My Hair (Faber & Faber, September 2019) by Hannah Lee and illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan is such an appealing book. And I have one copy to give away. (Comment for a chance to win–I’ll randomly draw a name on August 13th. USA only.)
Getting ready for her birthday, a little girl has to decide how to style her hair. Dreadlocks, braids, shaved, cropped, wrapped? She shares about her family and friends and their hair before deciding on something else.
The story is written in rhyme and makes me smile each time I read it. The illustrations are adorable.
Read more about UK debut author, Hannah Lee’s book publication, here. Info about illustrator Allen Fatimaharan and his work can be found here. This is his first picture book, too.
FYI, I received one copy of the book for an honest review.
Ghost Cat (Neal Porter Books, 2019) by Kevan Atteberry is such a tender and moving story. It should be in every library! And would be an encouragement for anyone who has lost a pet.
A little boy discovers a ghost cat in his house. He almost sees it through flashes and blurs. He feels it at night but when he looks it’s gone. He hears it do things his cat used to do–knock a book off a shelf, play in the aquarium, mewing and more. There’s a lovely surprise ending.
I love the illustrations–the ghost cat is not at all creepy as it might be. Take a look at Kevan’s extensive illustration work for kids and other. And look at his samples of Monster-a-Day.
You can see other books Kevan has illustrated, or written and illustrated, here.
One Week of You (Goldenjay Books, 2019) is author Lisa Williams Kline’s ninth book and is so ninth grade. I really enjoyed it.
15-year-old Lizzy Winston has sworn off boys because she wants to be a doctor. But then she gets AMSD–Andy Masters Smiling Disease. He’s the first boy to ever ask for her number and he makes her laugh. But with her forgetfulness, flour babies, real babies, and pranks at school, Lizzy’s newfound relationship is headed for trouble.
Read about the author here and check out her other books here.
Sorcery of Thorns (Simon & Schuster, 2019) by Margaret Rogerson is a fascinating read.
16-year-old Elisabeth Scrivener, a foundling raised in one of the Great Libraries and now an apprentice librarian, wants to be trained as a warden to protect the kingdom from the magical grimoires. But when she’s implicated in the death of the Director, it’s the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn who takes her away from the library. And she knows that all sorcerers are evil. What’s to come of her?
I enjoyed reading Margaret’s bio too. Sorcery of Thorns is her second book. The first is titled: An Enchantment of Ravens. I’ll have to check it out as well.
One fiction assignment at the Institute of Children’s Literature is to write something inspired by a picture in the manual. The pictures show people (or animals) doing something—each picture can inspire ideas for a story.
Many years ago I
attended a workshop where the speaker, Peggy
King Anderson, had laid out newspaper and magazine clippings of drawings
and photos. Our instructions were to pick several images that appealed to us.
Then, asking ourselves questions about who, where, what, and when, we wrote a
paragraph triggered by the pictures and the questions. That exercise created a
character for me who wouldn’t let me go.
Once I was contacted by a publisher who had a project where books for English as a Foreign Language had been written and illustrated, but not published. There was a change in company staff and the new editors wanted to go a different direction. However, it was too expensive to start from scratch with new illustrations, so they wanted writers to take the existing spreads of illustrations and fix the text.
Here’s part of what my editor said, “It has the potential to be a fine story, it just needs a little work. The main thing is that it’s pretty humorless. And with a title like that, it needs humor! Also Jake’s moaning about how his summer is ruined . . . gets old fast. Really try to write it from the mind of a kid. You can change the whole story or just tweak it. Try to make it more entertaining! Don’t be afraid to be funny. And you can change the title.”
I read the original story and agreed that the main character was too whiny. I analyzed the story and found this main issue: the main character didn’t have a strong reason to solve the problem and he wasn’t in control. His mother made a lot of the decisions. That meant I didn’t care about him. There also was a lot of telling.
Brainstorming, I asked how I could make the problem a bigger deal for this kid. I asked how it could become more important to him. What could make it worse for him? I made the problem relational—it wasn’t just something ruined, but his friend’s possession that was ruined. His friend might get mad at him if he can’t fix it. That raised the stakes.
Next, I printed out the illustrations and ignored the existing text. I rewrote the story using showing instead of telling and made each set of words fit with the picture on a page. I rearranged some of the pictures. Changed a character where I could. Most every time there was a place for a decision or suggestion to be made, I had the main character make it—that put him in control, not his mom. Most importantly, his suggestion at the end of the story solves the problem.
When I submitted it to the editor, this is what I got back: “You’ve done a great job with this story! I think it works really well; it’s a lot of fun and now it makes a lot more sense why Jake was so worried . . . I really like what you’ve done. I have a few small changes to suggest . . .”
I revised again and the story (and new title) was approved. (The Smell of Trouble was published in 2012 by Compass Media.) Plus, they asked me to do more stories.
How does this apply to you? You can also be inspired by pictures. Here are some ideas:
Ask someone else to
choose some story starter images for you.* Action pictures are good. Also, ones
that make you asks questions. (Internet sites such as pixabay.com could be used. Challenge yourself to
come up with a story for one picture and write the story.
*in case you don’t have anyone willing to
do this for you, here are some images:
Start an image
collection. Add anything that appeals to you, causes emotion, or reaction. This
might be a character you’d like to write about, a setting that reminds you of
something from your childhood, an interesting object. There’s no limit. I know one
writer who pastes them into a journal and sometimes jots down a few words. When
he needs an idea, he flips through the pages for inspiration. You can do the
same whether your images are in a folder or a journal.
Take a picture book or
easy reader that you don’t like. Only look at the images. What else could be
happening in the story? Perhaps you’re more interested in a sidekick than the
main character. Brainstorm about the sidekick and what he needs. Remember the
images don’t have to stay in the same order. Nor do you have to use them all to
get ideas flowing.
Or take characters
from two different stories. What would it be like if you put them together? You
aren’t limited by who they are in their stories. Consider changing their personalities.
Create different conflicts. Put them in a new setting. Have fun with it and
something extraordinary might happen.
And don’t forget your
own cell phone photos. Some of them may prompt story ideas, too.
I’d love to hear from
others who have been inspired by pictures. Feel free to share in comments.
