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Kadir Nelson illustrates with ‘Personal truth and a universal truth’ - his beautiful illustrations counter racism. I bought his book ‘Change has Come - an artist celebrates Our American Spirit’ with the words of Barack Obama.

Melinda Long’ multi million best selling picture book writer of ‘How I Became a Pirate’ says ‘I write to appeal to kids and adults.’

Eve Bunting hugely successful picture book writer says ‘that jolt of emotion gets me going.’ She loves her picture book Smoky Night illustrated by David Diaz.

These creators spoke to a packed audiecne of authors and illustrators.

EVE BUNTING: "Creating An Extraordinary Picture Book" with Eve Bunting, Melinda Long, Kadir Nelxon, Arthur Levine

Good morning! Welcome to Day 2 of the conference!

Arthur Levine of Scholastic is moderating an insightful panel with picture book authors Eve Bunting, Melinda Long and author/illustrator Kadir Nelson about what makes an "extraordinary" picture book.

To remind myself, I broke down the word "extraordinary" to these words: EXTRA ... ORDINARY. So to me, an "extraordinary" picture book goes BEYOND the "ordinary" and has something "extra" to it that makes it not only beyond ordinary but has that "extra" factor that makes it a future classic... and timeless.

The Extraordinary Eve Bunting spoke from her heart when asked what makes a picture book "extraordinary." She said "the heart" is what makes a picture book extraordinary. "I always ask myself when I finish writing a book - is it worth saying?" she told the audience. She stressed that if there is true "emotion" in your writing, that's what elevates your book beyond the ordinary.

When asked by Levine, "What makes YOUR book 'SMOKY NIGHT' (illustrated by David Diaz) extraordinary?", Eve gave this eloquent and moving answer:

"SMOKY NIGHT, illustrated by David Diaz, is 'extraordinary' because it won the Caldecott. The art was what won the Caldecott, but I also think the story was strong. It came from my emotions. I was in Los Angeles when the riots happened (in 1992). From our house, we could smell the smoke. I immediately thought of a child seeing the looting and hatred going on in Los Angeles, and if something jolts me in a way that it makes me ashamed or sorry or sad or happy, that's a book I want to do. So when I personally smelled that smoke and heard the noise and read about what was happening, I felt so much sadness and shame that people, as one famous person said, 'can't get along.' People should be able to get along no matter what their color or ethnicity. Unfortunately we will have more nights like the smoky night I was describing, so I believe this book was worth saying."

She added: "I need to have that jolt o emotion, that gets me going. I can't put it out of my mind, I think about it and it's a catharsis for me to put it down."

She also said that winning awards is not always the criteria for making an extraordinary book. "'Terrible Things' was published in 1980 but it's still published and still getting letters from kids who read it. I feel it's not always necessary that books win awards to be closest to your heart."

The panelists continued to discuss the craft of writing and illustrating their books and their own process to creating books. Keep reading for more blogs from our SCBWI TEAM BLOG to find out what the others had to say!

When asked if the authors had a special place to write, one author talked about longing for a "clean, well lighted space." Eve Bunting said: "I have a clean, well-lighted space now, but when I first started writing, I had an attic bedroom that no one used. It was dusty and dirty but it had a door and it was away from the children. I told them unless it was a fire or if they were hemorrhaging to leave me alone." (The audience laughed.) "I had a sign from a hotel that said 'Privacy Please' that I hung on the doorknob. But it didn't work. The kids would come to the bottom of the stairs, waving a sneaker and crying, 'I lost a shoe!' But now that they've flown the coop, now I have a clean, well-lighted space that's now my own."

Another fantastic panel at the SCBWI National Conference, and this blog was to provide with you with a taste of some of the jewels of wisdom offered by Eve Bunting. Again, I highly recommend joining SCBWI and attending the conference (full-time or part-time) because what we are blogging about only covers the tip of the iceberg. Imagine what else you will discover when you come to our next conference!

Posted by Paula Yoo

Melinda, author of many picture books, tells us that, for her:

"I ask myself if I can remember when I felt that way?

If I can do that, some child can do that, and their parents and teachers can feel that, too."

You've got something inside you and you want to get it on paper and you don't feel good if you don't.

1000 people listen raptly to Arthur A. Levine, Eve Bunting, Kadir Nelson, and Melinda Long!

Melinda's giving us examples of the different techniques to end a story.

Like full circle - how in "How I Became A Pirate," where it starts out with the boy talking about soccer practice and pirate treasure, and ends with pirate treasure and him off to play soccer.

One more is response to a repeated phrase, like in "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,"the repeated phrase that ends the book is: "Even in Australia."

last tip quote:

"Don't write down to kids - just tell a good story!"

Melinda Long wrote what is arguably the best first line of a picture book ever,

"Pirates have green teeth, when they have any teeth at all."

With a guessing game!

     When they landed, the head pirate climbed out of the boat and yelled, "Ahoy thar, matey! Be this the Spanish Main?"