Breakout Session: Writing Rhythm and Rhyme with Tameka Fryer Brown

Tameka Fyer Brown is a picture book author who writes to sow seeds of self-love, pride, connectivity, and inclusion in the hearts of children. Her books have won awards like the Charlotte Huck Honor Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Honor Award. They have also been featured on best book lists by NPR, Parents Latina Magazine, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, New York Public Library, Kirkus, SLJ, Bank Street College, The Little Free Library, and more. Tameka’s picture books include Brown Baby Lullaby, Twelve Dinging Doorbells, Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change, and That Flag. She is a member of The Brown Bookshelf, Writers and Illustrators of North Carolina (WINC), and KidLit in Color.

Tameka Fryer Brown with her current picture books

Tameka offers inspiration: 

Anyone can learn to write picture books well, as long as you're willing to read lots and lots of mentor texts, and write about what you're passionate about.

Tameka thinks of rhythm as "the beat."

Rhythm + Rhyme = Flow

Flow is when folks see the PB as Lyrical, Evocative, Tight

To do this well, Tameka advises we need:

A consistent pattern of beats all through your manuscript. (except variations that are intentional and purposeful.)

Mellifluous language

Great read aloud

There will always be demand for rhyming picture books -- rhyme is good for kids learning how to read because of its predictive nature.

Make sure every single word and line moves the story forward, is clear, concise, and sensory-rich. (Don't rhyme just to rhyme.)

On Rhythm, 

Tameka reads us from her Brown Baby Lullaby, walking us through how we can "Check Your Flow":

Read it aloud

Tap it out

Natural Pronunciation (no cheating and making POPcorn popCORN)

Varied Emphasis

Tameka references music, talking about refrains and codas, and sharing tips and examples. (Like italicizing a word to make the cadence, emphasis, and meaning work.)

A caution: copy edits can change the rhythm. Tameka reminds us we can say STET (meaning keep it as is): "You get poetic license when you're writing in poetry."

There's so much more shared, and a Q&A - what a great session!

Breakout: Page by Page: Breaking Down Picture Book Pagination with Kait Feldman

Kait Lee Feldmann is a children’s book agent at kt literary representing illustrators. She was previously an editor at HarperCollins and Scholastic. You can review her wishlist at her website: kaitfeldmann.com/mswl

Kait plans to take a different approach in talking about picture books. She plans to show us how the picture book is produced so we can work backwards which can help us know how to better work on our manuscripts. 

Kait is building a book right before our eyes so we can see how all the parts work: cover, endpapers, self-ended pages, pages, etc. 

The printing process dictates how much space you have to tell your story. 

Kait found some of the best lessons she learned about picture book pacing came from understanding how the physical book is put together. 

This is very much a visual presentation, that’s incredibly helpful to see and understand. Those in attendance, I recommend watching the replay to see for yourself. Those not attending, you can still register. The replays will be available for 30 days. scbwi.org

Tips: 

-Type out an already published picture book to see how it looks in standard manuscript format. 

-Paginate your own picture book as your working on it, but then when you are ready to submit remove the pagination.

Breakout Session: Capturing Your Life: Memoir in Picture Books with Andrea Wang

 

screenshot from the zoom of the breakout session with author Andrea Wang

Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her picture book Watercress received the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a New England Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, among other accolades. Her other books, Summer at Squee, Luli and the Language of Tea, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. Andrea holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for Young People. She lives in Colorado with her family.

Andrea talks about subject, and speaks of Watercress being a "braided memoir" where her memories in first person and her mother's memories in third person are both included.

Next we look at plot - how do you choose the events, and the order they occur, and how they relate to each other? It's not just an account of what happens, but also reveals the cause and effect.

Commenting that "memories can definitely be temperamental," Andrea poses this question to us:

What is your own sticky, significant memory? 

Andrea shares the typical picture book plot arc, breaking down "My Lost Freedom" by George Takei, Illustrated by Michelle Lee.

But what happens when your experience you want to write about doesn't fit a traditional plot arc? It's alright. 

Often, picture book memoirs have an atypical plot arc:

Introduction
Introduce the Event
Experience of the Events
Wisdom from an Elder
Moment of Realization/Acceptance
Ending

Often picture book memoirs are less about the external actions (not so much the hero's journey) and more about the internal growth - "the character arc becomes the plot arc."

