Kids' Book Review: KBR Recommends: New Picture Books, August 2013

Kids' Book Review: KBR Recommends: New Picture Books, August 2013

Caitlin's Happy Heart: Gardening and The (Not So) Big Beet

Caitlin's Happy Heart: Gardening and The (Not So) Big Beet

Caitlin's Happy Heart: Gardening and The (Not So) Big Beet

Caitlin's Happy Heart: Gardening and The (Not So) Big Beet  A lovely review and a gorgeous story of growing beets :)

Bliss Amongst Chaos: CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK REVIEW: The Big Beet, by Lynn Ward.

Bliss Amongst Chaos: CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK REVIEW: The Big Beet, by Lynn Ward.

Bliss Amongst Chaos: CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK REVIEW: The Big Beet, by Lynn Ward.

Bliss Amongst Chaos: CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK REVIEW: The Big Beet, by Lynn Ward.

A link to a review for The Big Beet :)

Rankin's Springs visit

Thank you Rankin's Springs Public School for inviting me along to their Book Week assembly on Tuesday. Some wonderful costumes and very well run by the senior students. :)

Ungarie visit and a great Review!

Two wonderful things happened today. First, I spent a terrific morning at Ungarie Central School to kick off Book Week. I received a very warm welcome and the students were full of great ideas and questions. Secondly, The Big Beet received an amazing review from Jackie Hosking in her weekly e-zine for writers, Pass It On. Jackie has been kind enough to allow me to reprint the review here, so cheers Jackie :) BOOK REVIEWS THE BIG BEET written by Lynn Ward illustrated by Adam Carruthers published by Omnibus Books (an imprint of Scholastic) ISBN: 978-1-86291-966-2 Reviewed by Jackie Hosking You know when you read a book and you think, gee I wish I'd written that? Well that's exactly what I thought when I read this little gem. What a hoot! Written in rollicking rhyme - I love the word rollicking, THE BIG BEET has a beaut beat and begins... 'I'll fire up the gas and start making tea, said Mr McGruff (known as Bertie Magee) 'I don't want a stew,' said Mrs McGruff. 'I fancy a burger - with salad and stuff.' And so begins this hilarious tale of the very stubborn beetroot that refuses to budge (much like the giant turnip, if you can remember that one). Mr McGruff is content to have canned...But Thel (Mrs McGruff) replies 'No, we'll get it out. I'll give you a hand. This little chant is repeated throughout the book and adds so much - it's really very clever. So all jealousy aside, I'd like to congratulate Lynn and Adam and Scholastic for a terrifically wonderful book that combines the themes of cooperation, persistence and healthy eating!!

