Picture Book Settings

For several years, this series on writing a picture book has been available free on this site. It’s now available altogether as a 110 page pdf file, How to Write a Children’s Picture Book.

Book cover via AmazonThe setting of a picture book is important because it determines much of the illustrations.

Picturebook Settings

When writing for kids, you walk a fine line between what is familiar v. exotic. Kids like the familiarity of neighborhoods, homes and schools. Yet, they also need to have their world expanded and literature is a great way to do that. Try to stretch the setting, yet keep something familiar.

• The Wild Thing, by Maurice Sendak, starts at home, sends the character out for a fantastic visit, then bring him back to the comfort of home again.
• Think of the classic picture book, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, by Audrey Wood, which uses the familiar ritual of a nightly bath, but turns it into something exotic.
• Or, turn something exotic into something familiar, as in Thy Friend, Obadiah, by Brinton Turkle, which treats a Quaker family and a historical family as just a normal family.

Suggested Reading for Familiar v. Exotic

• Familiar:
  • School
    Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
  • Home (Any suggestions for this one?)
  • Outdoors
    My Friend Rabbit, by Eric Rohmann
• Exotic:
  • Traveling across country:
    The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison
  • Other countries
    The Diary of A Wombat by Jackie French
  • Fantasy settings
    The Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
• Combination of Familiar and Exotic:
  • 19 Girls and Me by Darcy Pattison (school and imaginative play that takes the kids to exotic spots)
  • Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French (Australia)

NOTE: An exotic setting can’t save a “weak” story; but it might give it an extra edge of uniqueness that helps it work better.
Could Diary of a Wombat have been about a squirrel?

Any other suggested titles?

Related posts:

1. Stronger Settings
2. Did you Write a Picture Book or Something Else?
3. Options for Picture Book Characters
4. 30 Days to a Stronger Picture Book
5. How to Mock-up a Picture Book

Revise with confidence.