Books With Very Few Words, Some With None At All - Karen Saunders

This might be quite an unusual post for a writer, but today I wanted to blog about picture books that have limited, or no text. 

These sorts of books offer extensive opportunities for discussion with children, through talking about the pictures and what they can see on the pages.  They also offer children the chance to ‘read’ a book by themselves, as they can understand so much of what is happening just from looking at the illustrations, encouraging reading confidence. 

The pictures within these sorts of books can be interpreted so many different ways and imaginations can run riot, something that’s so important for encouraging creativity in the young. They also allow readers a chance to experience the subtle world of expressions such as body language and intonation, and begin to understand how these things work.  

So here goes, my top five books that fit into this category.

            You Choose, by fellow Picture Book Den blogger Pippa Goodhart, illustrated by Nick Sharatt

My toddler adores this award-winning picture book. We’ve found it’s particularly good for him to read and look at in the car by himself. Pippa has blogged about her book here in detail, but essentially it’s a book that's not actually a story as such, but one where children can make choices. They can decide where they’d like to live, where they’d like to go, who they'd like their friends to be, what they’d like to eat…there are many excellent discussions to be had from this book!

      

      Rosie’s Walk, by Pat Hutchins

Rosie the hen goes for a walk, while a wily fox tries to catch her. Rosie is completely oblivious to everything that’s going on behind her, as the fox gets out-manoeuvred at every turn. The way the fox gets his comeuppance causes much hilarity for the reader, because although what happens to the fox is never vocalised, no words are necessary for this very visual humour. This book has limited text, but you can get the complete gist of the story from the pictures alone. 

      Hug, by Jez Alborough

Ah, the book that really tests an adult’s reading skills, getting them to interpret just one word, ‘Hug’, in many, many, different ways. A monkey walks through the jungle, looking for his Mummy, seeing other animals hugging along the way. It’s a great demonstration of the intonation of language, how a word can mean different things depending on how it’s said, and also of body language – we understand how the monkey is saying the word just from the expression on his face.

       

      

       The Snowman, Raymond Briggs

A Christmas classic that can be enjoyed anytime (For some reason, Christmas books go down particularly well in our house in the height of summer). The Snowman tells of a young boy who builds a snowman that comes to life. Beautiful illustrations do all the story-telling work, and the expressions on the young boy’s face show us how he is feeling and what he is experiencing. A wonderful first opportunity for young children to ‘read’ a story.

              

      The Baby’s Catalogue, Janet and Allen Ahlberg

The Baby’s Catalogue is a fabulous book, which features very little text, instead it shows the lives of several babies and what they do in their days. The babies sleep, eat, watch their mummies and daddies, cause chaos in the house, play with their pets and siblings, sit in their high chairs, have their baths and go back to bed. There’s no story as such,  but there are plenty of familiar things to see and discuss.

These are five books I’ve loved sharing with children, but which are your favourites?

Come find me on the web at www.karensaunders.co.uk or 'like' me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/karensaunderswriter

I tweet, too, @writingkaren

In Celebration Of ... Group Post

Christmas is all about sharing, so we decided to post our first group blog and share our top ten writing tips, plus the books we'd like Father Christmas to sneak into our Christmas stockings.

Abie Longstaff - author of The Fairytale Hairdresser and new book The Mummy Shop (illustrated by Lauren Beard).

My writing tip:
Draw: Drawing really helps to pace the book and to get the page turns right. It also helps with working out what must be said in the text, and what can be left for the illustrations.  And if you can't draw, draw anyway - just draw stick figures and squiggles.

The book I want from Father Christmas:
The Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeier and Rebecca Dautremer. The book looks so beautiful and I'm a sucker for anything fairytale related

Jane Clarke - author of Knight Time (illustrated by Jane Massey) and other titles.

My writing tip:
Have some time off. Embrace the ups and downs of the holiday season - and use the experiences and heightened emotions to inform your work at a later date. 

The book I want from Father Christmas:
Please may I have a hardback copy of Flotsam by David Wiesner. My paperback version is worn out by constant use. Flotsam has so many levels of enchanting possibilities, it highlights how sophisticated a picture book can be.

Juliet Clare Bell - author of The Kite Princess (illustrated by Laura-Kate Chapman) and other titles.

My writing tip:
My tip is to reduce the amount of time I’ve got for writing, in the hopes of getting more written. I’m going to give myself an hour which is dedicated, sacrosanct, scheduled in at a very specific time each day and where, on pain of death, I am NOT allowed to have access to the internet. In that writing time, I will WRITE. I will timetable things so that I do the marketing/generating new work etc. at other specific times and I will no longer let myself think that reading about what other writers are doing on FaceBook is actually work.