So You Want to Write a Picture Book

So you want to write a picture book? I am just into my teens as a picture book writer. Still spotty, gangly and slightly awkward in writerly terms. I’ve been slogging away, learning my craft, for about thirteen or fourteen years and I consider that time to be my apprenticeship in the business. It was about ten years in before I got my first picture book acceptance, although along the way I had stories published in magazines and e-mags. I have a picture book on the shelves now, (The Big Beet, Scholastic, 2013) and a book due out next year (Sally Snickers’ Knickers, Walker Books, 2014) but I’m still learning and I guess I always will be. However, I am happy to pass on a few things I’ve gleaned from my experience. Writing for Children is Easy. Yeah, right. Picture books may appear to be a cute, quick exercise for the would-be writer. I’ve heard people say, ‘I want to write. I think I’ll just write a kids’ book first because that will be easier.’ Hmmm, good luck with that. Writing for children isn’t easy and, though surprising to some, writing a picture book is particularly difficult. Word Count In general, picture books are no longer than 1000 words, though more often between 500 to 700 words. A good picture book can even be 300 words or less. The Big Beet is 650 words. The Story Your picture book should have a beginning, middle and end, just like any other story. The challenge is to fit all that into 500 words or so. For that reason, every word must count. You need to audition your words, make them earn their place in your manuscript. If there is a better word out there, find it, pay it whatever it is asking, and employ it in your manuscript. You need the very best cast if you are going to direct your picture book onto the publishing stage, get past opening night, and enjoy a long and successful run My advice is to start off by writing your story, put in everything you want to say, and then cut most of it out  • Amputate all unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. • Extract the unnecessary descriptions. Remember, this is a picture book, description is pretty much the illustrator’s job. • Pull out two or three words if they can be replaced with one. Be succinct. The Three Rs Picture books should have RHYTHM. They are the Rock ’n’ Rollers of the book world. Sometimes, they might also have RHYME, and most times, like a great rock ’n’ roll song, they will have REPETITION. If you research ‘getting a picture book published’ you will probably find warnings, in big red letters, with a skull and crossbones (well, maybe not the crossbones) that say EDITORS HATE RHYME – Rhymers will be prosecuted (or unpublished, whichever comes first). And there is actually a good reason for these dire warnings. Bad rhyme sucks. And good rhyme is difficult to do. There is a lot to learn about rhyming and I certainly can’t give even my limited knowledge of it here, but the most important thing to remember is: DO NOT FORCE YOUR RHYME. Rhyme is like a stubborn teenager. If it doesn’t want to fit, don’t try to make it. Don’t jiggle the words in your sentence around just so that they rhyming word ends up at the end. It will sound stilted and forced. And do take into account where the emphasis falls in a word. Handle doesn’t rhyme with expel. Similar endings, sure, but the emphasis in handle is hand and the emphasis in expel is ex. It would be like putting a lion in the giraffe’s pen simply because they have similar tails. Where to Start? Where should your story begin? The beginning of course, I hear you say. You did say it, I heard you! But…once you’ve written out your story you may find that the action starts in the middle. What comes before it may be simply ‘set-up’. You can’t afford too much set-up in a picture book. Your readers are 3 – 8 year olds. If they don’t see something interesting by page 3, you’ve lost them. In the first sentence or paragraph, or at least the first or second spread, GRAB your reader by the lapels, shake him and say “Look! How cool is this book? You’ll LOVE it!” Point of View What about who is telling the story? Is it a 3rd person narrator? Would your story benefit from being told by one of the characters instead? Whatever point of view you decide upon, stick with it throughout the story. Don’t change about and confuse your reader. Tense Another thing you shouldn’t change (unless you’re doing flashback segments – unlikely in a picture book) is the tense. Choose the tense that works best for your story (try different ones if your story isn’t quite working) but keep it consistent throughout. Ideas Ideas for picture books can come from anywhere – a snippet of conversation overheard at the bus stop; a funny or poignant image you witnessed; even a few words of text that pop into your head and stubbornly run around until you write them down. Ideas are plentiful, but using them in a unique and exciting way is the challenge. Back off! Step away from the manuscript. Put down your pen. Lay your keyboard at your feet and slowly back away. Put your manuscript in a virtual (or literal) bottom drawer and work on something else for awhile. Of go and have a life outside of your manuscript for a bit. Give yourself a week or two, or even a month or two, and after you have let your masterpiece brew for that time, pull it out and pretend you are a judge on MasterChef. Is your manuscript risen like proudly puffed-up dough, full-bodied and ready for the publishing oven? Or is it a flat, uninteresting pancake, lacking in flavour and in fermentation? It is more than likely to be somewhere in between these two extremes. Tweak what needs to be tweaked. Read it ALOUD. Have someone else read it ALOUD to you. That’s when you will hear the clunks in your text. And if you don’t hear any clunks, but only sweet, rhythmic sounds that caress your ears and your heart? Then, send it off to a publisher and start work on your next book.

School Visits

Hi all I have a busy couple of weeks coming up with school visits. Friday, August 2nd, I visited Tullibigeal Central School, where my children attended school (one still does :) ) and both my husband and I attended there as well. Not only that but I am a former staff member so my ties to the school are fairly securely knotted :) The morning was a great success and I was made to feel very welcome by both students and staff. I did a reading of The Big Beet and we all admired Adam's wonderful illustrations. I will add a photo soon. I will be visiting Ungarie Central School next Monday, Naradhan Public School next Thursday, and then Lake Cargelligo Pre-School and Lake Cargelligo Central School during the following week. I have been overwhelmed with the support I have been given by my local district. This is the best job in the world :) I'm having trouble navigating the new layout so I haven't yet worked out how to add sites to my favourites list again, but the following two blogs have given The Big Beet a nice review and I'd like to direct any readers to their site. MMM: www.modernmummymayhem.com/2013/08/big-beet-lynn-ward/ My Little Sunshine House: mylittlesunshinehouse.com/the-big-beet-by-lynn-ward/ Both blogs are worth checking out if you have young children. Cheers for now, Lynn

It's HERE!!!

Pitter Patter Pitter Patter Stomp Stomp Stomp...that's me doing my happy dance after receiving the first copies of THE BIG BEET from Scholastic!!! Adam Carruther's illustrations are wonderful and I can't quite believe how exciting it is to have my words in print and soon to be on the shelves.

Adam Carruther's illustrates The Big Beet!

Oh my Gosh! Marketing and technology are obviously not my strong suits. I have been away from this blog for a veeeery long time, I'm so sorry x Wonderful excitement going on here though. @Adam Carruthers has done some awesome illustrations for The Big Beet, which is due for release by Scholastic in August!I'm looking forward to seeing my first picture book on the shelves.