Review: Making Picture Books

Have you ever thought about writing a picture book? Perhaps Illustrating one? Or maybe both?

Making Picture Books by award winning children’s author Libby Gleeson can walk you step-by-step through the entire process from idea to publication, and beyond.

Part 1 is for writers. Libby shares her experience in working from an initial idea, through the writing and revising stages, all the way to submission and publication.

There is loads of useful information including sections on plot, characterisation, language and tense.

Libby helpfully includes examples of early drafts, followed by the final drafts, so the reader can see the changes that have occurred via the editing process.

Review: Creative Writing Magic

A follow up to Unleash Your Creative Monster, Creative Writing Magic is full of even more tips and tricks to get young writers writing.

Children can tap into their inner Creative Monster and come on a journey to learn all about writing great stories and creating magical characters. 

Creative Writing Magic is packed with information all about different writing techniques, plotting, and character development, but because of the fun and engaging way it is presented, it never feels overwhelming or difficult. 

Andy Jones speaks directly to the reader in his short conversational chapters, while Olaf Falafel’s cute and hilarious illustrations help to illuminate the ideas.

Guest Post: Joanne Sorley on How Colour and Metaphor Help Children Talk About Emotions

Children feel deeply long before they can explain what’s happening inside them.

As adults, we’re comfortable using abstract words like sad, worried, or overwhelmed. But for young children, those words can feel fuzzy and far away. When emotions rise, asking a child to 'use their words' often comes at exactly the moment when words are hardest to find.

Guest Post: Jodie McLeod on The Power Of WOW

Birds are an inspiration for books: Jodie McLeod (left) with illustrator Eloise Short

The first time I saw a lyrebird I was completely gobsmacked. I’d just moved to the Blue Mountains, and I’d heard of these strange creatures and their ability to imitate everything from other birds to chainsaws and crying babies, but I hadn’t really considered the outrageousness of that idea.

Then, one misty Mountains morning, a cacophony of birds sounded in my backyard. Well, not birds, but – bird. A lyrebird. Putting on a spectacular show, just for me.

WOW.

Guest Post: Heather Preusser on Using Cartoons As Mentor Texts

How did my predilection for highlighters and praying to 'the salty snack gods' lead to selling my debut chapter book series? 

In 2018, I participated in Marcie Colleen’s Crafting the Chapter Book Class through The Writing Barn. Four years later, Erinn Pascal at Andrews McMeel acquired HEDGEHOG WHODUNIT, my chapter book series about a sleepy hedgehog and tireless rat solving animal antics in City Zoo.

As part of Marcie’s class, she encouraged us to think like cartoonists. (Finally, watching television counted as productivity!) 

Because I was drafting a story set in the zoo, I dove into re-watching one of my all-time favorite cartoons, The Penguins of Madagascar, a spin-off of the Madagascar movies that aired on TV between 2008-2014.

Guest Post: Shelly Higgs on Her Inspo Behind Poppy's Monster

The idea for Poppy’s Monster hit me as a response to watching my daughter struggle with going to school due to high anxiety. 

She was in year one during Covid times, which was difficult because doing things like holding hands (which was the only thing that made her feel safe) was discouraged. Despite this, teachers were putting themselves at risk to care for our kids, and in Evie’s case, they took her by her little hand anyway. 

Guest Post: Lucy Hawkins on Her New Life In Spain!

I recently moved my young family from Australia to Spain. We had a wonderful life in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, one of my daughters had just started school and had made best friends and the other was happy at kindergarten. 

But my husband’s job selling software to wineries was remote and we could relocate if we wanted to, and while the kids were little we thought it was probably now or never. So, we sold the house, the car, all our furniture, started the visa application and booked our flights to Palma, Mallorca.

I had been thinking of Mallorca since I lived there 15 years ago. It’s the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, it has a mountain range, picturesque historic villages and is surrounded by the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean. It’s beautiful and feels safe along with being full of life.

Guest Post: Diana Mercedes Howell on There Is No Wrong Way To Write Fiction

As long as you sit down, put one word in front of the other, never give up, and find a way to navigate the barren days or weeks (Hopefully not that long) between 'I am out of ideas' or 'I don’t want to think about this book anymore!' and the dawn of renewed faith in yourself and your vision…there is no wrong way to do it.

My writing style is willy nilly. I write children’s novels and poetry. Children’s novels demand imagination, well-crafted sentences, suspense, humor, intrigue, and a satisfying resolution that ties all the ends together.

Guest Post: An Interview With Catherine Norton

Writer Catherine Norton’s interesting children's novels are full of magical adventures and characters that are bright stars on the page. 

Catherine's novel,  TheFortune Maker, is long-listed for the ARA Historical Fiction Prize 2024. 

Catherine generously shares information on what brought her to writing and when her writing journey started in this exclusive interview with KBR's, Anastasia Gonis.

Guest Post: Kelly Louise Jarris on Staying True to Your Voice

Picture book author, Kelly Louise Jarris addresses the balance of navigating both self-publishing and traditional publishing, their benefits and shortfalls. 

What Do Publishers Want? Ah, that’s the magical question and the golden ticket for someone like me who is self-publishing my work. 

Like so many of us, we put in the hard yards: promoting, reaching out to our target audience, staying active on social media, booking Book Week readings, pitching, getting manuscript assessments, entering writing competitions—the list goes on. 

Guest Post: Lara Cain Gray asks - Are You Reading the WHOLE Picture Book?

Writer and librarian Lara Cain Gray visits today to highlight the importance of all the parts of a picture book beyond the words. Covers, endpapers and even the white space on a page play a part in fully experiencing a book, with learning and literacy benefits. Get ready to be enthralled and enlightened. 

