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Kids Lit

Of Adjectives and Illustrators

Kids Lit

“So how do you feel about art notes?”

This came up to a panel of editors recently, and it was clear they wanted to put a positive spin on the answer.

As soon as a story starts burbling, I begin to “see” in my brain the characters and how they interact with the environment and each other. Sadly my art is so bad if I drew a cow (even with udders) I’d have to label it. So my first draft is filled with lots of communication to the illustrator (yet unknown) on how to make this book be exactly what I have in mind!

Over the books I have learned how to give (sometimes nervously!) the illustrator free reign – and the results are amazing! The illustrators chosen have not only been right for the story but augmented it with character emotions and quirks I could not imagine.

Now I edit with these “art notes” in mind.

1 Adjectives

Ah, those descriptive words that come so easily to writers! “The blond girl in the green sweater met the big dog.” Is it important that the sweater is green? Or that the dog is big? Or that the story will only work with a blond protagonist? For every descriptive word in the story, ask if each one will limit the artist or if the description advances the story or defines the character. If a word doesn’t matter (except in how you pictured it) remove and reduce the word count.

2 Art notes

Those little italic comments are off to the side, just in case the artist cannot imagine the action. (In that case, pump up the verbs so it is clear!) So tempting but the editors want to have their images and the artists will too. The only time they are needed is if the page is wordless or what you want in art is the opposite of what you are saying. Did Jesus have to be in a white robe with blue sash like every other picture? Resist! Resist!

3 Roughs

The first art we glimpse are the rough drawings. This is like the first or second draft of the writing. It is tempting to go through every page with helpful “suggestions” to show the squirrel eating a nut or having an areal shot of the house. Remember the artist not only has your words in mind but the page flow of the art, the total composition of the book, and the layout of the page with words. Unless there is a factual error (squirrel with two tails), let it go. However, if a certain drawing is a key to understanding the story and you want a change, mention it now before the art is finalized.

4 Surprises

They happen! Here’s a short story about a “Cat who Changed its Fur.”

I published Eyewitness Animals, Christmas Story, (Standard Publishing, 1997, now out of print). It’s the Nativity story through the eyes of 7 different animals who might have been there. The usual ones were Clomper Donkey and Wooly Lamb. My last character was Silky Kitty, the innkeeper’s cat. She led the little family to the barn behind the inn. In my mind, she was a slinky Siamese, able to get into small places and laze in the sun. 

At this time authors did not approve (or even see) art during production, but I figured how many ways were there to draw a donkey or a lamb? Or a cat? 

The book arrived and I loved the cover and the layout and the art! But when I turned to Silky Kitty’s story, I found she had morphed into…

There she is in front of the manger: Fluffy Kitty! 

Every year since it came out, I have read Eyewitness Animals, Christmas Story, to church preschoolers. Every year the favorite character is – you guessed it – Fluffy Kitty!

Award Winning author Robin Currie learned story sharing by sitting on the floor, in library story times. She has sold 1.7 M copies of her 40 storybooks and writes stories to read and read again! How to Dress a Dinosaur had no art notes and look how cute it turned out! How to Dress a Dinosaur – Familius.com Shop

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Kids Lit

What is “High Concept”?

Kids Lit

After the fifth editor said, “I am especially looking for high concept picture books. I can’t explain that, but I know it when I see it!” I’ve been researching this elusive children’s book category. A high concept book idea is so immediately engaging and plot-driven, that a pitch is a single obvious and action-packed sentence. 

1 Premise-driven

The story is about the action, with less emphasis on character, dialog, or lyric writing. The story is easily summarized in one, intriguing sentence: what if ocean trash were art?

2 Suited for a wide audience

The high concept book is as much fun for parents to read as for kids. It is highly visual to engage all ages and has strong commercial appeal by being immediately relevant or a twist on easily understood situations. 

3 Unique

As in “Wow I never thought of that before! If your premise has been done before, take a new twist and then push it further. Imagine your book ad on a poster. What if the SUPERHEROES were at the Christmas manger?

4 Immediately intriguing

There must be an obvious source of conflict that grabs the attention from the title and delivers what it promises.

