Again, I know, I know, behind on the times. It is Thursday, you are correct. But Tuesday was a rather lovely, albeit long, day that deserves some sharing.
Tuesday: Writing for Children's Picture Books
Why yes, this is a class. Taught by the Harvard graduate Amy Eisner, published poet and all around good person. She just exudes unlimited love for the picture book, even if she has yet to publish one (all in good time, of course).
Tuesday's class was around the topic of Kid Logic, you know, the perfectly reasonable conclusions children make that are just so perfectly wrong. To get the topic rolling we were asked to listen to an episode of This American Life, titled, sure enough,
Kid Logic. I suggest you listen. It is both hilarious and heart-breaking and an all around awesome way to spend an hour. I listened to it twice. It delves into the precociousness of children's thoughts on the Tooth Fairy, with some truly hilarious insights such as:
Q: Well, why doesn't the Tooth Fairy make houses out of bricks
A: Because people don't have brick teeth!
Duh! There's also a wonderful fiction written and read by
Michael Chabon, author of, among other things,
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (also a great read to pass time), as well as one child's thoughts and feelings on the Circle of Life as brought on by The Lion King and his father's battle with a degenerative brain disease. Take an hour and listen. It's linked above, and it is beyond worth the hour of ear devotion.
From Kid Logic we went straight into the overlying ins and outs of publishing a picture book, including thirty-two page requirements, the differences of voice as related to the main character (who should always be a child!), the overlying arch of story books versus concept books, and most importantly, the express need to write a story that demands enough attention to turn the page. This translates into, WRITE AN AWESOME STORY.
To have an awesome story you must first have an awesome opening. The first two sentences are what will grab both reader and listener. It is integral to remember not to add superfluous descriptions that could, and most likely will be, illustrated. This basically means that you shouldn't start a story with, 'This is Hannah. Hannah has red hair and lives in a red roofed house with a lawn full of red poppy flowers that she demanded she plant herself because her favorite color is red.' This all can easily be understood with the opening page's illustration and so should be cut for more important, hard hitting beginnings of the story. In order to completely understand the ins and outs of openings Eisner pulled openings from students stories that were posted the week before that had been based on the topic of Place Memory, asking us as adults to explore a place we distinctly remember from childhood. My story follows, titled
They & Him:
Pages
1. In a little town,
2. in a little house,
3. in a little room,
4. slept a little boy,
5. with covers pulled tight around his head.
6. This little boy slept in the same manner every night,
7. with Cowboy and Indian covers over and up around his head,
8. and pillows stacked over his body,
9. and Curly pulled safe in his arms,
10. because if he did not
11. They would come for him.
12. They were the vampires
13. that lived in his closet
14. that his mother and father forgot to close each
15. and every night.
16. They, the vampires,
17. were gray skinned and purple lipped with sleek black hair
18. and they could smell living little boys that slept
19. right outside their closet door.
20. But no one ever knew They were there
21. because their long arms looked like sleeves that lived in the closet as well.
22. The only way to keep safe from their purple lips
23. was to make sure that They can’t hear breathing.
24. The little boy sleeping in his little room knew this,
25. and so every night he tucked himself up tight with
26. Cowboys and Indians and pillows and Curly all as defense
27. against They, the vampires, that lived in the closet.
28. And every night it worked,
29. because I, that is to say, him,
30. he is still here
31. with covers pulled tight around his head,
32. and Curly pulled safe in his arms, ready for bed.
I got some pretty awesome feedback for opening, which included the first eleven pages. Things like the structure of one sentence is awkward when read out loud, the amount of pronouns becomes super confusing, and most importantly, some of the information is unnecessary because it will be later understood and therefore does not need mentioning. Also, the class had some good input on better details to add that would allow the story to be more personal and less simple. Honestly, I didn't work very hard on this story because I wasn't quite sure how to go about writing a children book. It seems simple enough, short enough, but when you've always been surrounded by five to ten page requirements, a mere thirty-two sentences, or five hundred to a thousand words seems pretty daunting.
We have another book due next week on the Kid Logic topic. I've been concepting and writing for the past week and am very exciting about where it's heading. I just hope life doesn't get in the way of a good story.
Okay, now, this is the last I'll talk of Children's Picture Books. Today, for the class, I had to go to a local nursery and read to a group of eight students in the four to five age range. Let me tell you, I was so nervous I was sweating bullets. It's one thing to walk into a room of peers and worry about their judging eyes, but with kids it's a whole different matter. I just want them to like me! And normally they're scared because, well, if you were under three feet tall and a giant with facial hair and a nose piercing walked in you would be ready to quiver and shake, wouldn't you? To my group I read The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean.
I haven't had such fun in a long while. The students were so into the story. Albeit a bit snarky and with an irony and sarcasm better suited for an adult reader, they were still captivated by the consequences, the cause and effect, of the main character's swapping of his dad for two goldfish. After reading I asked the students to make Wanted! posters for a family member they might swap. I sat them down, handed them paper and gave each student a single crayon. Then, while drawing I kept asking the kids to swap colors with me. It was just great.
Later in the semester I'll return with a story of my own. The kids will be test subjects of sorts, and it will be through their reaction to my story as to whether it is a pass or fail. Pretty cool, huh? Mere children grading my college level efforts!
