You wanna know what’s great about PiBoIdMo? Besides the fact that Tara’s letting a non-picture book author like me make a guest post? What do you mean, you don’t think that’s so great??

The greatness of PiBoIdMo lies in its lack of limitations. This is the idea stage, where anything goes, babies! Do you want to write a book about a reclusive green alien named Melonhead who assuages his loneliness by routinely traveling to the planet Earth and kidnapping pigs from isolated farmhouses in rural America? BAM! Idea Number 1! Have you always had the urge to write a picture book about a pet rock that’s been stubbornly kept in a drawer by a mad scientist since the mid-seventies and gained sentience via an unexpected spill of that scientist’s insane-but-brilliantly-created vat of artificial intelligence serum? Yo, Idea Number 2! A picture book about talking laptop computers who have a wacky adventure when an IT staffer mistakenly leaves a bottle of super-fun shredder lubricant on the ergonomic chair next to the desk where they live? Crap, utter crap, but hey, Idea Number 3!

I’m kidding. Kind of. Not really. I don’t actually mean you should deliberately spend your energy coming up with a bunch of deliberately crappy and unusable ideas. But you could definitely choose to come up with ideas that display some eccentricity, fall outside your normal comfort zone, or feel impossible to actually turn into a book.

By the way, those are all real ideas that I’ve actually tried to turn into real stories. HANDS OFF.

See, I really did try to write this book.

I’ve tried to write picture books, you know, and I don’t know how you people do it—when I try, it feels like I’m performing a lobotomy on myself with a soup spoon and a pair of knitting needles. Picture books are hard. Picture book ideas are easier. That’s true for all kinds of books, isn’t it? I don’t say that to invalidate the worthiness of PiBoIdMo, however, because the fact that coming up with an idea is easier than turning an idea into an actual book doesn’t mean that coming up with an idea is just plain old EASY. These creative processes are infinitely malleable in nature, and unique to the character and proclivities of the individual pursuing them.

During my one feeble attempt at PiBoIdMo I found myself swearing roundly at the horribly mundane, hackneyed ideas coming out of my tortured braincase. At least I thought they were mundane and hackneyed—maybe they weren’t at all, but the fact that I felt that way was messing with my head, you know what I mean? My solution was to say “well then, I’m just gonna use AAAAAALL the crazy ideas. Gonna take the wraps off my inner weirdness and just go to Bizarro World for the rest of the month.”

In creative terms, I do believe there’s a big upside to just thinking about the most wacky ideas in your head, without evaluating them for plausibility, market-readiness, industry trends, or genuine viability as potential stories. I’m a believer in the power of unfettered brainstorming—by removing boundaries on what kind of things qualify as legitimate ideas, you’ll sink a tap into a bigger aquifer of source material than you might otherwise. Your free associations will have more building blocks to link together. You’ll stretch your brain. Maybe you’ll find some avenue of inspiration that you didn’t even know you possessed. And you might be able to take one of those off-the-wall ideas and recognize a sane, strong, usable core inside it.

Or maybe all those daring ideas will come to nothing, I don’t know. That would actually be okay, wouldn’t it? There’s a price to doing business in the marketplace of creativity, and it usually involves the dismissal of efforts that prove unviable or untimely. Then again, maybe one of those cray-cray, easy-to-scorn ideas will turn into something entirely new. Where would we be without the advocates of previously unembraced change, the children’s book creators who were willing to try things that no one else was trying? Where would we be without Scieszka and Smith’s THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES, or Ezra Jack Keats’s THE SNOWY DAY, or Dr. Seuss’s THE CAT IN THE HAT?

Go crazy, people. Test the boundaries of your conceptual world, write down those nutty, unrealistic ideas, and then see if they take you some place you might not have gone if you’d stayed within the borders of The Town of Reasonable Thinking. Me? I’m definitely writing that alien-and-pig picture book one of these days. Try and stop me.

Mike Jung is an author, library professional, public speaker, blogger, amateur musician, former art student, and geek, but his preferred title is “Internet Despot.” Mike blogs, Facebooks and Tweets. He lives in Oakland, CA with his wife and two children. GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic) is his first novel.