The book will undoubtedly include all the expected characteristics of a children’s book: story arc, problem-solving and relatable characters, three attempts and a climax in the plot, excellent word choice, rhythmic pattern, or flawless rhyme.

The best way to find examples of high concept is to read the tag lines from hit movies. (High Concept Movies – IMDb) Groundhog Day, Jurassic Park, Tootsie, Inside Out, Sister Act, The Incredibles. Each one has a poster where one picture and a phrase tell you exactly what you are getting.

The best way to dream up a high concept is to find a relation between two unrelatable things: Vacation on Jupiter. Dining out with various Australian animals. Then push it two or three steps wilder! A really boring vacation on Jupiter. Taking my Wallaby to the Waldorf Astoria.

And the best person to ask for a high concept story idea: any 7-year-old!

Author note: And without ever calling it high concept, my most recent book is How to Dress a Dinosaur  (How to Dress a Dinosaur – Familius.com Shop) and checks many of the boxes! The editor could not describe it, but she knew it was right!

Award Winning author Robin Currie learned story sharing by sitting on the floor, in library story times. She has sold 1.7 M copies of her 40 storybooks and writes stories to read and read again!

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Kids Lit

Who’s Listening to Your Story?

Kids Lit

We’ve all read picture books that just seemed not quite right – the subject matter was too obscure for a board book; the illustrations were too detailed to use in a group. Avoid these mismatches by taking a moment when you write (or revise) to picture the person or group who will most enjoy it. That decision will govern your word choice and count, tone and approach – even if you are writing a book about dogs!

1 Family one-on-one

The subject matter is not as important as the experience of snuggling together and sharing. Board books, pop-ups, and interactive sound books are popular. A dog story might review the actions of a puppy all day and the snuggle next to mom for the night.

Spot Says Goodnight by Eric Hill 

 2 Discussion topics for a family setting

The subject matter is specific to the child and situation. Topics may be divorce or bullies, sharing, emotions, school behavior. There will often be suggested questions for discussion or opportunities to follow up. A dog story might be fear of dogs and how to approach one safely. 

The Not-So-Scary Dog by  Alanna Propst 

 3 Small group school sharing

The subject matter will be specific to the group’s interest: dinosaurs, community issues, learning about other cultures. A dog story might compare the work dogs do in different parts world or use dogs to teach math concepts. 

Dozens of Dachshunds: a Counting, Woofing, Wagging Book by Stephanie Calmenson

4 Group read aloud

The subject matter is not as important, but the best (and repeated) read-aloud books have several common traits: simple pictures, limited text, humor, surprises, rhythmic language.

The dog story might be about a teeny dog who attempts tasks humorously too big for him but finally discovers what only a small dog can do. 

Dachshund Through the Snow by Michelle Medlock Adams

So, before you write the dog story (or folk tale or biography), take a minute to imagine the listener. That extra step may move your story to First Place. Woof!

Robin Currie learned story sharing by sitting on the floor, in children’s sermons, and in library storytimes. Robin has sold 1.7 M copies of her 30 Bible storybooks and writes stories to read and read again! How to Dress a Dinosaur is available now! How to Dress a Dinosaur – Familius.com Shop

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Kids Lit

More Ways to Add Humor to Your Picture Books-Part 2

Kids Lit

Kids love humor, and publishers know it. Face it—parents love humor too. That’s why knowing how to add a few ha-ha moments to your story holds so much value to children’s book writers. But where do you start?

Last month, I explored four ways to add humor to your picture books. Those methods included word play, or puns, selecting words that have a funny sound, like snorkel, exaggeration, and crazy foils. This time around, let’s dive into even more funny business.

Artwork by Lori Scott

The Unexpected

Ever watch a blooper video? Those reels often show actors in an intense, dramatic scene, and then something unexpected happens on the set, and guffaws and giggles break loose. That’s because in any given situation, people hold expectations about how we are supposed to behave and react. Any break from that norm, and it strikes the funny bone. As writers, we can use this to our advantage.