Andrea walks us through how Watercress follows this plot arc, and shares additional examples of picture book that have this same kind of plot arc: A Different Pond, We Wait for the Sun, I Talk Like a River, Amah Faraway, From the Tops of the Trees, and The Most Beautiful Thing.

Andrea also covers structure, theme, and challenges us to consider: 

what connects you (and the story about your life you want to tell) to the reader?

There are writing exercises/prompts, insights into Andrea's process, and then a thoughtful and inspiring Q&A.

It's an excellent session!

Composition In Picture Books - Think Like A Filmmaker with Jim Field

Jim Field is an award-winning illustrator, character designer and animation director. His first picture book, Cats Ahoy written by Peter Bently won the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2011. Since then, he has won multiple awards including Oscar’s Book Prize, Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards and the Lollies Book Award. In 2021 Jim illustrated The Christmas Pig written by J.K Rowling. Jim’s debut author-illustrator book Monsieur Roscoe - On Holiday is a bilingual book that introduces French words to children. You can find out more about Jim at Jimfield.me and Instagram.

Jim has always loved watching cartoons, so studied animation in university. He worked as an animation director and a freelance illustrator.

Jim approaches storytelling from a filmmaker's point of view. He recommends Uri Shulevitz's Writing With Pictures as a great resource.

Picture book illustrators are like filmmakers, says Jim, taking the roles of casting director (characters), costume designer, set designer, art director, director of photography, and director (making visual decisions).

What makes a good composition? He gave examples of good composition by Frédérick Pillot and Jon Klassen, among others.

Remember proportions, says Jim. Learn the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ratio. Think about structure, and how to use placement of shapes and space to establish stability and infuse energy.

During his session, Jim showed us examples of how creators have used different shapes (triangles, circles, etc) in different compositions to convey different moods and ways of telling a story. He also gave examples of camera shots from films that use good composition.

Figuring out a story's subject and meaning will help you decide what compositions to use. Ask yourself lots of questions like "where are we?", "what is the action?", "how is the character feeling?", "how can I make this exciting?", "what references can help me?", "what needs to be in the scene"?, "what tone do I want to set?", "what can make an interesting perspective?" etc.

When illustrating THE KOALA WHO COULD, the challenge was that most of the story takes place in a tree, featuring a character who didn't want to move or change. Jim used composition techniques to help add visual variety.

A few more tips:

Find ways to use composition to entice the reader into the story from beginning. First impressions count.

Make the visual story flow left to right to help carry the reader through the book. 

Experiment with cropping the artwork to capture the energy. Vary with a longer shot, which gives breathing space to the image. Play around with changing the perspective.

Use multiple frames to show time passing.

To put more focus on the main character, simplify the background - or get rid of the background altogether, just using a vignette.

Use lighting and shadows to create atmosphere.

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Register for the SCBWI Summer Conference at https://www.scbwi.org/events/summer-conference-2023. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 10th, 2023.

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

Keys To Picture Book Magic with Joy Chu

Joy Chu teaches classes on children's book illustration and portfolio development at UCSD Extended Studies. A long-time veteran of the book publishing industry, she has art directed and designed thousands of books for many publishers, most recently Levine Querido, Scholastic, and Gallaudet University Press. Prior to running her own studio, she was art director for children's and adult trade books at Harcourt in San Diego; and in-house designer at Holt, Crowell/HarperCollins, and Knopf, in New York. Her books have garnered awards from the AIGA, ALA, SCBWI, and Publishers Weekly. You can find more about Joy on Facebook and Instagram.

Every book is magic, Joy says.

Joy's advice:

Be willing to make a lot of mistakes. You don't need fancy expensive art supplies. It all starts with a single line. Joy advises just plain paper and pencil to start. Instead of the term "mistakes", Joy uses "necessary experiments" or "opportunities."

Joy shared some of the art direction and creative process behind THE LITTLE TOYMAKER by Cat Min (Levine Querido).

"It's wonderful when an artist puts some of themselves in their book illustrations," says Joy, pointing out various elements in Cat Min's art that were connected with the artist's own experiences and life.

