Using Picture Books to Help Children Understand Our Diverse World

 

In this exploration of Using Picture Books to Help Children Understand Our Diverse World, let me begin with a quote that many of us are familiar with:

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created and recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books. (1990, p. ix)” Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita of Education at Ohio State University and a pioneer in multicultural children’s literature research.

My picture book Egyptian Lullaby was released in April 2023. I wrote Egyptian Lullaby to normalize Arab culture because Hollywood and the media had done such a bang-up job of demonizing Arabs.

I often present at teacher’s conferences on Using Picture Books to Decenter White Culture and Re-center Diversity. When I present, I ask teachers to evaluate their classroom libraries. I invite them to:

Identify their 10 favorite picture books that they read to their class every year. Who are the protagonists? What percentage of the picture books have non-white or Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) protagonists? What percentage have animal protagonists that tell their story through a white/dominant culture lens? What percentage have white protagonists?

After we explore teacher’s choices, we look specifically at context so I ask:

Of the picture books that they read to their class each year, featuring BIPOC protagonists…What percentage highlight universal themes i.e. human experiences, friendship or family relationships? What percentage focus on the struggle, trauma, resistance, or resilience of BIPOC people?  What percentage are about culture as expressed through food, holidays, traditions or rituals?

The hope is that their libraries become more balanced, showing BIPOC people as whole people living rich and full lives.

I know that my fellow teachers as well as myself, come to our classes with internal biases. It is impossible to not. When we examine the picture books we read to young students, we have a better chance of not reinforcing stereotypes and assumptions which are transferred subtly. If we consciously shift the way we center marginalized cultures and not reinforce the dominant culture, we have the power to normalize true diversity and create a lens through which children see a world where many different peoples and cultures live equitably.  In addition to racial equity, we must value all stories that include LGBTQIA protagonists, main characters with disabilities, stories that honor gender in all its forms and non-binary characters, as well as stories that look at the patriarchal system, etc.

It is imperative that children not in the dominant culture, see themselves in books.  If they don’t, they develop without understanding their value.  They miss the opportunity to connect with their true, authentic selves. They grow lacking the understanding of who they are and who they will become in the world.  And they move through a world where they don’t belong. Because preschool and primary school teachers use picture books to introduce and teach content to our younger students, access to children’s books that center currently marginalized voices make a profound difference. It creates an awareness where young students belonging to communities experiencing marginalization can now see themselves as valued in the same way young students belonging to the white community do.

With diverse picture books, students identifying as white can see themselves as part of a community without the limitations, that devaluing others brings.  Providing a balanced view of the world for young children is imperative to promoting equity. Afterall, if we keep reinforcing that Eurocentric cultures have more value to our young children through the literature we read, we cannot be surprised when adults who are in the dominant culture are unable to recognize their privilege. Ultimately this is a disservice to children in the dominant culture because it puts undue expectations on them and creates an unbalanced world for them to navigate. They lose the opportunity to learn and grow with others not like them.  In short, nobody wins.

As a community of authors, we must make space for the diversity of books.  I am not suggesting that we stop creating stories.  I am suggesting that we be mindful and understand the context in which we are creating. I am suggesting that we create a culture of abundance rather than a culture of scarcity. If teachers and librarians, can choose from a greater variety of books, we can consciously shift the way we center marginalized cultures and not reinforce the dominant culture, only.  We can create a lens through which children see a world where many different peoples and cultures live equitably.  A world where we can address the unequal power dynamics.  A world where we demonstrate valuing all people and most importantly bring marginalized people out of the margins. Valuing stories about many different and diverse protagonists, helps motivate the publishing industry to create and value the stories of currently marginalized peoples. It creates opportunities for writers and artists to tell their stories that may not otherwise get told. And it influences what book stores choose to carry and market. It helps motivate the publishing industry to create and value the stories of people not in the dominant paradigm.

Of particular concern, is the current political climate that encourages book banning. Banning books discourages books that act as what Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop refers to as "mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors." Encouraging the simple, doable act of thoughtfully choosing a wide variety of books that decenters dominant culture leads to change.  Banning books blocks this change.  And perhaps this is the purpose.  I think most authors understand that this is what makes this movement nefarious and dangerous.