A good example of this type of humor is found in the book Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. When kids pick up the book, they expect something scary. The entire book builds up a sense of foreboding and fear until the final page. That’s when the reader is finally let in on the gag, and that unexpected twist is outrageously hilarious.

You can practice creating an unexpected ending by rewriting the finale of already established stories—ones familiar enough to the reader that they already anticipate the conclusion. Brainstorm a list of ways to turn the ending upside down. For example, maybe Goldilocks doesn’t run out of the cottage at the end of The Three Little Bears. Instead, we discover she’s a party animal who’s been hired to throw a surprise birthday rumpus for baby bear. Once you have mastered changing up traditional tales, you can create your own.

Artwork by Lori Scott

What a Character!

Readers latch on to funny characters. These have amusing quirks, behaviors, or appearances that make them funny. When accompanied by the perfect illustration, it’s hard not to laugh when you pick up the book. Some examples include the pigeon from Mo Williams Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, the duck from Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, or the dinosaur from Ryan T. Higgins’ book We Don’t Eat Our Classmates.

To develop this skill, make a list of your favorite funny story characters. Pick one and study him in depth. Pinpoint what you find so humorous about him. Dream up a foil or companion for the character. Then write out a conversation between the two characters being as silly as you can. Allow your character to dominate the give and take until he emerges as his own standalone entity.

For example, let’s say I picked Helen Lester’s main character from Tacky the Penguin. Tacky, is an odd penguin. He’s loud, he dresses in a sloppy Hawaiian shirt, and he’s slapstick clumsy. I’d introduce him to an overly friendly skunk who is completely oblivious to its odor. The little critter might even want to be a penguin too. Then I’d write a scene where the two meet, being as outrageous as possible, and let my skunk take over. If he was over-the-top silly with a strong enough personality to pull it off, I might just have the star for my next story. If not, I’d think, well, that stinks, and try again.

Artwork by Lori Scott

Ha-ha, Ho-ho, Hee-hee-here We Go!

With these past few months of ideas, you now have a handful of tools to help you add more humor to your stories. How do you start? With a grin. Then a chuckle. Then a good belly laugh. Oh, and a pen and a piece of paper might help too.

Elementary school teacher Lori Z. Scott usually writes fiction. Her down time is filled with two quirky habits: chronic doodling and inventing lame jokes. Neither one impresses her principal (or friends/parents/dogs/casual strangers), but they do help inspire her writing.

Somehow, her odd musings led her to accidentally write a ten-title bestselling chapter book series and on purpose write over 175 short stories, articles, essays, poems, and devotions. Lori also contributed to over a dozen books.

Lori enjoys speaking, leading workshops, and visiting local elementary schools to share her writing journey. Follow her on Instagram @Lori.Z.Scott.

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Kids Lit

Four Ways to Add Humor to Your Picture Books

Kids Lit

Students in my second-grade classroom love reading funny books. There is a bit of science behind the attraction. Laughter increases how much air you breath in, which stimulates organs and releases endorphins that can ease tension, relieve pain, and reduce stress. Laughter also activates the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that boosts feelings of reward, motivation, and pleasure. So it’s no wonder children are draw to stories with humor. Laughter makes them feel good. That’s why often, whether it’s for a magazine or a picture book, humor sells.

If you’re not feeling funny, take heart. Humor writing can be developed by exercising your funny bone.

Word Play

A lot of humor starts with word play, a tactic often referred to as a pun. The one-liners might not get a laugh out loud reaction, but many readers appreciate their cleverness. With her popular Amelia Bedelia books, Peggy Parish wrote a whole series centered around puns.

To create these zingers, make a list of words related to your topic. Then consider the different uses for each word. Build your joke around the alternate meaning. Keep the ideas flowing and generate as many as you can, even if it’s a stretch. You can weed out the weak ones later. For example, when I had story about shoes, I considered types of shoes people might wear and generated these ideas: Plumber wear clogs. A spy wears sneakers. And doctors wear heels. I bet you could brainstorm more!

