Creating Winning Picture Book Biographies with Don Tate

 Don Tate is an award-winning author and/or illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed nonfiction biographies for kids including (this is a partial list!) Carter Reads The Newspaper, No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and his Kingdom in Kansas, Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started To Draw, Strong As Sandow: How Eugen Sandow Became The Strongest Man on Earth, William Still and his Freedom Stories: Father of the Underground Railroad, Jerry Changed The Game! How Engineer Jerry Lawson Revolutionized Video Games Forever, and Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters.

In today's fantastic session on crafting picture book biographies Don demonstrates the power of finding your next nonfiction story by looking for what was missing from your own childhood library and shining a light on the role models you wish you'd been able to read about when you were growing up. 

Little Don!

Don, growing up in Iowa, did not see black men as heroes in the books of his school or public libraries—in highschool he was assigned to read European folktales, Edgar Allan Poe, Thoreau, Steinbeck, Hemingway. Don felt like these books weren't for him, but for his white friends. And that didn't change after college when Don's new job as a book designer for an educational publisher had him designing guides for, you guessed it, European folktales and books by Edgar Allan Poe, Thoreau, Steinbeck and Hemingway.  But that publisher also had him designing a guide for a book he'd never seen before, Black Boy by Richard Wright.

It was the first time Don had seen a black male centered in a book, the first book he could really relate to. Don says that Wright's autobiography saved his life and is what made him a reader. Don went on to read the biographies of Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Claude Brown, Nathan McCall, and many more. Don saw himself in these black men in America who faced obstacles, most often racism, and how they overcame these obstacles to contribute greatly to the American story. All of which was so inspiring to Don that when he entered publishing he knew he wanted to create books that were missing from his childhood library with subjects such as these inspiring men. 

And that's just the first bit! The rest of Don's session takes us deeper into how to find your next biography inspiration (including thinking of heroes in our news today, not just of the past), he shares tips on research (we all bow down to the amazing resource that is librarians!!), and ways for artists to develop their written voice (super cool tips from Don and how he uses 'mentor texts').

Breakout Session: Finding the Kid Viewpoint in Picture Book Biographies with Alyza Liu

Alyza Liu is an editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers who loves a good picture book biography and shares many great examples in her session. She walks us through the spreads of CAN YOU IMAGINE? (out early 2025!!), the forthcoming Yoko Ono picturebook biography by Lisa Tolin and Yas Imamura. 

When creating engaging and relatable picture book biographies it is of the utmost importance to respect young readers' preferences—they do not want to read treacly, stodgy, preachy life lessons—they want connections to their subjects and it's the author's job to find those themes and emotions that resonate. Alyza outlines for attendees why this is important, and provides a list of questions to ask oneself when writing a biography as well as a list of what she looks for when acquiring one.

Alyza sharing what sorts of elements make a good picturebook biography 

Crafting a compelling narrative that can fit and work within the format and age range of picture books is the key to successful biographies for kids. As a test case: Alyza introduced us to Yoko Ono's life and art through Lisa and Yas's book page spreads. We saw how the book remained age appropriate even when covering violent or triggering topics. And how, as a book for young children, the strongest themes running through it needed to be able to emphasize the positive, which it did: Yoko's imagination, creativity, and commitment to peace all serve as beacons of hope to young readers.

On the topic of working and fitting within the picture book format, Alyza mentioned repeatedly how great Debbie Ohi's resources are for working out book dummies and pagination (Debbie is basically the most wonderful everything, everyone at SCBWI Team Blog agrees). 

Other great, example titles mentioned by Alyza:

THE GREAT STINK by Colleen Paeff and Nancy Carpenter

and

I DISSENT by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley

Picture Them! Illustrating Picture Book Biographies with Selina Alko

Selina Alko grew up in Canada, like Joni Mitchell. And like Joni, Selina has been a painter since she was a child. She loves mixing materials together to create artwork for her award-winning children’s books. Besides working in her studio, Selina likes to travel, be involved in her community, and spend time with her children. Selina makes her home in Brooklyn, New York. You can find out more about Selina Alko at SelinaAlko.com, Facebook, and Instagram.

Selina talked about her childhood, how she had always loved reading. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, with a Turkish Jewish father who spoke seven languages and taught painting, and a Jewish mother who worked in the family's century-old metal recycling business. She moved to New York city to study art, partly because her family had relatives there.

From early on, Selina was especially interested in the idea of diversity and inclusion, especially because of her own upbringing, and social justice.

One of the subjects Selina was drawn to: Joni Mitchell. Selina has been a fan of Joni Mitchell's since childhood.

"Whatever kind of story you're telling, be passionate and excited about it!" Selina advises. The process takes a long time, she says, so you want to be sure.

For every book project, Selina keeps a sketchbook. Here's the sketchbook she kept for her Joni Mitchell project, full of mixed media; she says this was a great way to brainstorm and inspire.

Selina chose to focus on Joni when she was a child, to make the book more accessible for young readers and provide an entry point. She and her editor ended up also taking out elements like Joni's pregnancy and baby for the same reason; these decisions were made fairly late in the process, Selina says.

Art was created using multimedia, including layers of collage: cut paper, found images, and acrylic paint.

For STARS OF THE NIGHT, Selina was intentional with her use of color (as she is with the rest of her books). In this case, she used different colors to help young readers follow particular children throughout the book. She also used stars as a motif throughout, to surround and support the children in the story.

Selina answered attendee questions at the end of the session. Some of the topics that came up:

Even when creating picture book biographies about sad and difficult topics, says Selina, there are ways to include elements of hope.

Advice for new picture book biography creators: Don't just include facts. Look for a personal connection. Find the emotional heart. Look for elements that kids can relate to, be able to identify with the children in the story.

Build in regular time for PLAY. In addition to your own creative playtime, Selina suggested creating your own retreat with a friend, or check out an organized retreat like Milkwood.

------

If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/summer-conference-2023. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 10th, 2023. See the index to all 2023 SCBWI Summer Conference blog posts.

Also be sure to check out the Faculty Conference Bookshop and the Portfolio Showcase!