13 The Society of Children’ s Books & Illustration Lovers – Newsletter # 1 – August 2013
known illustrators, hoping to introduce the author to the illustrator’ s established audience)
� Lovable, identifiable characters. Kids read picture books to see other kids( or kid-friendly characters) accomplish big things. The typical“ try 3 times and then succeed” type of picture book requires the protagonist to fix their own problem, because what we want to tell children is that though they may be small, they can be independent / fix their problems in their own ways.
� A strong / unique concept. A picture book needs to be layered enough that it makes sense as a fully illustrated book, instead of an easy reader or a short story. The layers come from the internal / emotional problem and the external / physical problem working together, so that when the character is actively working towards one goal, they are unwittingly working towards the other as well. The art also has to give us an additional layer to the story, not just show us renderings of the text.
� Rhyme that’ s well-written / necessary. If it’ s a rhyming text, the rhyme has to flow smoothly and each line has to further the plot. Sometimes authors are tempted to throw in a line just because it rhymes with“ dog” or whatever the previous line is( i. e.“ At school today there was a dog / he did not bring himself a log.”) Some concepts do make more sense in rhyme than in prose. For example, if you’ re writing a book about a jazz musician, then you can use rhyme to imitate the rhythm of music for your reader.
� Interactivity. Some books are more interactive when they’ re read to a child. Mo Willem’ s Pigeon series is very successful because the child reader is given a task—“ Don’ t let the pigeon drive the bus.” Then, the pigeon comes in and begs and pleads to be allowed to drive. The child then repeats“ Nooooo!” with each questioning from the pigeon, thus becoming a participant in the story.
� Re-readability. Because picture books have to be read to the child by the parent and children tend to want the same book read to them over and over again, they have to be something that a parent is going to want to read over 100 times. Part of rereadability is the visual interest in the illustrations, which is why an illustrator will put a small visual subplot( such as the ant slowing stealing food at the picnic) for readers to notice perhaps on the their second or third reading. The other part of re-readability comes from some of the elements above— either a refrain, or humor, or word play.
Take a look at your works-in-progress. Do your picture books have some of these factors?
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