Word Choice

Face it, some words are just funnier than others. Words like snorkel, tickle, ka-pow, and chicken make me laugh every time. Sometimes you can make up funny words too. Fizzlepop. Snarkolala. Blarg. The silliness of the delivery can make it even funnier. The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak is a great example of this strategy.  This hilarious book relies totally on silly words to make the reader laugh.

To develop this skill, keep the search bar open on your internet. (You have limited choices using the synonym feature in a Word document.) When you write a story, look for synonyms for some of your plain Jane words. Read the list out loud. Listen for the words that make you smile and either make the switch or create your own similar-sounding word. For example, substitute chortle, giggled, or guffawed for the word laughed. Or, lollyhahachucklesnort, which I just made up.

Exaggeration

The nice thing about picture books is that the pictures tell part of the story. An artist can add humor with an over-the-top illustration. Some might consider this slapstick humor since it involves a kind of physical action instead of words. A good example of this type of humor can be seen in the exaggerated character expressions in Mo Williams Elephant and Piggie illustrations. Elephant doesn’t cry. He weeps. He isn’t angry. He explodes. I believe it’s the pictures, not the text, that makes those books fly off the shelves.

But what if you’re not an artist? Outrageous comparisons can create hilarious images in the reader’s head. I’ve used word pictures like ‘an octopus in roller skates’ and a ‘crazed Doberman in bubble wrap’ to add a touch of humor.

To develop this skill, find any comparisons you write in your story. Then visualize something that captures the same emotion you’re trying to convey in the most unusual way possible by thinking–what’s crazier than that? Take it to the extreme. As before, generate as many ideas as you can and keep the best.

Crazy Foils

Warner Brother’s classic cartoon Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote builds all its humor on Coyote’s plans going awry. No matter how clever his trap, it always fails in a hilarious way. Several popular picture books use this backfire approach. Growing up, one of my favorites was Jon Stone’s Monster at the End of this Book. In it, a character named Grover doesn’t want the reader to keep turning pages. I laughed as I blew past brick walls and other obstacles Grover used to try and stop me. We see a similar give-and-take with the audience in Mo Williams Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. No matter how much the Pigeon argues, the reader turns him down.

Writing this kind of humor is situational. Similar to slapstick humor, the author must consider not just ordinary arguments or obstacles, but outrageous ones. And the foil can’t be simple either—it has to have exaggerated responses. For Wile E., he not only falls off a cliff, an anvil lands on him. For Grover, not only does the brick wall collapse, he gets covered with concrete and mess. For Pigeon, he becomes increasingly irate.

To develop this skill, look for situations that can be turned around. For example, the child does not want to sleep. Create a list of obstacles to going to bed. Generate as many wild hurdles ideas as you can, then weed out the weaker ones. Put them in increasingly dramatic order so that the stakes get upped with every page turn. The story practically writes itself!

There are many other methods of adding humor to your story. Next month, I’ll explore a few more. In the meantime, why not try out a few if the ideas I mentioned? Remember, even if you’ve never written humor before, it can be learned. You might fall on your face a few times. But laugh it off and keep trying.

Lori Z. Scott, teacher and author, writes fiction because she’s like an atom. She makes everything up. She also has two quirky habits: chronic doodling and lame joke telling. Neither one impresses her boss, but they still somehow inspired Lori to accidentally create a ten-title bestselling children’s book series and on purpose write over 175 other publications. She continues penning stories as an excuse to not fold her laundry. Find her silly drawings, poems, and whatnot on Instagram @Lori.Z.Scott and look for her debut YA novel Inside the Ten-Foot Line coming October 2022.

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Kids Lit

2022: Your Best Year Ever Starts TODAY!

Kids Lit

What do you want to accomplish in your writing by Dec 31, 2022? From the perspective of January, everything is possible!

1. Vision

Hold a 1-hour team staff meeting with yourself and brainstorm all that could be in 2022. Remember in brainstorming there are no wrong answers, nothing too far fetched. Use sticky notes or file folders or a spread sheet. Dream BIGGER!

Vision: I want a manuscript sold to a publisher by Dec 31, 2022.