Even if you're working on a fictional world, you need to make it convincing.

Fascinating to hear about some of the changes that Joy suggested to the illustrator, and reasoning behind them. Just one example: Joy encouraged Cat to update the older woman's character to make her less of a "stereotypical old lady" character. Joy praised Cat for being so flexible and open to suggestions.

Joy praised illustrator Dow Phumiruk for being so thorough in her research for the illustrations in LAST FLIGHT, written by Kristen Mai Giang, published by Levine Querido. 

Through this part of the session, Joy kept pointing out how fantastic Dow is at capturing emotions and attention to details. In this spread, Joy said that Dow came up with the idea of having the parents of the family on the right distracting the kids so they wouldn't be upset by the crying woman. Also, says Joy, check out all the different types of hands ("so many hands of comfort").

Thanks to Joy for sharing some of her secrets for Picture Book Magic, and to Cat and Dow for letting Joy share their art!

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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.

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.

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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!

Creative Lab: The Miracle of the Picture Book with Allyn Johnston

Allyn Johnston is VP and publisher of Beach Lane Books, a San Diego-based children’s book imprint that she founded on April Fool’s Day, 2008. Among the authors and illustrators with whom she works are Marla Frazee, Lauren Stringer, Cynthia Rylant, Arthur Howard, Mark Teague, Mem Fox, Linda Davick, Jeanette Winter, Jonah Winter, Jan Thomas, Mary Lyn Ray, Amy Schwartz, Aura Lewis, Katie Mazeika, K. L. Going, and Debra Frasier.

Allyn Johnston reads and analyses one of many picture books during this Creative Lab

At the start of three breakout sessions on the "Miracle of the Picture Book," Allyn shares that she's looking for "imaginative brilliance" -- a manuscript that "delivers an emotional impact," an emotional experience that effects the reader and the child/children the book is being read to.

Allyn encourages us to consider that "it's not just a book, it's a performance for the reader" and that when picture books are done right, it's "Holy work at its best."

Among many shared examples, Allyn reads School's First Day of School by Adam Rex, illustrated by Christian Robinson, aloud to us, then considers what makes it work: How it's funny, emotional, a completely fresh take on the concept, with dialog that advances the story and deepens the emotion. And a good refrain.

When writing a manuscript, Allyn offers the advice that you're "writing a script for a piece of theater on the stage of a picture book."

And then we get hands-on! To make the point that a picture book manuscript is not just a block of text, Allyn prepared a block of text for us to cut up and place into a book dummy. (We take eight blank 8.5"x11" pages, folded hamburger style to make a 32 page dummy). 

The room at work!

Close up exercise work - printed out manuscript as block of text, scissors, and tape/glue

The text we do the exercise with is from Scarecrow, by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer. 

After we've made our own choices, we get to compare the choices Lauren made for page breaks in illustrating the text by Cynthia.

Maybe the most valuable aspect of this 7.5 hour workshop is Allyn's live reading of first pages submitted by attendees, with her live commentary on what grabs her and what doesn't -- and why. 

There's lots more example books, Q&A, and advice... an amazing Creative Lab!

Feeling Stories with Kelly Starling Lyons

Kelly Starling Lyons is a founding member of The Brown Bookshelf, teaching artist, and award-winning children’s book author. She has written more than 20 books for young readers that span from easy readers to picture books and chapter books. Among her acclaimed titles are My Hands Tell a Story, Caldecott Honor winner, Going Down Home with Daddy, Christopher Award winner, Tiara’s Hat Parade, and Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice & Sing Inspired Generations. She’s also the author of popular series including Jada Jones, Miles Lewis and Ty’s Travels which won a Geisel Honor Award for Zip, Zoom. Kelly lives in Raleigh and was named to Good Morning America’s 2021 Inspiration List: Who’s Making Black History. Learn more about her at www.kellystarlinglyons.com. 

Kelly Starling Lyons presents her session on Picture Books

The full title of Kelly's breakout session is "Feeling Stories: Creating Picture Books That Pack an Emotional Punch."