Sometimes, a small subtle change, a slight shift in our awareness away from the dominant culture, a small choice can make a world of difference and open a whole new way of being for children, families, and ultimately communities. While authors, teachers, and librarians can't completely change the world, we can help shape and contextualize the world our children experience through the literature we provide for them, thus creating equity and justice for both the entitled and unentitled. We can help our students reimagine our world and see it as the diverse place it is, especially in the United States. We can all deconstruct the dominant paradigm.  

By Zeena M. Pliska

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Zeena M. Pliska spends her days immersed in the joy of 5-year-olds.  She is a public school kindergarten teacher by day and a children’s book author by night in Los Angeles, California.  A progressive public-school educator, she believes that the most important aspect of teaching is listening to children. A social justice activist and organizer for over 30 years, she brings race, class, and gender analysis to everything she does.  She is half Egyptian and half Filipino.  A lifetime storyteller, she has facilitated stories as a theater director, visual artist, photographer and journalist and most recently as a short film screenwriter/producer/director.   Her debut picture book, Hello, Little One:  A Monarch Butterfly Story from Page Street Kids came out May 12, 2020.  Her second picture book Egyptian Lullaby from Roaring Brook Press came out April 18, 2023. Two board books in the Chicken Soup for Babies series from Charlesbridge came out in the fall and winter of 2023.  Egyptian Lullaby was awarded the 2024 CABA award from Howard University.

Her blog posts can be found at  www.teachingauthors.com and on social media, Instagram @zeenamar, X (formerly Twitter) @zeenamar1013, Bluesky @zeenamar, and on Facebook @Zeena M. Pliska or Zeena Mar.  For more information you can go to www.zeenamar.

Should parents be allowed to opt their children out of seeing books that include people who are different than themselves?

At Issue:

In this poignant essay in TIME, Our Books Help Teach LGBTQ Themes in Schools. Should SCOTUS Allow Parents to Opt Out?, children's book authors Sarah and Ian Hoffman explain their perspective on being both the parents of a child who doesn't fit the gender binary's strict two-and-only-two boxes of behavior and the authors of one of the books being challenged in a case about to go the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

They write,

Jacob’s Room to Choose is one of nine children’s picture books named in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a lawsuit filed in Montgomery County, Md., by parents who are upset that their children saw books like ours in their classrooms—books that teach self-acceptance and kindness.

Speaking of the power of representation – how meaningful it is when you have it, how devastating when you don't, Sarah and Ian share:

Allowing families to opt their children out of reading our books hurts the children whose lives and families are reflected in those books. “Opt-out” policies starkly communicate to classrooms of children that behaving decently to all human beings is optional and tells kids who are different that they and their families don’t merit the respect of all their classmates.

Some Thoughts on Creating In the Midst of This:

I'm a Gay man who writes books to empower kids and teens. Many of my books are inspired by Queer history and social justice.

The precedent if SCOTUS allows parents to opt-out of seeing and knowing diverse books exists would be wide-ranging. It's not much of a stretch to envision the subsequent groups whose representation in schools would be denied next... 

But diverse readers who need to see themselves reflected in books will still need that representation. 

And readers from the dominant culture will still need to have empathy and understand that they share so much with people who on the outside may seem really different from themselves.

And maybe most of all, living in community doesn't mean everyone is the same. Rather than seeing that as something to deny, or tolerate, or even accept, shouldn't we be working toward a world where our differences are celebrated?

That's the world I want my kiddo to live in. It's the world I want to help create. And that's a big part of what drives me creatively.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Using Picture Books to Explore Uncomfortable Topics

 In this post, I’d like to have a look at Using Picture Books to Explore Uncomfortable Topics. As a teacher, I believe that uncomfortable topics surface organically when students feel heard.  

Deep topics come up often without warning and at random times.  For 5-year-olds, they can range from what might seem like mundane issues for adults to problems that are recognized as trauma.

Young children are just beginning to explore and make sense of a larger world.  It can be joyful, wonder-filled, and scary.  Relationships are new.  Friendships are complicated.  Control and power are tools that young children are just starting to experiment with.  Questions emerge like:  Who has power? How do I get power? What do I do with it when I get it? 

