Fiction Notes

Category: Picture Books

  • Nonfiction Picture Books: 7 Choices

    I’ve written before about writing a children’s picture book in this 30 Days to a Stronger Picture Book Series and the basics remain true. However, nonfiction picture books are currently getting a fresh look, mostly because of the education reforms known as Common Core. It requires elementary students to read 50% nonfiction, 50% fiction. That […]

  • Picture Books: Trust the Writing Process

    A friend and I are working on an idea for a picture book based on a true life event. The challenges in doing this are multiple. First, it has to has to interest the audience of small children and adults, because picture books really have two audiences, the kids and the adults who read to […]

  • The Oldest Mother in the World Wins Book Award

    Wisdom, the Midway Albatross, the subject of my 2012 picture book has returned to Midway Island and laid a new egg. She was banded by Chandler Robbins on December 10, 1956 while sitting on an egg and presumed to be a minimum of five years old. That makes her at least 62 years old–and she’s […]

  • Are Epub Picture Books Still 32 Pages?

    DOES EPUB CHANGE THE 32-PAGE ILLUSTRATED PICTURE BOOK? The gold standard for printed, illustrated children’s picture books is 32 pages. It has to do with the way paper folds: eight sheets will fold nicely into what is called a signature. More than that, the ends of the pages don’t align well. Four signatures is 32 […]

  • Picture Book Idea Month 2011

    After flirting with the idea of doing NaNoWriMo, I decided instead to do PiBoIdMo, or Picture Book Idea Month, the 30 days of November in which I am supposed to come up with 30 picture book ideas. It makes sense. I am attending the SCBWI Eastern NY Falling Leaves Master Class retreat where five picture […]

  • Picture Book Revision Takes 25 Years

    Writing is rewriting Guest post by Anastasia Suen For years I have been saying that writing is rewriting, and now I have a book that shows it quite clearly, my new picture book, Road Work Ahead (Viking 2011). This picture book is short, like most of my books. It’s only 120 words, but those words […]