"I hope it sparks conversations about our shared humanity and the things we have in common.” Debut PB Author M.O. Yuksel and Illustrator Hatem Aly on IN MY MOSQUE

By Sara Truuvert

M.O. Yuksel never imagined she would be an author, but that changed when she was asked to read to her son's preschool class a picture book about a Muslim holiday. Unable to find such a book suited to her son's age group, she decided to write one herself, launching her journey to authorship. After years of writing and rejection, M.O. published In My Mosque, her literary debut. 

In My Mosque celebrates the diversity, traditions, and joy we can find in mosques around the world. It serves as a beautiful introduction to Muslims and Islam and reminds us that mosques are welcoming centres for community and love.

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Starting Big Changes with Small Steps: Charlotte Offsay (Debut PB Author) and Illustrator Katie Rewse on THE BIG BEACH CLEANUP

By Sara Truuvert

One morning, when she was walking her young children to school, Charlotte Offsay picked up a piece of trash and threw it in a nearby garbage can. She had no idea that this simple action would spark a conversation with her children about doing their part to keep the environment clean, which would inspire her literary debut, The Big Beach Cleanup.

The Big Beach Cleanup follows Cora, a young girl excited to enter a sandcastle competition. When Cora learns that the fun has been cancelled because there is too much trash on the beach, she and her Mama get to work cleaning up. But they soon realize they can't do it alone.

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Author Shelli R. Johannes, with Co-Author Kimberly Derting and Illustrator Joelle Murray, on LIBBY LOVES SCIENCE: MIX AND MEASURE

By Sara Truuvert

"My daughter said she wasn't going to science camp because 'science was for boys.'"

Shelli R. Johannes had never written a picture book when she heard her daughter's stance on science, but it sparked the idea that she, with co-author and friend Kimberly Derting, would turn into the Loves Science series.  

Libby Loves Science: Mix and Measure is the latest instalment in the series and shows young readers that science is for everyone. When Libby's baking goes awry, can science solve the problem?

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Three Tips For Those Interested In Illustrating Children's Picture Books

I took this photo during the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase

From time to time, I answer a question on Quora about children's book illustration. I do this partly because I like to pay it forward but also because I find it a good writing exercise.

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Q: "How do you become an illustrator or artist for children's books?"

My answer on Quora:

As the others who have answered this question so far have pointed out, there is no one right route to becoming a children’s book illustrator.

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Interview with debut picture book illustrator, Ellie Arscott, whose NIGHT WALK launches from Groundwood Books *TODAY!*

I'm a longtime fan of Ellie Arscott's art, so was especially excited to hear about her debut as a children's book illustrator for NIGHT WALK, a new picture book written by award-winning author Sara O'Leary and illustrated by Ellie. Launching Sept. 29th from Groundwood, their book has already garnered a lot of much-deserved praise, including The Wall Street Journal.

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Curious about why 32 pages is standard for picture books? (and why this DOESN'T mean you have 32 pages for story content)

I recently did a livestream showing why 32 pages is the standard for picture books, and what this means for picture book creators. In case it helps anyone, the archived version is above.

Basic reason: 32 pages can all be printed on a single sheet of paper, making it cost-effective. It's possible to make a book any number of pages, but anything non-standard tends to cost the publisher more money to print.

Sometimes the publisher will opt to do a longer book (my books with Simon & Schuster are mostly self-ended 40-page picture books), but I leave that decision to my publisher.

Video note: when I mention my own books begin on pages 6-7, by the way, it's because they are 40 pages long (I forgot to mention this, sorry).

For pre-published picture book writers with no track record, I recommend sticking to the standard 32 page template; you can always discuss the possibility of increasing the page count after your mss has been acquired.

Some resources you might find useful:

Creating Picture Books: my collection of how-to guides, free templates and resource lists.

My free, print-ready archive: includes more templates.

Tara Lazar's post on Picture Book Dummies, Picture Book Construction, and Knowing Your Layout

Video of how I created one of my broken crayon drawings

You never know what will come out of a broken crayon (#48 in series). I decided to take a video of how I created one of my broken crayon drawings, and I gave it away on Twitter - congrats to Ann Schimmoler, who won the final result (I am still waiting to hear from Ann so I can mail the doodle to her).

See my Broken Crayon Page for more art, resources for educators and info about my upcoming broken crayon book with Linda Sue Park and Simon & Schuster.