Moving through relationships with limited tools can be confusing.  What happens when my best friend wants to play with someone else? What happens to my best friend when I want to make a new friend? Simple goodbyes can be excruciating. Transitions can upset.  Fairness is an ongoing theme.  What is fairness? It doesn’t feel fair when others don’t want to play the game I want to play in the way I want them to play it. I want the toy that the other child has.  It’s not fair that they won’t give it to me. What does it mean to share?  

When uncomfortable topics emerge, I lean into picture books with stories where students can see themselves for support.  Stories can provoke discourse and inquiry, which can be expanded by introducing more picture books.  I look for stories with protagonists who are going through similar experiences, situations, or feelings that allow students to find a relevant relationship.  Stories help us connect with others.  They help students navigate difficult events, trauma, or topics that are uncomfortable.  They help students know they are not alone, alienated or marginalized.  They help connect students with each other who might have the same concerns so that they can support each other.  It helps build community. I find that one picture book leads to another.  Picture books soothe.  Picture books comfort.  Picture books can gently and safely acknowledge the wounds to help begin the healing.

When you’re five, the world is beginning to change.  Many go to formal school for the first time.  Topics that are difficult for children include moving, divorce, bullying, inclusion, exclusion, social cues, making friends, keeping friends, fairness, power, grief, loss, pet loss, losing friendships, different forms of families, domestic violence, gun violence, police violence, alcohol/drug abuse of family members, cognitively declining grandparents, death, racism, disability rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, losing your home, immigration, and natural disasters. 

In addition to using picture books to help students explore subjects that are challenging and difficult for them, parents and teachers can also use these stories to make palatable, topics that are uncomfortable for adults.

Children are honest and raw.  They say what they want to say often without filters.  They speak from the heart and often don’t mask their true feelings. This can be uncomfortable for the adults in their lives.  Parents and Teachers may struggle to support topics like LGBTQIA+ questions, grief, racism, disability rights, etc. Picture books can help scaffold and support adults.   Picture books can give the words and context.  Stories can help adults find access points for children.  They may even provide multiple points of access for extremely challenging topics, creating many different conversations.  Picture books can help adults gain new insight as well, possibly leading to more empathy for young children who are trying to make sense of their world. 

By Zeena M. Pliska

Zeena M. Pliska spends her days immersed in the joy of 5-year-olds.  She is a public school kindergarten teacher by day and a children’s book author by night in Los Angeles, California.  A progressive public-school educator, she believes that the most important aspect of teaching is listening to children. A social justice activist and organizer for over 30 years, she brings race, class, and gender analysis to everything she does.  She is half Egyptian and half Filipino.  A lifetime storyteller, she has facilitated stories as a theater director, visual artist, photographer and journalist and most recently as a short film screenwriter/producer/director.   Her debut picture book, Hello, Little One:  A Monarch Butterfly Story from Page Street Kids came out May 12, 2020.  Her second picture book Egyptian Lullaby from Roaring Brook Press came out April 18, 2023. Two board books in the Chicken Soup for Babies series from Charlesbridge came out in the fall and winter of 2023.  Egyptian Lullaby was awarded the 2024 CABA award from Howard University.

Her blog posts can be found at  www.teachingauthors.com and on social media, Instagram @zeenamar, X (formerly Twitter) @zeenamar1013, Bluesky @zeenamar, and on Facebook @Zeena M. Pliska or Zeena Mar.  For more information you can go to www.zeenamar.

What words do you repeat? Are you doing it for effect, or by default?

The robot's words I still remember from a show I watched maybe three times when I was a little kid: "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!"
Photo: A full-size replica of the B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, who was featured in the television series Lost in Space, at the Robot Hall of Fame in Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA. From Wikimedia, Public Domain

Repetition can be powerful. Humans, including readers, are wired to look for patterns.

But if not done intentionally, too much or unintentional repetition can also hold your writing back from being the best it can be.

I was thinking about this when reading "30+ Ways to Avoid Repetition of 'I' in First-Person Writing" by Kathy Steinemann. As Kathy put it, 

"Prose or poetry with an overabundance of the same words or structures will seem off. Readers might not be able to tell you what’s wrong, but they know they’re unsettled by something.”