The book I want from Father Christmas:
The book I would most like from Father Christmas is Quentin Blake’s Beyond the Page (Tate Publishing, 2012) with 240 reproductions of his work since 2000. My favourite book until now has been Quentin Blake’s Words and Pictures, an autobiography full of his inspirational illustrations, and Beyond the Page will carry on where that one left off. And do you know what? I’m actually getting it for Christmas. Yippee! 

Karen Saunders - author of Baby Badger's Wonderful Night (illustrated by Dubravka Kolanovic) and other titles.

My writing tip: 

Set yourself a really low word count or goal to meet every day, something that's very achievable. This way, you'll be encouraged to actually start writing, because it's much less intimidating to write 50 words than 500, and chances are, you'll keep going once you've hit your target. Also, turn off your internet connection so you don't get distracted and spend all of your writing time procrastinating online (or maybe this one just applies to me).

The book I want from Father Christmas:
Any of the Little Grey Rabbit story books, because they're a wonderful reminder of my childhood and were my favourite books to share with my mum. 

Linda Strachan - author of What Colour is Love? (illustrated by David Wojtowycz) and other titles. 

My writing tip:
READ READ. Read as many picture books as you can. Look at how they are structured and how they differ in word count. Look at how the author approaches the story/idea in a unique way and how the story ends, which can be just as important. Be a critical reader, then go away and write!

The book I want from Father Christmas:
The book I'd like to receive is Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brand. I seem to have lost my copy. It was originally published in 1934 but I still find it an inspirational book about writing and being a writer. 

Lynne Garner - author of A Book for Bramble (illustrated by Gaby Hansen) and other titles.

My writing tip:
Set yourself a goal. Something that will stretch your writing muscle. For example Picture Book Ideas Month which takes place each November where you pledge to come up with 30 ideas over 30 days. Or perhaps try 12 x 12 which encourages you to write one new picture book story per month.

The book I want from Father Christmas:
This is really three books but they make a series. How to Write a Children's Picture Book Volume I: Structure - Volume II: Word, Sentence, Scene, Story - Volume III: Figures of Speech.  Written by Eve Heidi Bine-Stock.

Malachy Doyle - author of Too Noisy  (illustrated by Ed Vere) and other titles. 

My writing tip:
Take it to the garden, shed, bathroom - anywhere quiet - and read it out loud. Catch it by surprise.

The book I want from Father Christmas:
A Dictionary of British Folk Tales (part b), by Katherine Briggs. Martin Waddell, in my early days of writing, recommended these for inspiration, and he's right. I've got part a, but the cheapest I can find part b is £50, so ...  


Moira Butterfield - author of Smile Baby Smile (illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw) and other titles.


My writing tip:
Remember to play. Occasionally give yourself a treat and just play with words, writing for fun only. I’m sure professional singers must sometimes sing in their baths and professional artists must sometimes doodle. I see it as trying to keep some water in the creative well.

The book I want from Father Christmas:

I love to find vintage Children’s books and on the internet I’ve seen the cover of an interesting-looking 1970s picture book called The Very Important Man, by Joan Hickson. The deliciously retro cover looks great, with a humourless-looking man being driven in an impossibly long car that wraps round the whole book. I’ve never seen inside and I want to know what happens to the very important man. Whenever it turns up on the internet (not very often) it’s too expensive, but perhaps Santa has one in his attic.

Paeony Lewis - author of Best Friends or Not?  (illustrated by Gaby Hansen) and other titles.

My writing tip:
I enjoy the traditional clichés of Christmas. However, I suggest trying harder to avoid clichés in our writing. Think before including overused phrases, though don't be afraid of using simple words like 'said'. This also applies to tired scenarios, such as ending a story with the hero being presented with a medal by the mayor and everyone cheering (I did this with my first story - justifiably unpublished!).

The book I want from Father Christmas:
I might have been too naughty this year for a present, so I bought it earlier this week. Mirror by Jeannie Baker is a very visual picture book that opens up on the left and the right to show us the mirror images of an ordinary day in the life of two families (in Australia and Morocco). Although the lives appear different, underneath we see many similarities. Plus the final images remind us we shouldn't make clichéd assumptions. In this 'season of  goodwill' we think about others, and Mirror encourages year-round reflection.  

Pippa Goodhart - author of Just Imagine (illustrated by Nick Sharratt) and other titles 

My writing tip:  
Take a professional interest in those terrible cracker jokes.  A really good joke that lends itself to visual treatment, and a sequence of revelations, just might make a brilliant picture book!

The book I want from Father Christmas:

Children’s Picture books; The Art Of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles.  It’s a stonking £22.50 because it is sumptuous and big, and full of wonderful examples of picture book art.

