How to use this Page

I know I really should have been blogging this year but most of my time has been spent writing an exciting new 6 book series for Floris Books, a large publisher based in Scotland. The Series:  Each story stars a member of the McFun family. Gadget Grandad, Groovy Gran, Mini Mum, Dino Dad, Roaring Ross and […]

Editor, publisher, author, and all round busy guy, Paul Collins describes his latest anthology as ‘a sumptuous literary feast’ in which ‘no one will go away hungry, as the collection is a literary banquet with something for everyone.’ If that doesn’t whet your appetite for the collection of Australian stories, poetry and artwork that is, […]

It’s good to be back! I have taken time off from writing this blog to concentrate on writing children’s books. It takes a while to create meaningful, exciting and engaging characters who jump off the page, climb up your nose and playfully mess about with your brain. I shall be posting soon about some exciting new […]

• Paperback: 16 pages
• Publisher: Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc; large type edition edition (November 25, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616335688
• ISBN-13: 978-1616335687
• 
  

I recently had the pleasure of meeting funny man and children’s book author, Adam Wallace, creator of titles including Mac O’Beasty, The Negatees, The Pete McGee series, Jamie Brown is Not Rich, and Better Out Than In. I am even more fortunate that he has agreed to answer some of my questions! Firstly, congratulations on being […]



New York Public Library on 42nd & 5th Ave

I recently went to an exhibit at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue in New York City.  It is titled “Why Children’s Books Matter”. This exhibit walks you through the history of children’s books from early colonial times through Manga and the graphic novels of today. I really enjoyed the displays that included some of my favorites. From Alice in Wonderland to Winnie the Pooh, to Where the Wild Things Are, all the classics were represented. There were examples of children’s books from Russia and India, a history of the origin of children’s books, and a reading section where kids(or adults for that matter) could sit and read from the shelves of children’s books available. Some of the displays included props that I have never seen anywhere else.

The Original Winnie the Pooh & Friends

I think that kids will really love some of the interactive displays there.  There is a replica of the car from The Phantom Tollbooth, a life sized fireplace from Goodnight Moon, and a rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland for kids to crawl through.  Even if you don't bring any children, there is still enough on display to invoke memories from your own childhood.  The original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal was on display along with Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. Mary Poppin’s umbrella was alongside the original book and clips from the movie were playing on the adjacent wall.  Across from this exhibit, original drawings from the Wizard of Oz hung on the wall.

My First Introduction to Poetry

What really made me feel like a kid again was seeing a vintage copy of Mad Magazine on display. This magazine helped fuel an irreverent sense of humor which I still have to this day. It also introduced me to poetry and taught me the concept of rhyme and meter before anyone else. Before I had ever read Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in school, I read Rhyme of the Modern Skateboarder in Mad Magazine. Like any good children’s book, this exhibit doesn't preach to you. It doesn’t tell you why children’s books matter. It simply shows you the work and lets you draw your own conclusions. But I do know why children’s books matter to me. They introduced me to a vast array of ideas and different ways of thinking. They taught me about the world and about myself in ways that I could relate to.  They also influenced me in ways I would not fully understand until much later on in life. After all, who knew back then that I would wind up recommending that budding poets read vintage copies of Mad Magazine to sharpen their poetry skills?  If you get a chance, I highly recommend seeing this exhibit.

Today’s post is a guest post by Diane Mae Robinson, award-winning author of the Pen Pie Yu Series with Sir Princess Petra and her trusty steed, Snarls. I appreciate Diane filling in at the last moment after I awoke with the yuckies. Diane is reviewing genres in children’s writing.

NOW, with a cough and a wheeze), I present Ms. Diane Robinson!  yeah! yeah! cough. yeah.

Book Categories in Children’s Books

There are several different types of children book categories and sub-categories. The writing style and word count is different in each type of category. The following list is a general guideline of the categories, and these guidelines may vary by publisher.

Board books/ Toy books:  Ages newborn to 3 years. These books are for the youngest of listeners and are meant to engage their minds in learning with textures, pop ups, flaps, noise makers, and lively illustrations. The words in these books are more about the sound they make when spoken by the reader. These books can have one word or just a few words per page.

Toddler books/ Concept books: Ages 3 – 5 years. Introducing basic learning through shapes, colors, alphabets, animals, and people, these books have a stronger emphasis on the words than the previous category.  The images and interaction of the book are still the main focus for the child. These books average 200 – 300 words and are often in the form of the board book format.

Early picture books:  Ages 4 – 6 years. Often referred to as picture story books,these are books written to be read to preschool and kindergarten children. The words are still simple but more intriguing with their sounds.  The word count is between 200 – 1000 words with just a few lines per page and a simple plot. The color illustrations on every page are still the main focus for telling of the story. Pages vary as per content–usually less than 32 pages.