PiBoIdMo Day 24: Deb Lund Says “May the Fours Be With You”

November 24, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: ALL ABOARD THE DINOTRAIN, Deb Lund, DINOSAILORS, DINOSOARING, MONSTERS ON MACHINES | 186 comments

Where do you get your ideas?

As soon as I call on a kid at a school visit and they ask this question, dozens of other hands go down. You’ll hear countless children’s authors say it’s the question they’re asked the most. I get ideas everywhere (yes, that’s a copout statement), and so can you!

But first, you have to get past Miss Midge and her like. Those nasty voices that say miserable things to you. Here she is in my journal (and right now she’s saying “You’re not an artist, what are you doing!?!”)

GAG YOUR INNER CRITIC!

If you’ve been moaning about being behind in your PiBo count—stop perfectionizing! (Since my dinobooks, I’ve thrown out the dictionary. We are all powerful. We create worlds. We can create our own words.) Write down ALL the ideas you consider. You don’t know what will piggyback on them or what new variation will emerge. Let in the misfits and barefoot ideas that blankly stare at you.

But, back to the coach in me who wants you to stop being so durned critical… Name that beast inside you and move on. Sorry, but you gotta be tough about this one. Stand up for yourself. No self-bullying allowed!

Done exorcising that evil shadow? (Not totally? Okay, we’ll visit this again a little later.) Let’s move on to your hunting training.

BECOME AN IDEA HUNTER!

Ideas lurk. They hide. They disguise themselves. It’s your job to hunt them down. You develop x-ray vision, you study playground shenanigans and never say Bah Humbug about any holiday that involves kids, chaos, and giddiness. You train your family and friends. You observe like a four year old. You and your trainees share knowing looks. Picture book? Picture book!

MINE YOUR MEMORIES & UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION!

I always say writing is part imagination and part memory—it’s just the ratio that changes. Open your eyes with this in mind and you’ll never lack for ideas.

While other four-year-olds were playing in their sandboxes, I sat on my dad’s lap and operated the levers on his backhoe. I helped him “build.” Those experiences inspired MONSTERS ON MACHINES.

I sailed with The Shifty Sailors (the motley crew below) from Seattle to Olympia, and we took the train on the way home… DINOSAILORS and ALL ABOARD THE DINOTRAIN.

You see? Memory and imagination.

Along with memories come emotions. That takes a little deeper mining, but that’s what makes prose sing. What keeps readers engaged, holding their breaths, laughing out loud, shedding tears. Feel as you write. Wring yourself out onto the page. Write the words that pour from that space that aches, that cries for joy. Replace your judgment with curiosity and write as if your words can save the world. Because they can.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL WRITER!

Picture book creators must play! Go galumphing! (Says my good friend George Shannon—who is great at accessing his four year old). Twist those ideas, turn them upside down, pack them with surprises and yummy words until you’re clapping and Yay-ing! Be four!

So, little girl or boy inside that big grown-up writer, what do you want? What’s your big dream or wish? Write it. Write whatever “it” becomes. And big outside writer, let that four-year-old go where it’s going to go. Don’t wait for the tantrum. If Miss Midge hears the kicking and yelling, she’ll be all over me.

I promised you another try at quieting your inner critics. Ready?

Raise your write hand and repeat after me…

Note: Did you know some people are so controlled by their inner critic that they can’t even get their hands in the air? RAISE THEM! There. Was that really so tough?

Write badly! Write junk—and lots of it! You gotta dig through lots of rocks to unearth the gems. You clean the mess up later—not before it hits the page.

No excuses, no stopping, no perfectionizing…

Just do it! And may the Fours be with you!