Kelly opens with some tips on writing picture books, including:

- There are no absolute rules

- Child main character should solve problem on their own (but elders can be important - they are in Kelly's work)

- Leave room for the art to tell the story, too

- Craft each page turn like a mini-cliffhanger

- It needs to stand up for repeated readings

With mentor text examples and exercises, Kelly walks us through ways to create emotion. Mining our memories and experiences. Keeping a journal or file of ideas. Looking at our life with a "writer's eye."

She suggests that #1, we make a list of:

Best and worst school or family memories (from when you were 4-8 years old)

and/or

Experiences or relationships that inspired you or changed you

An example Kelly gives is girls at school making fun of her outfits.

Next, #2, she asks us to write down, for each item on our memory list, our emotions -- how did we grow or change?

As an example, Kelly tells us about those mean girls at school - and how she experienced embarrassment at first for being picked on, then fear because some of the girls were tough, then anger at being picked on, then relief when she figured out how to deal with them, then finally empowerment in being able to stand proud in the outfits she chose to wear.

Kelly quotes Jacqueline Woodson's inspiring words:

"...when I write, I go back and I remember who I was, and I start crafting my characters from that place. My writing starts with something that I know deeply, and then put it onto and into my characters." –Jacqueline Woodson

Show emotion with Touch, Dialog, Smells, Sounds, Taste  - think about how you can bring emotions to life. "It's really important to use sensory detail..." Keep in mind the illustrator will be focusing on what the character sees, and you can focus on the other senses!

#3, Kelly has a write a scene, 

and then #4 asks us to create a character who is dealing with the emotional truth of our memory. 

Consider: What does our character want? And what is standing in our character's way? "We have to feel that longing." And raise the stakes. Why does it matter so much? How do you make the reader feel how much it means? What's at stake if the character doesn't get it?

There's lots more, with Kelly answering audience questions, talking about self-publishing and how there are no shortcuts, her own publishing journey and being published by multiple publishing houses, and many more examples, from Kelly's own books and other mentor texts, too.

Final gem of advice:

Write from your heart

Debut Author Panel: Colleen Paeff

Colleen Paeff received a bachelor’s degree in set design for theater from California State University, Fullerton, before becoming a bookseller, preschool teacher, and newspaper columnist. (She never did become a set designer!) Her debut picture book, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem (illustrated by Nancy Carpenter), was named a 2022 Robert F. Sibert Informational Fiction Honor Book and won the 2022 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Text for Young Readers. 

What were you like as a kid? 

Colleen had a huge imagination as a kid, and like fellow panelist Pamela Harris, Colleen also loved Judy Blume saying, “To this day, every time Judy Blume appears, I start crying.”

When did you start writing?

Colleen got her first idea for a book in college when she was introducing her pet lizard to her dad who then leapt onto his glasses (the lizard did the leaping, not her father). Colleen admits that manuscript is still sitting in a drawer but that is what started her off. 

Between your first college lizard story and your debut book you may have experienced some challenging moments where you wanted to give up, how did you push through? 

Colleen says, “I feel like I did give up many times along the way. I had my family, and raised a child. I’d send a manuscript out and get rejected and then wait five years, and then revise it and send it out again… But the thing that really brought me back to writing seriously, after my daughter moved out for college, was I went to an SCBWI Writers Day and entered one of the contests."

Colleen's lizard story won one of these contests and that gave her the thought that maybe there was something there, it gave her a boost of confidence… "Now when I look back at the editor rejection letters, I received they weren’t really rejection letters—I didn’t realize what a big deal it was for someone to take the time to write something personal—it was actually an invitation to do more.”

Colleen credits trusting herself more than learning a new element of writing craft as the biggest factor in her sales success, and that a big part learning to trust herself came from finally finding her writing community. When Colleen first started to get serious about publishing she sent a request out on the SCBWI message board asking for people who were in the LA area that might want to join a monthly children’s book club. Ann Whitford Paul ended up seeing that post and invited Colleen to a write-in where she met lots of other local children’s book creators.

How did The Great Stink come about?

“How to be a Victorian was a book I was reading as research for another project, and it mentioned something called The Great Stink: When the River Thames was fullllll of sewage, and then, when a heat wave happened, it created this horrible, horrible smell…”

Colleen happened to be going to London and while there visited the Crossness Pumping station that pumped all that stink into a reservoir. Colleen found it all so fascinating. “What I hope readers take away, what I didn’t even realize, is that we still have billions of gallons of raw sewage going into our fresh waterways every year.” 