We talk a lot about the role kids’ books play in developing literacy. But ‘literacy’ isn’t just about decoding the dots and squiggles that make words. 

Being literate means enjoying a whole range of comprehension and problem-solving tools that may begin with children’s books, but soon become integral life skills. 

Video: This Book is a Time Machine

How do you explain what the past, present and future mean? Tracey Dembo and Lucinda Gifford have created a book to do just that using the creative process of making a book. They put themselves as the narrators and, well, it's probably easier for you to read the book (and watch the video below) than for me to try and explain how they twist and travel through time.

Hello there! Guess what???You are holding a real-life time machine!
??You don’t believe me?
??I’ll show you!
??For a start, I wrote this blurb in the PAST.
??Yet, you are reading it in the PRESENT.
??And when you finish reading the blurb, it will be the FUTURE.

Title: This Book is a Time Machine
Author: Tracey Dembo
Illustrator: Lucinda Gifford
Publisher: Affirm Press, $ 24.99
Publication Date: 2023
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781922848413
For ages: 4+
Type:  Picture Book

Guest Post: Conner Giovenco on Harnessing the Power of AI in Transforming Children's Literature: The Rise of Personalized Reading

The AI jury is still out for many in the Literary Industry however today we invite the founder of MyStoryBooks for his take on the benefits of creating interactive, AI generated content to create a new way of personalising stories for kids.**

 

In a world where technology is rapidly reshaping how we live and learn, can it also transform the cherished bedtime ritual of reading a storybook? 

What if the fantastical tales spun in children's literature became even more magical with personalized narratives where your child is the protagonist of their own adventure?

Guest Post: Alyssa Ainsworth on Why Theme Is So Important In Children's Books

When I first started writing, I knew I wanted my first book to be a fairytale, but wanted a theme that reached beyond the pages of the book. 

What I find so vital about the theme of my first published book, Tea Time With Tolly, was that the parents do not shy away from allowing her (Olivia) to have such an open mind and a vast imagination. When she goes to bed that night, she dreams of the people who could show up at her door, but her dream has some restrictions on who might show up.

Guest Post: Emma Greville on The Magic of Magic & Hiding Veggies

Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian 'improving' literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant. Neil Gaiman

We all know the old trick. Blend up a bunch of good for you veggies and sneakily chuck them in the pasta sauce, then let the kids get on with the fun business of sucking up the spaghetti like a human vacuum. 

Fantasy fiction is pretty similar. Hidden behind the fun stuff of quests and prophecies, lies an exploration of our own world disguised in dragon scales and hidden portals. And that’s the beauty of fantasy fiction. It’s so far removed from our lived experiences that authors can delve into moral complexities through a lens of make believe that offers a safety net to a young reader. It’s not about them, but it is about someone they could be, in another world.

Guest Post: Q & A with Zana Fraillon

Today we are ecstatic to welcome one of Australia's best loved and most awarded children's authors, Zana Fraillon as she invites us to learn more about her latest picture book release, The Gargoyle.

What inspired you to write The Gargoyle?
I have always loved gargoyles. I love their unknowingness and their hybridity. The way they seem to shift in the shadows and shuffle in the evening light. The way it is so easy to believe that they crack from their stone skin in the dark of night and prowl our city streets. And I love the way they so often go unnoticed, perched at the very tops of buildings, yet observing everything. I often wonder at all they must have seen. All the small little moments of being that they were witness to. 

Guest Post: Janeen Brian on The Fix-It Princess

Today we welcome the award-winning indescribably talented, Janeen Brian on hers and Princess Shona's quest to publication realisation, showing us how patience and persistence pay off!

My latest book, The Fix-it Princess, began life over twenty years ago, as a short story. Which was rejected. It went the way of other rejections and was sent to a secluded place in a manila folder, under a pile of other manila folders, with barely a whiff of a filing system.

And so, the story became somewhat forgotten.

Guest Post: Aakanksha Jain on Overcoming Challenges Faced by Children's Authors

Aakanksha Jain loves to celebrate the magic of reading and the charm of books and is one of India's top reviewers. Today she shares her 'Guide to Success' for overcoming some of the common challenges faced by those attempting to pen quality stories for young people.

Aspiring children's authors often face a unique set of challenges on the path to success. 

Writing for children requires a different approach than writing for adults, and it can be difficult to create stories that are both engaging and appropriate for a young audience. 

In this article, we will explore some of the common problems faced by children's authors and provide practical solutions for overcoming them.

Guest Post: Sarah Wallace on Writing Emma's Freckles

I have always loved mythology, so it is no surprise that I incorporate it into my writing. I feel a particular connection with Irish and Scottish mythology due to my family heritage, and the Gaelic myth about how people got their freckles inspired my picture book, Emma’s Freckles.

It is such a magical myth, telling how the gods were worried people would forget the stars (due to the constant cloud and mist!) so they made maps of the stars on people’s faces. I just love the idea that when all the freckled people come together they make a map of the universe!

Guest Post: Carla Fitzgerald on The Personal and the Political - Catching Story Ideas

I don’t normally have my best ideas during my kids’ bedtime. Putting three kids to bed is more perspiration than inspiration – dinner, bath, pjs, books, sip of water, toilet. No, you can’t sleep with your shoes on. One more sip. You get it.

On this particular night, my eldest remembered that he had a speech to do the next day. The topic was, ‘Why kids should rule the world!’

Sigh.

Immediately I knew this speech was different though. My son was excited by it like no other speech before. They’d discussed it in class and he was brimming with ideas.