Deb Lund is a picture book author, creativity coach, continuing education instructor, and writing teacher. In her past lives, she’s been a music and classroom teacher, an elementary librarian, and a school founding director. If Deb’s rambling sparked anything for you, check out more on her blog. She lives on Whidbey Island, but if you can’t make it there to hang out with her, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Deb is generously giving away one signed copy each of DINOSAILORS and ALL ABOARD THE DINOTRAIN! Just leave a comment to enter. Two winners will be selected in one week. Good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 23: Carol Gordon Ekster Believes The Stories Find Us

November 23, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Carol Gordon Ekster, RUTH THE SLEUTH, Where Am I Sleeping Tonight? | 184 comments

Last year I was a lurker on the PiBoIdMo site. The posts were inspirational. But I couldn’t (more accurately, I wouldn’t) do the listing of ideas. I taught elementary school for 35 years. My days lacked flexibility and overflowed with structure. Bells rang throughout the day telling me where to go and what to do. Perhaps too many years in a classroom have left me seriously resistant to following directives. And even though I‘ve been retired for a few years, my mind and body bolt to such demands: “Gather an idea a day”. Ha! I’ll wait until they come to me!

I like my ideas to come from a place of trust. I trust that when I finish a manuscript, another idea will present itself. I let my ideas float in on a dream when they are ready for me. My favorite stories have come to me that way. The pad and pen next to my bed sits nightly hoping to be written on.

Unfortunately, I have lost more than one story when I was away from home and a pad was not nearby. As many times as I repeated that idea before slumbering off again, it was completely forgotten by morning.

Typically, I am hesitant to join things, even something as motivational as PiBoIdMo. But then I read one of the posts on this site…and I decided to look more carefully with my author eyes that day. As I left my health club after yoga, I noticed the person at the front desk was wearing an unusual witch costume. Yes, it was Halloween. I looked at her and told her she just might be the inspiration for a new story. I got home and started my PiBoIdMo ‘12 ideas folder. I wrote down my thoughts for that story. And in the days that followed, because of all the pouring out of picture book love and posts on coming up with ideas, I started looking more actively rather than waiting for a story to hit me over the head. I believe wholeheartedly, whether we search with intention or passively, that the stories that are meant for us will find us.

Picture books touch me. I used them daily when I taught 4th grade to enhance every subject, or to make a point when a social situation arose that needed to be dealt with. Picture books are a quick and sweet way to avoid lectures or a boring review. Just read a book! It can touch upon a myriad of bases.

I think about the many gifted picture book authors and pause to contemplate their stories and what I might learn from their work. Can I move others to tears like Patricia Pollaco does in many of her stories? She writes about what she knows. My favorite story of hers is THANK YOU, MR. FALKER. That was her story as a child. And when I read the amazing picture book, IS YOUR BUFFALO READY FOR KINDERGARTEN? by Audrey Vernick, it spun out a new idea in my brain. Yes, I’m gathering ideas while I’m reading other author’s picture books. That’s a creative thinking skill… it was called piggy-backing when I taught it. It’s not that different from Diana Murray’s clever concept “mash-up” from Day 10, which brought forth more than one listing for my 30 stories in 30 days.

Once I determined to take on this PiBoIdMo commitment, I began observing the world more intensely. As my husband drove us to NY one weekend recently, I sat with my laptop as billboard signs and store names brought forth more to add to my PiBoIdMo file. I watched the kids play with their iPods in a waiting room when I sat patiently to get blood drawn for my yearly physical. I was almost sorry when they called me rather quickly. I was like a detective on a case…there might be more for me to see! I jotted down a story title sparked from an article in the AARP Magazine. Anyone under 50 doesn’t know what they are missing! I was more open to collecting from the universe of ideas. Thank you, PiBoIdMo, for your push to participate in this structured activity that can only help me grow as a writer. I hope to start the seed of a story that will touch little lives.

After all, that is why I’m writing.

