Who Chooses The Books? By Pippa Goodhart

I buy lots of picture books.  My children are now in their twenties, and I don't yet have grandchildren, so I buy picture books for me.  I buy ones I just want to enjoy for myself, but I also buy books with thoughts of using them as examples when I teach classes of adults about writing children's books.

I love the clever, super-charged, thrill and danger of picture books such as Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat.  I'm moved to sadness and joy by books such as Jo Empson's Rabbityness.  I love the gentle beauty and humour of wordless book Wave by Suzy Lee.


But, looking at my books, I wondered which of them the young child me would have chosen.  We're all individual as children just as we're individual as adults.  But I know that child me was also different from adult me.  So I went through the books, thinking about what would have appealed or not when I was of core picture book audience age.  I picked out two books.

I would have hugely enjoyed Oi Frog by Kes Gray and Jim Field for its wonderfully logical silliness and humour, and the way it plays with language.

But I know that the book I would have gone back to again and again on my own after a parent had first read it to me would have been Mr Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown.  Why?  Because it is beautiful.  But, more than that, because Mr Tiger goes through emotions that I would have recognised as he copes with feeling an odd one out, testing freedoms, then coming to a happy compromise that lets him both be himself and fit into society.  It's a story I would have thought about a lot, and probably made up extension stories of my own in my head about.  I care about Mr Tiger, and would have done so then.

I would also have enjoyed having a go at copying those wonderful blocky pictures.

So what modern picture book would the child you have particularly enjoyed, and why?

What's It All About? By Pippa Goodhart

What comes first; the story or the title?  In my experience each book's writing process tends to be as individual as the book it results in.  Sometimes a title is just there for the picking, seemingly obvious.  I have a picture book called Chapatti Moon that’s being illustrated at the moment.  I couldn’t have been called anything else.  It's right for the story, and I love the sound of it.  But on other occasions I have tied brain into knots, trying different word combinations to come up with a title I like. 

Titles are important because, along with cover artwork, they act as the lure to the story waiting inside a book.  They give the reader clues as to what kind of story it will be, and they must tempt the reader inside so that the story itself gets a chance to grab them.  A book cover is, almost literally, a door.  We want people to open those doors.  So, what few words writ bold on the front cover will make them do that? 

A title might challenge us -

-

There’s a lovely threat of mayhem in the just the idea of a pigeon driving a bus.  How will it work out?

They might be an instruction as to how you should use the book –

Simple, but hopefully tempting?  What will there be to choose from?

They might boggle us with intriguing unknown words -


Now, of course, 'gruffalo' is a very well known word, but it was Julia Donaldson’s invention, designed, I gather, to offer lots of rhyming potential!

They can puzzle with something too obscure to let you guess what might be inside –


Why make a statement about a hat NOT being yours?

They might offer something tempting, but not give much away - 


What IS the surprise?

Or they can be very straightforward –

That’s a clear label, but far from dull because we have the intriguing combination of an elephant with a 'bad' baby.  In what way is the baby 'bad'?
 

This title is a very straightforward summary of the story.  Boring?  No, because we immediately think, but surely a tiger would already be wild?  What’s going on here? 

            I think that the key to a good title is making the reader question.  They know that if they open the book and read, they will find the answer.    And the title must give something of the flavour of the story to come; perhaps to set its tone.

Long titles usually mean that the words are there in a smaller font, perhaps even running into two or more lines, taking centre stage away from illustration. 

 On the other hand, a single word can be bold -

            Familiar words can trigger particular expectations.  Many years ago when I was a bookseller, a publisher told me that some market research had been done into titles, and it was found that certain words would make book sales spike noticably.  What were the magic words?  Well, she said that the absolute optimum possible title for a children’s book (because it contained so many of the magic words) was The Little Lost Christmas Kitten.  Guess what?  There is no book of that title listed on Amazon.  I offer it to you as a gift!

            What I don’t offer you is a picture book that I want to write.  I don’t know what the story is yet.  But I want the title to be Mr Dull.  My hope is that nobody would believe it.  They’d instantly suppose that actually Mr Dull isn't dull, and they’d want to know how and why!  Am I right?  Is that how people would react, or would they be literal in their thinking and so pass that book over without a glance? 

            What are your favourite picture book titles, and why?