The story behind my upcoming Broken Crayons picture book with Linda Sue Park for Simon & Schuster BFYR!!!

 

I am THRILLED and HONOURED to announce that I will be illustrating a picture book by Linda Sue Park. The announcement appeared Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf last week while I was out of town:
Announcement in Mar. 22, 2018 issue of Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf

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Behind The Scenes: Illustrator Andrea Offermann and the cover of THE YIN-YANG SISTERS AND THE DRAGON FRIGHTFUL

Don't you love the gorgeous cover of The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful? Written by Nancy Tupper Ling, this upcoming picture book is illustrated by my friend, Andrea Offermann, and it comes out from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers on Sept. 18, 2018. Andrea was kind enough to share the process behind the cover design process....

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Free picture book templates, how-to guides and other resources

Over the years, I've been accumulating all the "How <title> Was Created" guides for young writers and illustrators, advice from children's book creators I've interviewwed, plus a few tips for not-so-young book creators. Feel free to browse all this info as well as my free picture book thumbnail templates at my CREATING PICTURE BOOKS resource.

Comic: Kidlit Restaurant

Teachers! I'd love to see what your students draw with broken crayons

You never know what will come out of a broken crayon.

Those of you who follow my Twitter and Instagram accounts will have seen my Broken Crayon series, now up to #35. To teachers: I'd love to see what your students draw with broken crayons! If you send me a link to an online gallery (private or public), I'd love to see. Here is some broken crayon art from 5th-graders in Grande Cache, Alberta, Canada:

Suggestions on where to post a gallery: Padlet, Flickr, Facebook album....if you know of other student-safe gallery venues (all of the ones I've mentioned can be made private if desired), please let me know (you can also tag me on social media) and I'll add it to the list.

Advice For Young Illustrators: Three Questions With Children's Book Illustrator Ana Aranda

I met the delightful Ana Aranda through the SCBWI Illustration Mentorship program, when she was selected for the program in 2014. I love Ana's positive outlook, enthusiasm and good humor....and I especially love her ART! Ana was born and raised in Mexico City, she currently lives in San Francisco. You can find her work in picture books, art exhibitions and murals in the US and abroad. Ana’s biggest inspirations are her childhood memories, the vibrant colors of Mexico, and music. You can find Ana at her website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and her blog.

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A Compilation Of Advice For Young Writers & Illustrators From Children's Book Creators

Thanks to all the children's book writers and illustrators who have contributed advice for young writers and illustrators in their Inkygirl.com interviews over the years! I'm gradually going through my archives as well as my interviews with authors of books I've illustrated and compiling a list of advice takeaways.

If you click on the author's name beside each piece of advice, you can read the full interview.

Here is the list of advice for young writers and artists from published children's book creators.

Behind-the-scenes: How new picture book PIRASAURS! was created, with insights from author Josh Funk and illustrator Michael Slack

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Back in May 2013, I posted an interview with Celia Lee, an editor at Cartwheel Books / Scholastic, and Celia invited Inkygirl readers to submit manuscripts for a limited time; apparently Celia received over a thousand submissions (!). A couple of years later, I met Josh Funk at nErDcampMI and found out that he had sold one of his picture book manuscripts to Celia as a result of my Inkygirl post, and it was being illustrated by Michael Slack.

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How does Penguin Random House senior art director Guiseppe Castellano find illustrators?

Aspiring children's book illustrators should check out Guiseppe Castellano's blog post, "The Search For Illustrators." Lots of useful and interesting info here about how to connect with people in the industry, whether or not you're an illustrator.

Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror, plus advice for writers and illustrators

Just finished reading Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror by Chris Priestley, with wonderfully creepy illustrations by David Roberts. I've always been a fan of scary stories ever since I was little and I used to write a lot of scary, sinister short stories in grade school. My eighth grade teacher attended my I'M BORED book launch, which was a total (and wonderful) surprise, and apparently he was telling my husband about how many of the stories I wrote back then were very dark.

I don't read as much horror now but I do still love indulging in creating creepydark illustrations sometimes, just for the fun of it.

Speaking of illustrations, here's a fun interview on The Independent's children's book blog with illustrator David Roberts. Interesting that David says he doesn't think much about the age group when he's working on book illustrations. He says his work is more a response to the story. His tip for aspiring illustrators: "Don't be afraid of that vast expanse of white paper (or I guess these days you could say computer screen). Sometimes your mistakes can be good and you can always start again if you don’t like it."