Carol Gordon Ekster’s first published book, WHERE AM I SLEEPING TONIGHT? A STORY OF DIVORCE, Boulden Publishing, Fall 2008, was an About.com finalist for best book for single parent families. Another story, “The Library Is The Perfect Place”, was in Library Sparks magazine, February 2010. A picture book, RUTH THE SLEUTH AND THE MESSY ROOM, December 2011, was part of the debut list by the innovative publisher, Character Publishing. Now retired from teaching, Carol is grateful that her writing gives her a way to continue communicating with children. She also hopes to spread her love of picture books, as she did earlier this month at the Literacy For All Conference through Lesley University in her presentation, Using Picture Books to Enhance Curriculum for Grades 3-6. She lives in Andover, MA with her husband Mark. Learn more at CarolGordonEkster.com
and follow her on Twitter @CEkster.

Carol is generously giving away a picture book critique to a lucky PiBoIdMo’er who completes the 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge. Leave a comment on this post to enter…and if you also take the PiBo-Pledge in early December confirming you have 30 ideas, you’ll be entered to win. Good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 22: Mr. Schu is Thankful for Picture Books

November 22, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Boy and Bot, Colby Sharp, Good News Bad News, Hello Hello, John Schumacher, Mr. Schu, Mr. Schu Reads, Thanksgiving, The Three Ninja Pigs, Z is for Moose | 197 comments

I don’t write, illustrate, publish, or edit picture books. I don’t work in a bookshop or belong to a school library marketing team. So what do I do then? I read. I read. I READ.

I read thousands of picture books every year. I’m always searching for the next best picture book. When I find *that* picture book, I feel compelled to promote it during my annual road trip, purchase copies for strangers, blog and tweet about it, feature it on a #kidlit sticker, and encourage every child who enters my school library to add it to their to-read list.

Mr. Colby Sharp attended children’s literature expert Anita Silvey’s session during the NCTE Annual Convention. He tweeted:

Anita Silvey succinctly sums up how I feel about children’s books. (If you’re not familiar with Anita’s work, you MUST follow her Children’s Book-A-Day Almanac.) Most of you reading this blog post are hard at work creating one of the most remarkable things on the face of the earth. Your picture book could change the way a child looks at the world, turn a dormant reader into an avid reader, and even win the coveted Caldecott Medal.

I am thankful my second through fifth graders (150 students) have checked out over 5,000 picture books during Picture Book Month. Treasures that have not circulated in over two years are taking a much-deserved trip in a child’s backpack. I get goose bumps whenever I spot a fifth grader checking out a book he loved in first grade. He usually hugs it and says, “I love this book.” I always pretend the book smiles and whispers, “Hey, I love you, too.”

I wish I found a magic wand in my mailbox with the following note attached to it:

Dear Mr. Schu,
Thank you for supporting and believing in picture books. This colorful wand allows you to send five 2012 picture books to everyone hard at work writing and illustrating picture books. I know you will select books that will inspire individuals to “create the most remarkable thing on the face of the earth.”

Thanks for all you do for picture books.

Your friend,
Picture Book

BOY + BOT. Written by Ame Dyckman. Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Random House, 2012.

HELLO! HELLO! Written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell. Hyperion, 2012.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS! Written and illustrated by Jeff Mack. Chronicle Books, 2012.

Z IS FOR MOOSE. Written by Kelly Bingham. Illustrated Paul O. Zelinsky. HarperCollins, 2012.

THE THREE NINJA PIGS. Written by Corey Rosen Schwartz. Illustrated by Dan Santat. Putnam Books, 2012.

I cannot wait to share your picture book with my students.

Happy reading, writing, and Thanksgiving!

John Schumacher (aka Mr. Schu) is a teacher-librarian at Brook Forest Elementary School in Oak Brook, Illinois. John graduated from St. Xavier University with a Masters in Teaching and Leadership and from Dominican University with a Masters in Library and Information Science. He has taught English in Seoul, South Korea, and is in his ninth year at Brook Forest. John serves on AASL’s Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, the Monarch Readers’ Choice Selection Committee, and the 2014 Newbery Committee. He was a judge for School Library Journal‘s 2011 Trailee Awards and recently became a FableVision Ambassador. In his spare time (ummm…what’s that?) he reads, travels, and blogs at Watch. Connect. Read. John is a 2011 Library Journal Mover and Shaker.

