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My writing group gave my baby-to-be a great gift–a library full of their favorite picture and board books. I am thrilled–it is such a generous gift and great idea. Two of the books that I received were Little Golden Books, which of course brought back fond memories of my own Little Golden Books. I used to ask for these all the time when we went to the grocery and drug store. I wanted the ENTIRE collection, of course. But I thought I would revisit these today with the couple I got from my writing group–Nurse Nancy and The Monster at the End of this Book (starring Grover).

Before I do, I want to talk about how important inexpensive and quality books are for young readers. Study after study has been done about literacy, and one of the important points that always pops up is that a child needs books at home. Okay, so Little Golden Books are no longer like 39 cents (they are about $3.99), but that’s still cheaper than many of the gorgeous, but expensive, picture books at the bookstore that sell for $15.95. So, if you are on a budget, think about Little Golden Books for your young reader or your preschool/kindergarten classroom.

So, the first book I received was Nurse Nancy by Kathryn Jackson with illustrations by Corinne Malvern. This book comes with band-aids attached to the title page. I love it! My daughter will love it! It’s about a little girl named Nancy, who likes to play nurse with her dolls. But not only does she take care of her dolls, she also helps her mother and her brother, Tom, who gets a cut when he is running from some bees. This book shows the first aid steps–from cleaning out the wound to bandaging it. And soon her brothers are joining in the fun with a wagon for an ambulance. The illustrations are darling, the book is still timely (remember when we all used to play and pretend things instead of watch TV, go on the computer, and play video games?), and your child or your students will love it!

There’s a Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone is one of my very favorite books of all time. It’s not just because I love GROVER–I mean, who doesn’t? But it’s a funny, funny book, and I can’t wait to giggle over it with my daughter. If you aren’t familiar with it, then you need to get familiar with it–WOW! That ‘s a strong statement. And it’s now A Little Golden Book, so the price is right. Grover finds out that there’s a monster at the end of the book, and he is SCARED. So, who is this mean monster? Well, what is Grover after all?

Check out everything that Little Golden Books still has to offer here: www.goldenbooks.com

Simplify Your Picture Book Story

I’m currently revising a picture book and my major goal is to simplify the story.

Simple Steps to Revision

• Why simplify the story? At 1200 words, the picture book text is way too long. I needed to cut it about in half. Why? Sue Edwards has just been reading 50 picture books in a short amount of time - something you should do at least once a year if you write picture books - and she reports that “. . .short sells. I ran into very few longer books.” Simplified = Sales. Good enough reason.
• Omit Major Character. In fact, this version of the story had already simplified by leaving out a major character. It meant a total reworking of the story, but it flowed much smoother.
• Cut the conflict in half and expand what’s left. Given that 600 words is a worthy goal, what could I do? I took the first half of the story and expanded it into the whole story, thus simplifying it by leaving out the conflict in the last half of the original. It sounds drastic and it was. But after it was done. I wondered how I could ever have thought we needed that last half.
• Planning for interactivity. In the next revision, I plan to strengthen the interactivity of the story. I already have one section where kids can anticipate and chime in. I”m looking for a couple more places.
• Planning for stronger language. The cuts I’ve done so far are playing up the fun language of the story. But I think it needs more tightening, so the fun phrases will shine.
• Planning for unique characters. A friend reminded me that my characters are too stereotypical. But with minor edits, I can remove the stereotypical references and leave the characters stronger.
• Planning to connect the beginning and end. The motivation at the beginning and the resolution at the end are still not matching up exactly. It’s close - but not right. I’m searching for alternative ways of setting it up. Because I like the new ending, which means the beginning has to set up that ending.

Not much to revise, huh? And people think writing a picture book is easy?

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Begin at the Beginning
2. Picture Book 2
3. Picture Book 3