2. Plan

Sort stickies into categories: writing, platform, network

Plan: to publish book I need to:

Writing: read in category, generate ideas, 1st draft, critiques, edit

Platform: social media, personal contacts, conferences

Sale: research publishers, complete proposal, query, agent, pitch

Maybe stop for coffee.

Plan: to increase my platform I need to:

Social media: Facebook author, IG author, Pinterest pages, website

Personal contacts: teachers, parents, librarians, author, twitter and LinkedIn, blogs

Conferences: in person, virtual, opportunities to pitch or submit

Er, make that a latte with an extra shot.

Plan: to make the most of conferences I need to:

In person: dates, cost, travel, other opportunities in area

Virtual: dates, cost, critique and pitch opportunities

Other opportunities: Blogs or groups the regularly interview agents or editors who open to followers

Ready for a double expresso mocha?

3. First step

The first step is the hardest and the most exciting! Let’s go!

First Step: Today I will look at 7 recent books in my writing category
First step: Today I will add 1 item to my FB author page promoting the book of another author

Macchiato!

Robin Currie
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Kids Lit

How I Spent the Mesozoic Era

Kids Lit

Does it seem to take FOREVER to get a brilliant (they all are!) book published for kids? Even as a published author and an agent, months and yeas pass between burble of idea and book in hand.

The Idea

Somewhere between the Construction Equipment Phase and the Superhero Phase, the Dinosaurs roam. Kids are fascinated by the huge lumbering beasts. One theory is that small children, feeling powerless, imagine themselves as awe inspiring predators with gigantic teeth! Roar!

Boy and T-rex

The original inspiration for this story was in fall of 2014, when my youngest grandson was 3 years old and had many things on his mind to do with dinosaurs but few with getting dressed. James was in the dinosaur phase where he can’t pronounce “broccoli” but can say “Pachycephalosaurus” and correct my mispronunciation. He also owned dinosaur themed shirts, hats, socks, jackets, and underwear. And hundreds of plastic painful-to-step-on in-the-dark dinosaur figures.

So how about a book that empowers the child to feel the capabilities of the dinosaur channeled toward the mundane task of getting ready for the day?

The Writing/Editing

It was a brain burble that became first a badly rhyming text – what rhymes with Diplodocus? (Hopped aboard a bus? Was oozing green pus? Super-flu-i-us?). By 2016, I shared “Dressing a Dinosaur” 12-page board book with my critique group. They found things to improve in the 199-word manuscript – and that is why I appreciate them!

boy with stuffed dinosaur

A year of tweaking, renaming to How to Dress a Dinosaur and trimming to 181 words. They reviewed it in again in 2017 and thought Dinosaur was ready to roar.

In February 2019 I sent this manuscript to a critique service, and it received a “GO”!

The Publishing

On to my agent, which required a full proposal with marketing ideas, sales of earlier work, and comp titles – far more than 181 words. Luckily in the meantime no one else thought of this and wrote it!

how to dress a dinosaur cover

The Book

By March of 2022 I expect to celebrate 10 chewable pages of How to Dress a Dinosaur! (In a later article I’ll discuss the stages of preparing the world for this jungle shaking this even!)

Soooooo…

If you are counting, that is a total of 8 years for a board book! Take away: know your reader, edit, edit, edit, wait wait wait, but believe that the best ideas out there will find a home! Even if it seems to take longer than the Pleistocene era!

Robin Currie

Award winning author Robin Currie led children’s departments of Midwestern public libraries before being called midlife to ordained ministry. She has a special love for children’s literacy and Bible storytelling. She serves in Chicago area parishes and annually volunteers teaching English in developing countries. She and her husband actively grandparent 5 wonderful kids.

Robin has published seven library resource collections of creative ideas for library story times, and more than 20 Bible story books for children.

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Kids Lit

Huff, puff…blow the house down! Engaging Children in Books

Kids Lit

“Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!” said the Big Bad Wolf.

Children engage with picture books by hearing the words we read aloud (auditory or hearing) and seeing the pictures we show them (visual or sight). Another sensory opportunity often overlooked is touch/action, often called kinesthetic. That’s why generations of children know exactly how to blow down pig’s houses!