Do you have three (or more) paragraphs in a row that start with the same character's name? 

--> Best tool for figuring this one out for me? I print out my manuscript and sit somewhere different then where I normally write. The trick when reviewing is to not get stuck in the sentences and also to not get swept away by the plot. 

Does your paragraph have the exact same sentence structure for all the sentences? 

--> I catch this by reading the manuscript out loud. Sometimes I record myself reading it, and then play it back, reading along with my voice. I catch a ton of things to smooth out this way.

Are you defaulting to characters smiling or nodding too much? This last one is something I'm always on the lookout for in my own manuscripts, and I do a pass when I revise, searching for every use of "smil" (to get all the variations of smile/smiled/smiling) and "nod" (to get all the variations of nodding.) Sometimes I ration these, only allowing certain characters the actions that are my regular go-tos.

--> Working in word on a mac, command-F opens up the "find" window. The three dots next to that let you open "List Matches in Sidebar" and that's the tool I use the most for this. It tells you how many times you've used a word, and lets you jump from one to the next. 

I hope these thoughts and techniques are helpful!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Using Picture Books to Facilitate Student-Centered Discussions Around Social Emotional Learning

I’m a kindergarten teacher by day and a picture book writer by night.  I thought it might be useful to share my insights as both a veteran teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and an agented, traditionally published kidlit author.  At the core are two different processes that often intersect and ultimately inform each other for me.

This post, the first of 4, focuses on Using Picture Books to Facilitate Student-Centered Discussions Around Social Emotional Learning.

I spend my days with 5-year-olds so I read no less than 15 picture books a week. I believe that my job as a teacher is primarily to listen to children and surface what is alive for them. Building the conditions for emotional intelligence to develop has been a passion for over 30 years. To my delight, Social Emotional Learning or SEL has become a hot topic especially in elementary education for the past decade.  This is reflected in the publishing world as well.  Picture books that reflect Social Emotional Learning are plentiful. And manuscripts on this topic always seem to be in demand.

Picture books are a great way to elicit student-led discourse around social emotional learning.  As authors, we specifically write them for young children.  We take great pains to create developmentally appropriate manuscripts using accessible language. We create characters that children relate to. As a teacher, I tend to use books that address social emotional learning through stories.  Stories help my students make sense of their world.  They recognize and form their identities, and experiences.  Stories shape their interactions and connections.  Stories help them connect to others. Children can step into stories and transform into the characters.  They can experience their feelings as well as those of others in an authentic and safe way. They  develop empathy and compassion through these reading experiences. I especially like to read stories with SEL themes and wait for students to ask questions or lead discussions that are relevant to their social emotional growth.  Often I find books that push the discourse or themes further to provoke deeper thinking.

 I have to be honest, I steer away from picture books that blatantly try and teach my students “lessons.”  Adults who impose their morality onto unsuspecting 5-year-olds usually don’t hold the student’s interest.  I am particularly sensitive about books that aren’t respectful of young children, seeing them as blank slates and not the interesting, thinking humans that they are. Children want to hear stories.  They don’t want to be preached to and believe me, they know.  

But find a good story where universal themes are woven into the characters and their relationships, and you will hold the rapt attention of an entire class.  I’m always on the hunt for these great stories that leave us hankering for a good discussion or leave us with a feel-good moment.  Lately they feel like they’re few and far between.

Don’t get me wrong.  The books my fellow picture book authors are writing and that publishing companies are buying are beautifully written.  But compared to the literature from earlier decades, many feel like they are leaning out of storytelling as we knew it and are more no-nonsense books with sparse wording or non-fiction subjects.  All have their merits and are well produced.  They just lack the storytelling of years gone by when the wordcount hovered well above and over the current 500-word norm and were not influenced by the Common Core Standards.  Books like Stella Luna and Chrysanthemum come to mind in contrast to current books with blatant “you’re beautiful,” “be you,” “be brave,” messaging. 

In 2010, the Common Core Standards were adopted for education across the country.  It’s my understanding they were not developed by educators but rather came out of the business and political community.  Technically they came from The National Governor’s Association (a political organization founded in 1908) and The Council of Chief State School Officers.  At the time, I remember noticing a huge shift away from reading and writing fiction and a move toward non-fiction literature only. This was a shift in language arts instruction in the standards and the standards dictate what teachers teach. They moved us from fiction and fantasy to non-fiction and informational text, even in the primary grades.