With warm and festive greetings for a wonderful holiday from Abie, Jane, Clare, Karen, Linda, Lynne, Malachy, Moira, Paeony and Pippa.

And now over to you: what would be your top writing tip, and which book would you love to receive this Christmas?

Creating Strong Picture Book Characters

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about characterisation. I’m not working on any picture books at the moment (although I've come up with a few ideas I'm filing for the future) as I’m busy writing the sequel to my upcoming novel for ages 10+, in which a new central character appears. As a writer, one of your most important jobs is to create characters from your imagination that are completely believable to others. And characterisation in a picture book is just as important in a novel. Young readers have to be able to identify with, and relate to, the hero of their books, be it animal, child or adult. 

 

In a picture book, you don’t get the chance to describe your character in the same way as you would in a novel. The character has to be immediately appealing through pictures that grab the reader, thrusting them into the story and making them empathise with the characters and what they’re going through. There aren’t enough words to play with, or any small child’s attention span long enough, to sit through lengthy descriptions of personality and what the character is like before the story gets going.

Look at the phenomenally successful Gruffalo. The hero is a small mouse, who manages to outsmart all his enemies. For a child, there must be something very nice about seeing someone so small and seemingly powerless triumph over so many larger, and more formidable creatures.  The image of the mouse enjoying his nut in peace on the last page is tremendously satisfying. 

Children also enjoy characters they can easily recognise, like Elmer, or Maisy mouse. There is comfort in the familiar, and someone they can return to again and again, who ends up feeling like an old friend, or part of the family. There are a number of books featuring bears, mice and rabbits, enduring favourites that are soft, cuddly and reassuring (even if they aren’t necessarily that way in real life – I wouldn’t want to curl up with a bear!).

Picture books also often feature babies or young children, allowing the reader to explore different situations safely with someone they can identify with. Current favourite in our house include Dogger, where Dave, a young boy, loses Dogger, his much-loved stuffed toy, and The Pirates Next Door, where a little girl called Matilda has an exciting pirate family move into her neighbourhood.   

Through picture books, and the characters they meet there, children can meet new friends, experience new situations, visit new places, have adventures, or seek reassurance. Children have to like the characters they're reading about in order to return to the book again and again, something that's crucial in a picture book.

Which are your favourite picture book characters?

Karen Saunders

www.karensaunders.co.uk

@writingkaren

Are Picture Books Value For Money?

Not too long ago, I was in the picture book section of my local book shop, when I overheard a conversation where two people were discussing the cost of picture books. One lady was saying that she didn’t buy picture books anymore, because they were too expensive. She then went on to compare the price of a hardback picture book at £9.99 to an adult novel she was buying, at £7.99. 

And perhaps at first glance it can look like you’re getting a rough deal. After all, an adult novel can easily be over 100,000 words. It feels thick and chunky in your hand, something to really get your teeth into. On the other hand, some picture books don’t even get their word count into the hundreds.  Some don’t have any words at all. And yet the price points of adult and children’s books are often very similar.

But they are value for money. They really are. And here’s why. 

Often, you’re getting the combined talents of two people, a writer and an illustrator. Yes, of course, there are very talented people who can do both (such as James Mayhew, who wrote and illustrated one of the current favourite books in our house, Boy), many others, myself included, who can’t (my picture book, below, is illustrated by Dubravka Kolanovic). When people ask me if I illustrate my books, or ever think about illustrating my books, I generally snort with laughter, before replying; ‘No. Because I want people to buy them!’ I know where my talents lie. I can draw passable shapes, but nothing nearly as impressive as professional illustrators can, who make the books look so wonderfully appealing and bring the words I’ve written to life. Writers often need illustrators, and vice-versa – their talents combining together to make wonderful picture books. Therefore, there are two people who need paying for their work. And, quite frankly, it’s unrealistic to expect to get that for next to nothing. 

 

Then, there is the printing issue. Full colour, beautiful picture books, cost money to produce, whereas novels are generally just black and white print which is cheaper.  

The other argument is the time issue. People argue that picture books take a matter of minutes to read, while novels engage a reader for hours and therefore are much better value for money. But how often do you read a novel more than once? Of course, some people go back and re-read favourites, but generally not back to back, like children do with favourite picture books. In our house, the same book can be requested three or four times a day. A beloved picture book will get read and enjoyed over, and over again, sometimes on a daily basis, for years and years.  

Plus picture books are excellent teaching devices, a way for children to learn without knowing they’re learning. There’s so much to gain from talking about the pictures and the words, and important lessons to learn from them. Picture books form the foundation upon which a love of reading, and books, will grow.  

And all that, to me, is excellent value for money. 

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