Peter Economy - Writing Children's Books For Dummies

Board books get their name because they’re made of cardboard or chipboard, which makes their pages stiffer and heavier than regular paper — and able to withstand use by small hands that don’t have the fine motor development to turn regular paper pages without tearing them. Board books are perfect for kids from newborn to 3 years old.

Most board books are 10 to 14 pages long, with very little, if any, text. We’re talking a few sentences at most, and sometimes only one word to a page. These books vary in size, from 2 x 3 inches to 14 x 16 inches.

Many board books are also novelty books (which you can read about in the section “ Other books that have pictures,” later in this chapter). Novelty books come with something other than just flat paper and images. Board books can have sliding and moveable parts. They come with puppets built in or touch-and-feel fabrics and papers, or they have ribbons all around the edges. Anything that can catch an adult’s eye can probably also catch a baby’s eye. And that’s what board books do: get young children to love reading even before they can read (and really can’t do much more than teeth on the books).

Terrific topics for board books include early learning concepts, such as shapes and colors, and daily experiences, such as mealtime and naptime. But you don’t need a lot of words to get your concepts across. Board books employ simple rhyming and repeated text and a lot of bright, colorful, engaging pictures to attract baby’s attention.

To write a good board book, you need to have relatable content. To figure out whether you do, you need to research the titles already out there. Take a good look at the board books that continue to sell, and sell, and sell, such as the ones we mention in the section “ Baby-friendly board books,” earlier in this chapter. The best board books have a few elements in common:

Simple concepts or story lines appropriate for babies and toddlers.

Minimal text per page (often only a word or two).

Illustratable text (meaning you don’t include any overly complex concepts). The illustrations or photographs should be clear and evocative; if the words disappeared, the images could tell the story by themselves.

Illustrators are also the writers of many board books. Often, editors at the publishing house write the actual text, based on the art the illustrator produces. The text usually takes a backseat to the pictures, which do most of the storytelling. If you want to know some board book author/illustrators to emulate, check out Sandra Boynton and Rosemary Wells.

However, because the board-book market is totally inundated with concept books and simple stories about everyday experiences, if you want to sell a board book based on text only, you have to make the text very unique indeed. To make sure your board book stands out, study what’s already out there so that you can create an original concept and story.

Picture books, like the ones that have wildly different illustrative styles shown in Figure 2-2, are most often hardcover, heavily illustrated storybooks that cover almost every topic under the sun. They can be fiction or nonfiction, told in poetry or prose, and aimed at the literary or the mass/commercial markets. Teachers and parents who work or live with children from preschool age through early elementary years use picture books to speak to children about everything and anything the children might be experiencing at the moment: holidays, new siblings, moods, a fascination with birds or princesses — you name it, picture books cover it.

a) Wild Colt reprinted courtesy of Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. © 2012 Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. b) The Kissing Hand and c) Chester the Brave reprinted courtesy of Tanglewood Books.

FIGURE 2-2:Example picture books.

One of the most popular picture book series of all time is Ian Falconer’s Olivia series (Atheneum Books for Young Readers). This book provides a perfect example of a picture-book author/illustrator creating a fleshed-out character who looks, feels, and behaves just like the kid next door — even though she’s a pig. The minimal text, limited color palette, and evocative yet restrained illustrations all work together in just the way they should in a picture book. Other bestsellers, all very different from one another, include Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (Hyperion) , Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama series (Viking Books for Young Readers), Seriously, Just Go to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortes (Akashic Books) (and the children’s version of this duo’s Go the F*ck to Sleep, which is definitely aimed at parents), and Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by James Dean, illustrated by Eric Litwin (HarperCollins).

Picture books give delight to readers 3 to 8 years old (see the classic retelling in Figure 2-3). Generally, picture books have 24, 32 — or less frequently, 40 — pages and anywhere from 100 to 1,500 words. These books can capture the vastly different interests and attention spans of kids in this age range. Picture books most often measure in at 8½ x 11 inches.

Everyone in the children’s book world wants to debate word length in picture books. Some editors refuse to even look at a picture book that has more than 500 words. But some nonfiction picture books go well into 2,000 words or more. Unless you’re writing a nonfiction picture book that you plan to put in a 40- or 64-page book (rarer page counts), stick to the 500-words-or-less rule.

From Quick as a Cricket by Audrey and Don Wood. Reprinted with permission of the author and illustrator. © 2020 Audrey Wood and Don Wood. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

FIGURE 2-3: Quick as a Cricket, a picture book .

Nothing speaks more poorly of a writer than submitting a picture book of 5,000 words, even if it’s nonfiction. Early chapter books can be 5,000 words.

Here’s a rundown of the not-so-standard picture book varieties:

Licensed-character picture books: Feature characters generally culled from popular television shows, toys, videogames, apps, and movies. Some licensed characters that have been around for a while and will probably stick around for a while more include Elmo, Barbie, My Little Pony, and SpongeBob SquarePants. According to publishing expert Jane Friedman, a third of all children’s books sold today are based on licensed characters. These books are assigned authors by the publishing or licensing company.