Picture books/Easy readers:  Ages 5 -7 years.  Early picture book are books written for children just starting to read on their own. These books have between 500- 1500 simple words (1000 words being the average) and have a stronger focus on an entertaining story through the story’s action and dialogue. Color illustrations are still on every page or every other page. These books are usually 32 pages.

Early chapter books:  Age 6 – 9 or 7 – 10 years. The story is divided into chapter of 2 – 3 pages per chapter.  The plotting and characters become more complex than a picture book, but not too much that the child loses interest.  Theme and style of writing grab the child’s attention. Most chapter books for this age group still include some illustrations, usually black and white, but not on every page. The word count can be up to 10,000 words and up to 65 pages.

Middle grade chapter books: Written for children 8 – 12 years of age, the characters and plotting of the story becomes more complex as the topics have a wider range and the writer has more leeway to include some narration and descriptive setting, introduce more characters, and add dramatic effects to the theme and style of writing.  Chapters are 3 -4 pages each with few illustrations or no illustrations. Kid get hooked on character at this stage of reading. Word count can be up to 20,000 words within 65 – 200 pages.

Young adult books: Often referred to as YA books or  juvenille novels, are written for readers 12 and up, 14 and up, and 17 – 18 years.Topics and language vary greatly. Most YA books have an adolescent protagonist where the focus is on plotting, character and setting, while theme and style often take second place. Plotting can have subplots with several major characters, although, one character should still emerge as the focus of the story. Harry Potter books are consider YA novels.

Whatever age group your intended audience, the main character of your story should be a little older than the intended audience.

Visit my author’s website to learn more about my dragon books for children:  http://www.dragonsbook.com
And Diane’s Homemade Blog http://www.dianemaerobinson.com/

.

If anyone would like to guest post, please send it to my using my email address, if you know it, and the Contact Form.  (Navigation bar to the right). Thanks.

Today we delve deeper into the dynamic world of industrious children’s author, Janeen Brian. She’s releasing more books per month than I’ve had pie floaters  and I hear that one of her poems, “What did you learn at school today?” is being published in The School Magazine’s Blast Off this month. Does this lady never slow down? Let’s find out…

Q Who is Janeen Brian? Describe your writerly-self for us and the thing that sets you apart from other Aussie children’s authors.

The introspective part of me used to struggle in earlier days, because I had no pre-formed vision or identity of myself as a writer. I knew little about writing. Yet I quite liked to write. I knew little about books. Yet I liked to read. I’d never known about how to deconstruct, analyse or evaluate writing or reading and I can’t remember getting much of a grounding of it in high school, but I’m sure I must’ve. In my later years I tentatively did a TAFE correspondence writing course and dipped my toe in a weekend writing workshop.

Although I did write for adults and enjoyed it, (short stories and poems), I discovered it was really where my heart was. I felt better connected with a children’s readership. People say that when they read my work, they see pictures in their head and that pleases me, because I try to write pictorially. They say my work reads aloud well. That pleases me because I like the music of language and the sensory world of words. Reviewers often make the comment that I ‘know what children want’ and that pleases me because it’s what I strive for.

I also write a lot of poetry, enjoying the capture of a particular moment to provide a shortcut to the emotions.

Perhaps poems, picture books and short fiction is where I fit best.

Q You are an experienced writer covering many styles and formats, including TV scripts. What is your favourite style of writing, why and does it result in your best work?

I am experienced in that I’m been writing for about 30 years and of those, 23 years have been fulltime, but I never stop learning and trying to improve. I’m sure I’m not the only author who says that! But I enjoy different styles and formats because it challenges me, and I find different aspects to my writing emerging that may have remained untapped. During my writing life, I’ve tried to seize any writing opportunity and that included writing eleven scripts for Here’s Humphrey, a pre-schoolers program. While I loved the content and age group, I felt that ultimately the fast-paced nature of scriptwriting for the media wasn’t quite me. When the show drastically changed format, I wasn’t asked to write any more scripts, so perhaps the producer felt the same! I like researching and have written much non-fiction. When I write information articles or books, I try to write simply, so children grasp concepts, and also hopefully in a visual or anecdotal style, so information is more readily absorbed. I do this, because I don’t absorb facts very easily! As mentioned in the earlier question, I think I do my best work with shorter pieces, though I’m very proud to have written several novels and to have had them accepted and published.

Q At what stage in life did you realise you wanted to write? What, whom persuaded you to continue? Was it always this way or did you aspire to be something different as a kid?