How has publishing changed your life? 

Colleen still has the same voices in her head saying the same mean things, sadly the publishing deal did not make the voices go away, but she keeps writing anyway. “Writing is so weird, for such a long time you don’t have The Book Deal. And yet you’re still spending so much time writing, working on it, revising, and YOU have to be the one to do it all. Now I feel like I have a team of people who have faith that I can publish a book, too.”

Look for Colleen's second book, Rainbow Truck (co-written with Hina Abidi and illustrated by Saffa Khan) from Chronicle Books in August of 2023 and learn more about her at www.colleenpaeff.com or on Instagram @ColleenPaeff and Twitter @ColleenPaeff.

Debut Author Panel: Winsome Bingham

 

Winsome Bingham is a soul food connoisseur and master cook (at dinner parties, reunions, and get-togethers). She is a teacher by trade, and author by choice, and a disabled military veteran by circumstance. She received both a bachelor's and master's degrees in education and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She has more than 15 years of  teaching experience. You can find her writing on a deck while waiting patiently with a camera to capture a submarine shooting out of the water or acquiring and editing manuscript that will one day find its place on bookshelves around the world. 

Winsome's debut picture book SOUL FOOD SUNDAY is about a little boy coming of age and his granny who teaches him to cook soul food.

What were you like as a kid, and was there some part of your childhood that made you feel called to do this work?

As a kid, being a writer wasn't on Winsome's radar. But when she was growing up her granny read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, and Winsome read every single one, too. She loved to read. But, it wasn't until she was working in high schools that she found herself creating stories for her students (out of need), and she started to put those students into the stories. At one point her VA therapist encouraged her to get back to what she liked, and luckily for all of us, writing was one of those things. 

Was there a time you wanted to give up, and what made you keep going? 

Someone wanted her to take God out of the book, but Winsome wasn't willing to do that. Having God in the book was about being totally true to the character. Winsome shares that there can be things that you can be willing to let go of, but if it's something you firmly believe in, stick with it. 

Winsome also added to some previous panelist's comments sharing that it's a good thing to remember that agents and editors get rejected too. She also reminds us that agents work for you. 

What was the craft lesson, that once it snapped into place, you sold your debut book?

Everyone's journey is so different. Winsome shares that she hates revising. Currently she's been revising a picture book for over a year. Sometimes you just can't get it right. She wants to get it right the first time around, and part that is because she has a traumatic brain injury, and she doesn't trust her brain.

Revising is part of the process, and for Winsome part of that is being able to talk it through (with her agent and editor). 

How did your debut begin for you, what did it teach you about yourself, and what do you hope it makes readers think about? 

For Winsome, Soul Food is about community. It's about love. She wanted to write a book about black joy. There are so many books about black and brown people that have an oppressive narrative.

How has publishing changed your life? 

"I don't know if it changed my life, because I'm still doing what I do." But Winsome took a job in publishing and now works as an editor at a publishing house, Reycraft Books. Now Winsome has some say in stories that get into readers' hands. 

Final thoughts:

Read, read, read. And write the story that you want to write. 

Cecilia Yung: Art Directors Panel #scbwiWinter22

Cecilia Yung is executive art director and vice president at Penguin Books for Young Readers, where she oversees illustration and design for two imprints, G.P. Putnam's Sons and Nancy Paulsen Books. 

The majority of Cecelia's work is on picture books, so that's where she'll focus. Picture books are a very particular art form. A picture books is usually 32 to 40 pages long, typically for 4 to 7 year olds--readers who are also learning about life. Books can hep us make sense of ourselves and our world. Pictures become mirrors. We can recognize ourselves and the characters and their situations. Pictures become windows when they portray new characters and new situations and are authentic and believable. And books can introduce new ideas. 

Ceclia shares, "You have to see the story and feel the story." And she takes us through the beauty of the following books. 

WONDER WALKERS by Micha Archer 

IN A JAR by Deborah Marcero

THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-basha, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu

NINA by Traci N. Todd, illustrated by Christian Robinson

"Powerful picture book illustration help the reader SEE the idea behind the story FEEL its mind-altering world-changing possibilities."