Chris Priestly advises young writers to have at least a rough outline of their story. "Give yourself a decent start and plan where you are going. You don’t have to stick to it – but it will make your life easier and it will mean that you will be less likely to give up."

More info about Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror on the Bloomsbury website. 

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For more: please see the archives of my #BookADay posts, which began when I participated in Donalyn Miller's #bookaday challenge.

Colby Sharp, Judy Blume and Green Kangaroos

Above: I love teacher Colby Sharp's enthusiasm for reading and how he shares it with his students. "READING IS AWESOME!"

Thanks to Colby for letting me use his classroom as photo reference for some of the illustrations I did for the Judy Blume chapter books. He and my teacher friend Allison Durno were kind enough to share reference photos with me during the process.

Here's how my illustration for pg 7 of THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE IS THE GREEN KANGAROO (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, 2014) began:

Then it became this:

Then I referred to a couple of stills from a short video that Colby sent me:

Video still courtesy Colby Sharp, reposted with permission.Video still courtesy Colby Sharp, reposted with permission.

and the illustration became this:

Then Simon & Schuster art director Lauren Rille worked her magic and here's the final page layout:

In thanks for the photo ref, I put Colby in the auditorium crowd near the end of the book:

So fun!

Anyway, do check out Colby's SharpRead blog and the Nerdy Book Club, which he co-founded.

Read more about how Simon & Schuster's Lauren Rille and I created a new look for Judy Blume classics at the Nerdy Book Club.

To find out more about the Judy Blume books I illustrated, see my Illustrating Judy Blume page. I'll also be talking about the process during a panel discussion at the INSPIRE! Toronto Book Fair on Sunday, November 16th on the Spark Stage at 1 pm.

Libraries Inspire: October is Canadian Library Month!

Happy Canadian Library Month!

Inkygirl Profile: Brian Won, HOORAY FOR HAT! & tips for children's book writer/illustrators

Congrats to my friend Brian Won, whose HOORAY FOR HAT! launches today from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I met Brian through the SCBWI Illustration Mentorship program (see today's THANK YOU to the SCBWI), and he's one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet.

You can find out more about HOORAY FOR HAT! and download an activity kit from http://www.brianwon.com/hoorayforhat. You can find Brian at BrianWon.com, @bwon1 on Twitter, BrianOneADay on Tumblr, bwon1 on Instagram, and Brian Won Illustration on Facebook.

Here's a plot summary of HOORAY FOR HAT! from Brian's website:

"Elephant wakes up grumpy—until ding, dong! What's in the surprise box at the front door? A hat! HOORAY FOR HAT! Elephant marches off to show Zebra, but Zebra is having a grumpy day, too—until Elephant shares his new hat and cheers up his friend. Off they march to show Turtle! The parade continues as every animal brightens the day of a grumpy friend. An irresistible celebration of friendship, sharing, and fabulous hats."

Here's the trailer for HOORAY FOR HAT!:

Quotes from nice reviews:

"This lighthearted story revels in the small acts that make life better -- cheers all around." - Kirkus Reviews

"In this debut, Won explores the way a simple gift and a little attention from friends can have nearly magical healing properties." - Publishers Weekly

Here are some interviews and blog posts where you can find out more about Brian and his work:

Author-Illustrator Brian Won on Mr. Schu Reads: Includes fun animations, why he wrote HOORAY FOR HAT!, his Picture Book Sounds series (a peek into the music playlists of picture book authors and illustrators) and more.

A Mini-Interview With Brian Won by Juana Martinez-Neal: Brian's favourite childhood books and influences, inspiration for HOORAY FOR HAT!, his daily routine, how the SCBWI helped him on his journey to publication.

The Writing and Illustrating Process: Brian's post, part of an Author Blog Tour. Brian talks about what he's working on, how his work differs from others of its genre, his process.

KidLitArtists interview with Brian in 2013: Brian talks about his mentorship critiques and what he learned.

Things children's book writer/illustrators can learn from Brian:

Understand the emotions behind the characters you are illustrating.

Don't compare yourself to others. Instead, compare where you are now to where you came from.

Join the SCBWI and attend conferences, enter the Portfolio Showcase. You never know what might happen!

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Photo below: Goofing around with Brian and my Mentee Tribe pals at the SCBWI Summer Conference in 2013. The fellow in the blue checked shirt is Arree Chung, whose NINJA! also launches today! My next post will be about Arree and his work.