Mr. Schu is giving away not ONE, but TWO books: HELLO! HELLO! and Z IS FOR MOOSE! Two winners will be selected in one week. Just leave a comment to enter (one entry per person). Good luck!

PiBoIdMo Day 21: Debbie Ridpath Ohi Challenges You

November 21, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Debbie Ridpath Ohi, I'm Bored | 281 comments

Your PiBoIdMo caption challenge: Any suggestions for what the children’s book writer on the right should say? Post your caption suggestion in the comments section—I’ll pick one. The winner gets a signed copy of I’M BORED with a hand-drawn doodle inside. If you already have a copy of the book (yay, thank you!), I will inscribe the book to anyone you’d like and send it to them. Even if you DON’T win, all commenters will be entered in a random drawing for a hand-drawn doodle.

Sadly, the comic was inspired by a real-life comment by someone who didn’t appreciate how difficult it is to write a good picture book. Has anyone else encountered this sort of attitude?

But to the topic at hand: PICTURE BOOK IDEAS. Kudos to Tara Lazar for PiBoIdMo. I’m currently writing and illustrating a picture book for Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers which came about because of last year’s PiBoIdMo and NaPiBoWriWee (Paula Yoo’s National Picture Book Writing Week). (Tara’s Note: Another PiBoIdMo success story! Sadly I have lost count of how many deals y’all have made!)

My process for coming up with picture book ideas:

Brainstorm. I keep a paper book idea notebook, a Scrivener idea notebook and I also jot down quick ideas in Simplenote via iPhone or iPad if I don’t have time to do anything else.
After I’ve collected a bunch of ideas (after PiBoIdMo, for example), I’ll go through the most lame ideas and cross them off.
I’ll examine the remaining list of ideas and realize that pretty much every single idea has already been used in some published picture book.
Massive insecurity sets in. I wonder if there’s any point to trying to write a picture book if all the good stories have already been taken. Or what if I write a story I think is original but then it turns out that it’s already been written?
More angsting. Self-deprecation. Chocolate.
Take a deep breath, stop obsessing about failings and focus again on pure brainstorming. I set aside some regular time when I sit and focus completely on coming up with words, phrases, paragraphs, scenes, titles, situations, characters. I try to focus on elements that appeal to ME, not the market.
Then I go through the list and start matching up elements, purposely trying for unusual combinations. Inevitably some of these combos will spark a longer picture book idea.
When I’ve come up with this second list of ideas, I fight the urge to get angsty when I find that some of the plot ideas are already out there. Instead, I try add my own unique twist instead, perhaps in voice, character, setting or ending.

Good luck with those ideas, and I look forward to seeing your caption suggestions! (Please keep suggestions family-friendly.)

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is the illustrator of I’M BORED, a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black and published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Her current and upcoming projects include two books for S&S (one of which she is also writing) and illustrating the new RUBY ROSE series by Rob Sanders (HarperCollins). Visit her at DebbieOhi.com and follow along on Twitter @inkyelbows.

PiBoIdMo Day 20: Diane Kredensor Just Does It

November 20, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Diane Kredensor, OLLIE AND MOON | 139 comments

How do I inspire creativity? Just like the Nike slogan, I “Just Do It”.

Write, draw, paint, read, dance like a fool…whatever it is that I want to do better, I do as often as I can.

Create experiences. Being out in the world inspires ideas. Travel is wonderful. I love to travel. But if traveling isn’t in your budget, just open your eyes to your own neighborhood. I love living in Brooklyn. I just walk out of my door and I’m hit with experiences. In one three-block walk to the subway I’ll see a nanny waiting on the corner with a little boy, his arms wrapped around her leg and his head resting on her thigh. The comfort between the two makes me think she’s cared for him since he was an infant. There are the dogs I recognize but always forget their names. There’s the Vietnam Vet with the prosthetic leg and a sign in his window commenting on the state of politics (it changes weekly). There’s the guy whose garden of ceramic animals grows by the day…and the “can man,” who collects a shopping cart full of bottles and cans—the sounds of him sorting them at night ring though my window. All of these things inspire creativity.