How can we add that kinesthetic dimensions to Christian picture books?

Level 1: Read the story. (all ages)

The majority of books require no engagement other than looking at the pictures and no interaction with the reader other than sitting still to listen.

Level 2: Touch-and Feel (birth-5 years)

Very simple board books may feature items attached to the page or holes cut to reveal textures. Feel the woolly coat. The adult guides the very young child’s hand to experience sensations perhaps for the first time.

Level 3: Lift the Flap (6 months to 3 years)

The next level of interacting involves lifting a separate piece of the book to reveal part of the story itself. What’s behind the bush? The child and adult physically engage in lifting a flap and determine how the figure under the flap relates to the story line.

Level 4: Engage in the text (6 months to 6 years).

The child is invited to make a noise or motion in response to the story. Touch fingertips together for a mountain. These very simple motions bring the child into the words of the story, increasing engagement between reader and listener.

Level 5: American Sign Language (3-8 years)

A much more significant level of interaction is in using American Sign Language to replace certain words in the text, child actually tells the story with the reader. LOVE The sign for love is to cross your arms over your chest. The child is assists in actually telling the story and often the signs afterwards are enough to remind the listener of the event or concept.

Level 6: Retelling (5-12 years)

Beyond the book methods require children old enough to remember without needing to see the pictures. Let’s have three volunteers to be Elijah, the wind and the broom tree. Directions in the book guide reader and listener to act out all or part of the story or tell it in their own words to others.

Level 7: Creative Expression (6-12 years)

Creative expression expands the story experience in drawing, building, or work with craft materials. Draw a mural of creation. These activities can be done by any number of children in a home or Sunday school setting.

Which one to use in the story you are writing? In general, the younger the child, the simpler the language and more immediate the response has to be. But any story for any age can be more memorable with invitations to kinesthetic response.

Start moving!

This post is an excerpt from Robin’s chapter in Writing & Selling Children’s Books in the Christian Market: From Board Books to YA  by Michelle Medlock Adams and Cyle Young, Iron Stream Media, 2020.

PICTURE 5

Award winning author Robin Currie led children’s departments of Midwestern public libraries before being called midlife to ordained ministry. She has a special love for children’s literacy and Bible storytelling. She serves in Chicago area parishes and annually volunteers teaching English in developing countries. She and her husband actively grandparent 5 wonderful kids!

Robin has published seven library resource collections of creative ideas for library story times, and more than 20 Bible story books for children.

She is excited to reveal the cover of her next book, How to Dress a Dinosaur, coming in March 2022!

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Kids Lit

Don’t Commit a Rhyme Crime

Kids Lit

You might have heard that “Rhyme is a crime,” and that editors don’t like rhyming board books and picture books. That’s not exactly true. Editors just don’t like BAD rhyme. They like rhyming board books and picture books that are written well. It’s just that they have seen so much bad rhyme over the years, their hearts might be a bit hardened toward rhyme.

But if you can write good rhyme—then go for it! Most of my children’s books are written in rhyme, and I continue to sell rhyming manuscripts. But, let’s write good rhyme! Don’t be a rhyme criminal!

Let’s take a look at the top rhyme felonies I see when judging contest manuscripts.

 Felony #1: Letting rhyme dictate the story.

If your story has been kidnapped all to make a rhyme work, then you’re a rhyme criminal. In other words, if your story is about a lizard who becomes a wizard simply because the rhyme worked, then it’s probably not a very strong story and if you wrote the same storyline out in narrative, you’d soon realize that the rhyme is really the only thread holding it together, and that’s not enough.

Clever rhymes are fun to read once or twice but if the storyline is weak and the characters aren’t very strong, your story won’t be able to keep the attention of children through endless readings. It won’t have that re-readability factor that’s so needed in picture books.

Felony #2: Using odd sentence structures to make a rhyme work. #justsayno

For example, in the song you might’ve sung in Vacation Bible School, “Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man” (Remember that one?), the lyrics go:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man

A wee little man was he. (Why would we ever restate that he was a wee little man, and why would we say it in this odd sentence structure? Because we need it to rhyme with “see”.)