Nothing struck me on the head to get writing! In Year Three at school, I decided to be a teacher and followed that course into Primary school teaching at eighteen. Later, around the time I had two young daughters, I simply dabbled in writing for my own enjoyment. I’d never been a closet writer or held dreams of one day writing. I simply began to write every now and then; mainly poems for my girls or to give away as gifts. Then, on becoming a single mum, I began to use my writing to earn extra money; penning small articles in magazines. I was also asked to write some scripts for a children’s theatre company, which was a big ask as I’d had no training or real understanding of the constructs of theatre. But I did it. I think one show was a flop but the others were okay. So, I beavered away, joined the SA Writers’ Centre, met a kind, experienced author who became my mentor and life-long friend, and who provided much needed encouragement and practical advice. Then I was lucky enough to have books/readers accepted by an educational publisher, which I think gave me good training in crafting to a brief and culling floppy, useless words.

Q How have your refined your craft? Did you study, if so where, and do you feel this has attributed significantly to your work?

I was persistent, imposing on myself all sorts of disciplines, real or imaginary to keep the writing muscles working and the financial side viable. I attended writers’ courses, but never attended University. My only tertiary training was the two-year teacher-training course. I read books on writing, obtaining my first loads from libraries, then purchasing more and more myself, all the time reading and trying to improve my writing. At that time, there was no computers or websites, no online blogs or author chat lines. I stuck to my simple, personal credo, If it’s to be, it’s up to me. Joining and meeting with a group of South Australian, published children’s writers and illustrators, called Ekidnas, helped me and my writing immensely. It wasn’t a critique group, more a support group, providing encouragement and networking opportunities in the days prior to email (doesn’t that sound amazing?). Now we meet approximately four times a year, but have an Ekidna website of our own, which is updated weekly and highlights our members’ achievements and activities. Quite impressive!

Q You are a published author of several titles. What are they? Which are you most proud of? Do you have any you would rather forget?

By May, 2013, I’ll have more than 78 books published, some educational, the rest being trade published. I also have poems in fourteen anthologies. Here’s the website for titles: wwwjaneenbrian.com. One of the easiest books I ever wrote was a picture book called Where does Thursday go?, illustrated by Stephen Michael King and published by Margaret Hamilton. The words simply fell onto the page. The book won an Honour Award in the CBCA picture book awards, and a Notable in the Early Childhood Awards in the same year. It then went on to be published in USA and UK as well as being translated into thirteen languages. I call it my heart book, because the idea was triggered by my then six-year-old daughter, Natalie, and I was able to dedicate the final book to her first son, my first grandchild, Liam. I still love the story, the language and the superb illustrations.

Want to find out what’s on the drafting table for Janeen? See what’s in store tomorrow in Part Two of our chat with one of Adelaide’s finest children’s writers.

"I always loved reading. After school, I'd rush home and settle myself in the high branches of a tree to read all about Narnia or Middle-earth. Every book was a secret door and I wanted in."

"I think most of the stories wait down inside a person, like a secret storyteller. Things that happen in the outside world awaken the storyteller, and suddenly she begins to speak. So it's not so much a matter of making the stories up, as learning how to sit very still, and listen."

Today Wendy Orr, author of many beautifully written and powerful children’s and YA books, including Nim’s Island (with a strong-girl hero, a book that was so popular it was made into a movie starring Jodie Foster); Peeling the Onion (one of my personal favorites); Missing! A Cat Called Buster; and many others, is going to talk with us today about her newest book Facing the Mountain. Wendy is one of my favorite authors and people. Take it away, Wendy!

A story’s origins often start long, long before the idea that builds into a book. On the week that Facing the Mountain is released, I’m puzzling out where the story and characters came from.

Was it the summer I was eight and fell in love with the Rockies at Camp Kananaskis, in Alberta? Or when my family moved from Red Deer, to Colorado, and my dad, younger sister and I climbed Pikes Peak? Or sleeping out in the woods north of Lillooet, BC, and hearing that a grizzly had taken a camper the week before?

The truth is that too many threads go into one book to tease them all out. Some are simple and obvious: climbing a 4000m mountain, no matter how safe and near civilization, felt like a huge adventure and accomplishment. But it wasn’t the pride I started with: it was the panic of the sudden breathlessness at about 3000m. I thought that would happen to the main character, Raven, too – but when I wrote it, it was the older sister, Lily, who hit the oxygen wall.

I also thought Raven would love the mountains as I did – but the more I wrote, the more I saw that she wasn’t me, and she certainly didn’t love mountains. How could she? Her mother has remarried: Raven has been uprooted from the only home she’s ever known and the prairie town she’s always lived in. The mountains, and especially the rockfall, are a symbol of everything that’s changing in her life. Of course I didn’t see the symbolism while I was writing; that comes later. I simply thought that she didn’t like the claustrophobic feeling of trees and mountains, just like my Red Deer friend Gay, who spent two weeks with my family on Vancouver Island and loathed the closeness of the tall trees around the cabin. (In fact Raven’s personality i

Photo Credit: John MacLachlan

"Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything really, it has so much to do with what I’m going through personally or a problem I’m trying to work out."