Once you’ve taken the time to experience, then create. And don’t be a critic. I’m my worst critic. So the only way I’m going to create is if I don’t stop and analyze it. If I do, then analyzing turns into criticizing and before I know it, pen is down and no more writing. I have to get my ideas out and not edit myself. First, I write it all down and walk away. Then I look at it later that day or later that week. If the idea still calls to me, then I start to edit. Sometimes that edit turns into a complete rewrite. And if I’m drawing, I draw with a Sharpie pen as often as possible so I can’t go back and erase. Often I’ll find those first lines with a Sharpie are so much better than the refined and cleaned up picture I end up with after reworking it a hundred times.

In a nutshell, to inspire creativity: pause, take it all in. Look, read, walk, socialize, experience life. Then don’t “try” to write, draw, create.

Just do it.

Write, draw, and create. As often as you can. Every day if possible. Do it for yourself. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t worry about what others will think or if it’ll sell. Just do it.

Diane Kredensor is thrilled to set her second OLLIE & MOON adventure in the city she calls home, where they make the best pizza pie in the whole world. FUHGEDDABOUDIT! Diane is an Emmy Award-winning artist for her work on such hit shows as Pinky and the Brain, Oswald, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and WordWorld, to name a few. She runs her own animation production studio and happily makes her home in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Keep an eye out next summer for her third book in the series, OLLIE & MOON: ALOHA!

Diane is represented by Jen Rofe of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Follow Ollie, Moon & Diane’s adventures on Twitter @OllieandMoon.

You can also follow their adventures when you win a signed OLLIE & MOON book! Just leave a comment to enter (one comment per person). A winner will be selected in one week. Good luck.

PiBoIdMo Day 19: Tracy Marchini Breaks Down The Wall

November 19, 2012 in PiBoIdMo 2012 | Tags: Pub Speak, Tracy Marchini | 97 comments

Man, you guys are more than half-way there! You’re at mile 19! And though it seems like there’s crazy amounts of marathon metaphors floating around PiBoIdMo, I’m going to add one more.

THE WALL.

That point where you’re tempted to say:

November 19th – girl finds dog and learns to dance
November 20th – girl finds chicken and learns to dance
November 21st – girl finds sunglasses and learns to dance
[Repeat until November 29th]
November 30th – girl finds dog, chicken, sunglasses, hot sauce, tape dispenser, colored pencil, 1990’s car phone, empty cardboard box, car tire, chicken nuggets and wrist watch and learns to dance!

BOOYAH. Done.

But I’m here to say—don’t cheat yourself.

True, nobody will know if you don’t come up with all thirty. And nobody will know if you’re truly inspired by all thirty thoughts/ideas or if you play fill-in-the-blank from now on.

But you’ll know. And aren’t you the most important part of this process right now?

StSo what if you’re looking at “girl finds 1990’s car phone and learns to dance” and thinking, “well, that’s better than what I got today…”

Then I say, it’s time to explore!

Inspiration doesn’t just come from within. Inspiration comes from the larger world. So when was the last time you:

Went to a museum
Saw a great (or terrible) play
Took a trapeze lesson
Learned a new dance
Tried a new food
Laughed until your cheeks hurt
Scared yourself silly
Made something with your hands (illustrators: build, knit or otherwise non-illustrate something)
Went to the batting cages
Watched a documentary
Attended a non-book related, public lecture at your local college
Shopped a thrift store
Did anything that required dressing up (either costume or fancy-pants)
Sat around a campfire
Ran through a corn maze
Rode a rollercoaster
Gave an unexpected gift

And now you’re thinking—this woman is ridiculous. How can I have time to take my kids to soccer practice, watch a documentary and come up with a brilliant new picture book idea?

And to that, I hope you all say:

Stay strong, PiBoIdMo-ers. You’re almost there.

Tracy Marchini is a freelance writer and editorial consultant. Before launching her own editorial service, she worked at a literary agency, as a book reviewer and as a newspaper correspondent.