Books to Read BEFORE You Write

Mentor books are those an author studies before they do any writing.

For a retreat last week, I had to read/annotate 30 picture books. My current project is a nonfiction manuscript about the types of noses animals have in the Amazon Rain Forest, titled for now: Nosin’ Around the Amazon.

Before I approached the library, I drew up some parameters for the books I wanted to study.

Since I was mostly interested in Zoology, I searched there and did not look at books on American history, folk tales, or biographies. It was easy to spot the picture books that were not part of a series – by the shape of the book and the number of pages. Soon I had a stack.

I studied the books for structure, page layout, sidebars, back matter, language, word count, and physical format.

• We are starlings: inside the mesmerizing magic of a murmuration by Robert Furrow expert, Donna Jo Napoli writer. Random House 2023
  • Sweeping descriptive language (not a poem)

• Where in the Wild: Camouflaged Creatures by David M Schwartz. Tricycle Press 2007
  • Lift the flap to see changes

• Can an Aardvark Bark? by Melissa Stewart author. Beach Lane Books, 2017
  • Rhyming and visual/auditory humor

• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. Houston Mifflin 2004
  • Big and little in perspective to human

• Chomp! Truth About Sharks by Annette Whipple, Reycraft, 2024.
• Kid question/answers, sidebars

• The Dirt Book: poems about animals that live beneath our feet by David Harrison author. Holiday house 2022
  • Poems about one location where animals live

Then I moved to the picture book section.

Here, it was much harder to locate specific books since they were in alphabetical order by author’s last name. I did try searching for a few authors I knew, but in the end, I just browsed the bins for covers or titles that looked useful. Even this hit-and-miss search yielded results.

• Astronauts Zoom: an astronaut alphabet by Debra Rose UCLA faculty.
  • Persnickety Press of Wundermill Books 2021 ABC book, photographs of people in space, backmatter

• Over in the Wetlands: a hurricane-on-the-bayou story by Caroline Rose.
  • Schwartz-wade books of Random House 2017 loosely based on “Over in the Meadow,” Author notes on wetlands

• Parrotfish Has a Superpower by Jill Esbaum. Putnam, 2024. 
  • Character dialog with facts revealed humor

• On the train: a shine a light book by Carton Brown, Kane Miller 2023
  • See the picture by holding up to the light, back matter

• Machines go to work by William Low. Henry Holt 2009
  • Questions, lift flaps to show answer

Links to books pictured:

Chomp! Truth About Sharks by Annette Whipple

Parrotfish Has a Superpower by Jill Esbaum Illustrated by Bob Shea

Note: not one of these books is on the subject of Amazon Rain Forest, jungle animals, or even noses! I was looking for the best way to present my manuscript. That is the function of a mentor text. Hope you can find some great ones for your current project!

Robin Currie is a multi-award-winning author and member of SCBWI. As a professional public librarian, she learned story sharing sitting on the floor during more than 1000 story times. Robin has sold 1.7 M copies of 40 traditionally published picture books. She writes stories to read and read again!