He climbed up in a sycamore tree

For the Lord he wanted to see. (Again, we would normally write, He wanted to see the Lord. But we changed the sentence structure so we could make an easier rhyme…)

If you find yourself changing around parts of speech for the sake of rhyme, your name might as well be “Felony Melanie” because you’ve committed a rhyme crime. Just say no to doing that—promise?!

Felony #3: Being a lazy rhymer and settling for near rhymes.

For example, nursery rhymes and song lyrics get away with this lazy rhyme crime a lot, but it’s not going fly with most of today’s picture book editors.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane

Though “dame” and “lane” have the same long vowel sound, they aren’t perfect rhymes. They are near rhymes. A perfect rhyme would have been to rhyme “lane” with “Jane”—see how that works?

Don’t ever settle for the easiest rhyme. Don’t name a character “Forange” simply to rhyme it with the color Orange.

Felony #4: Writing a poem and calling it a picture book.

Just because it is a nice rhyming or rhythmic poem doesn’t mean it’s a picture book. It might just be a nice poem for you to sell to a poetry anthology for children or possibly a poem you can sell to a children’s magazine that features poetry.

For example, I wrote a poetry book for kids called, “My Funny Valentine” for Ideals Children’s Books, and it has over 30 rhymes in it, but they are simply fun poems—not stand-alone picture books.

“Secret Admirer”
I see her every single day.
I think she is the bomb.
I’m making her a valentine.
But please, don’t tell my mom.
I think I’ll write: “You really rock!
You’re very, very cool.”
But if I say that mushy stuff.
She might think I’m a fool.
So I won’t sign my name to it.
She’ll never know it’s me!
I’ll tell her that she rocks my world,
And makes my heart run free.
I’ll sign it, “From your biggest fan.”
I slide it in her locker.
But if she finds out it’s from me.
I’m gonna have to sock her.

A picture book will have re-readability; it will have a need for at least 12 scenes of artwork; it will have page-turning breaks; it will have a story arc; etc. Just because it rhymes, doesn’t make it a picture book.

Also, just a series of events or a rundown of a day, no matter how well they are written in rhyme, is also not a picture book. There’s no story arc there.

Felony #5: Writing in rhyme and being the only one who can make it rhyme.

This is maybe the worst felony of all. If you can only make your story rhyme while standing on one leg and holding your head just right, it’s probably not written in good rhyme and meter.

Always read your manuscripts out loud to see where you get tripped up, but most importantly, have others read your manuscript out loud and see if they have trouble with any part.

Study other rhyming books that are published and use them as mentor texts.

Take Crystal Bowman’s class on rhythm and rhyme through the Serious Writer Academy to learn more about the various kinds of rhyme.

Love this book, “R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet” by Judy Young (Illustrated by Victor Juhasz).

Felony #6: Writing in rhyme just for the sake of it.

Sometimes stories can be told WAY better via prose, not rhyme. You’re robbing yourself if you don’t try writing your story both ways. You might be surprised which version is stronger.

 Now that you know, go forth and write crime-free!

If you want to learn more about creating GOOD rhyme, check out Michelle’s rhyming class at Serious Writer Academy.

Michelle Medlock Adams is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of over 90 books with close to 4 million sold. Her many journalism and book awards include top honors from the Associated Press, AWSA’s Golden Scroll for Best Children’s Book, and the Selah Award for Best Children’s Book. Michelle currently serves as President of Platinum Literary Services, a premier full-service literary firm; Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Serious Writer, Inc.; and a much sought-after speaker at writers conferences and women’s retreats all over the United States.  

When not writing or teaching writing, Michelle enjoys bass fishing and cheering on the Indiana University Basketball team, the Chicago Cubbies, and the LA Kings.

Michelle is celebrating the recent release of her books, Cuddle-up Prayers; The Perfect Persimmon; I Love You Bigger Than the Sky and is anticipating the upcoming release of her book Writing & Selling Children’s Books in the Christian Market: From Board Books to YA (Iron Stream Media) with her coauthor and literary agent Cyle Young.