Kidlit Writer in Progress & Resource Blogger

This is one of the best books out there for anyone interested in writing a picture book. It’s broken down into parts where you learn what story you want to tell, how to structure it, and what kind of language you want to use. There are plenty of internet resources listed in between, and I think the best part of the whole book is the explanation of what children are like. Their lives are so complicated in different ways an adult’s life can be complicated. Children deal with things like communication, separation anxiety, sharing, or losing a toy. When reading picture books, you can pick up what the issue is and how creatively it’s shared for a child to understand. Children want to hear about problems and solutions, and it’s very important to keep in mind everything is new to them and that they live in the present. One book listed is called “Knuffle Bunny” by Mo Willems. The dad in this book accidentally puts his daughter’s stuffed animal in the wash. The child, who doesn’t speak words yet, cannot communicate this properly to her dad and has a meltdown and babbles. Of course they found Knuffle Bunny, and those two words ended up being the child’s first words, which is the perfect ending and gives closure to that problem and makes the child feel more at ease. There are other books listed to help explain various topics such as onomatopoeia, which is a popular thing to use in picture books. In other words, there are books that convey sounds that children love!