Having trouble choosing a children’s-book writing course? I don’t blame you!

When I decided to take an online children’s picture book writing course, I had no idea where to start (I’ll tell you where I ended up later on, and offer a few more good suggestions as well.).

Googling “children’s picture-book writing course” turns up a dizzying range of courses, from universities (expensive!) to individual authors’ homemade courses (sketchy?).  Some claim to have been around for 30-some-odd years, while many others have popped up overnight.

All these courses claim to be the BEST.  How can you tell them apart? 

The good news is that you can find decent courses at a few different price levels.  As for which ones will actually help you get ahead… I’m convinced that has more to do with your attitude than with the teacher (as long as he/she is reasonably competent).

I’ve taken a bunch of creative writing classes, both online and in person.  Some were good, a couple were great… one (in-person at a major university) was pretty bad:  we spent much of the time looking at the professor’s own (mediocre) writing.

Here are three questions to help you narrow down what you’re looking for:

1.  What is my goal for the course?

Do you want to get your story down on paper?  Are you struggling with stilted language?  Or are you at the stage of figuring out how to get it in front of as many publishers as possible? 

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Twenty years PLUS: Mini-interview with Barbara Reid

About a million years ago, or eight, as part of an early-years literacy program, our family got a free copy of a wonderful book called, Read Me a Book (how meta is that?!).

The writer’s name was a source of endless hilarity to my daughter as she grew up – Barbara Reid. Perhaps because of that, the name stuck with us, and we started seeing her books everywhere.

Perhaps that’s just because she’s written and illustrated so many other books, all in her trademark Plasticine style. (I guess there’s something about this kind of medium; one of my favourite interviews so far for this blog has been with Jo Litchfield, who works in a rather similar style using Fimo models.)

All my kids and I have been fascinated over the years, through many of Barbara’s books, by the way her illustrations are rich with detail, often odd little details you only notice on the third (or thirtieth) reading.

(from Picture a Tree, 2013)

The Interview

I was honoured to have had a chance to chat with Barbara recently

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Deconstructing the story: Mini-Interview with Writer/Illustrator Rinat Hoffer

Rinat Hoffer is probably the most popular and perhaps prolific children’s-book author in Israel today. But for me and my kids, she’s something more – a friendly, fun bridge to Israeli culture and life in this strange, busy, modern country.

We first “met” her books back in Canada at our local public library. I can’t tell you how long it would take me to pick books from their Hebrew books shelf.

Before continuing, I just want to show you what MOST of the Hebrew kids’ books that I found looked like inside:

Yes, they really were this bad.  And this is one of the good ones.  I mean, the bunny and girl are kind of cute.  It’s just dated, with little sense of design and overly dense text.

The language inside (and these are kids’ books, not War and Peace!) was almost as incomprehensible to me as it is to you (unless you’re fluent, in which case, skip to the end – there’s a video). And the art… well, growing up with many of the classics of modern kidlit, something was definitely lacking.

Even back in Canada, Rinat helped change my mind completely.

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What’s the Rush (Limbaugh)?

Commentators are screeching that Rush Limbaugh shouldn’t get an award for a kids’ book he published late last year.  What do you think?

Now, I’m not American, never have been.  I like to think that makes me more objective about U.S. history, politics and political commentary.  So okay, Rush Limbaugh came out with a kids’ book – on that, I’m kind of neutral. 

But when I hear everyone shrieking that he shouldn’t even be short-listed for an award for that same book, yeah, I start getting nervous.

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