As a kindergarten teacher, it didn’t make sense.  It was completely out of balance.  Literary learning shifted away from a focus on imagination and pushed us toward nuts and bolts, cut and dry, no-nonsense reading and writing.  I worried about how it would affect young children and their desire to read and write.  I worried that storytelling would be devalued.  I worried that the publishing industry would shift their product to meet the new demand.  I think I was onto something fifteen years ago.

As authors, we write books that serve the current market.  If we ignore the trends and requests, we run the risk of creating books that are irrelevant. We run the risk of writing books that don’t sell.  But I have faith that complex stories will return despite the education trends.  I believe that children will eventually demand them and we will all have to listen, especially if we are writing books that address Social Emotional Learning.

Tools to use when writing stories that address SEL

By Zeena M. Pliska

 Zeena M. Pliska spends her days immersed in the joy of 5-year-olds.  She is a public school kindergarten teacher by day and a children’s book author by night in Los Angeles, California.  A progressive public-school educator, she believes that the most important aspect of teaching is listening to children. A social justice activist and organizer for over 30 years, she brings race, class, and gender analysis to everything she does.  She is half Egyptian and half Filipino.  A lifetime storyteller, she has facilitated stories as a theater director, visual artist, photographer and journalist and most recently as a short film screenwriter/producer/director.   Her debut picture book, Hello, Little One:  A Monarch Butterfly Story from Page Street Kids came out May 12, 2020.  Her second picture book Egyptian Lullaby from Roaring Brook Press came out April 18, 2023. Two board books in the Chicken Soup for Babies series from Charlesbridge came out in the fall and winter of 2023.

Her blog posts can be found at  www.teachingauthors.com and on social media, Instagram @zeenamar, X (formerlyTwitter) @zeenamar1013, Bluesky @zeenamar, and on Facebook @Zeena M. Pliska or Zeena Mar.For more information you can go to www.zeenamar.com

Why Do Authors Use Social Media? Results from a survey of 850+ authors

 

The results from this BookBub survey of authors had some interesting points, covering platforms, categories and genres, and much more. And while it wasn't a survey of just kidlit authors, it's worth checking out.

The standout point for me was the “why” authors do social media - “to reach new readers” was the top reason at 79%, but next was “to build relationships with my biggest fans” at 64%. That’s really intriguing…

Personally, I have thought of social media more as a way to reach new readers rather than thinking of it as a way to build relationships with my biggest fans, but maybe that's something I should re-examine. After all, most of the people who engage with my posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky aren't "new" to me being an author. Maybe they haven't read the latest book, but they know I'm an author...

I'll certainly give this some thought. I hope you'll find this survey's results helpful, too.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Why Book Banning Doesn't Only Harm Marginalized Readers

With news of the upcoming Supreme Court case related to LGBTQIA+ books in the classroom, I thought I'd share a personal perspective.

Many (dare I say most?) of us in the kidlit writing community agree that banning books is wrong, especially when books are being banned because of their representation of marginalized communities. We agree it's important that all kids see themselves reflected on the page. Every kid deserves to read books in which someone who looks like them, sounds like them, thinks like them, feels like them, is front-and-center in the story. Every kid deserves to feel seen. 

Most of us also agree that authors from marginalized groups deserve to write stories that reflect their communities, backgrounds, and personal histories. So, we can easily see that book banning harms both readers and authors in marginalized communities. This is the most important reason for fighting book bans. We should not erase or ignore voices just because they don't reflect the reality of those in power. 

But sometimes we think about book bans as only truly affecting people in marginalized groups, and we forget one very important point: all kids need and deserve to see not only themselves, but the world around them reflected in books. 

Reading a book from a perspective other than our own increases empathy and understanding. It helps us become a better citizen of the world. And we can only learn from history if we actually know it. Taking these books away from kids hurts everyone, not just those who are losing representation. 

A Personal Story

My son is adopted from Haiti. I always knew it was important for him to see himself on the page, through Haitian voices, Black voices, adoptee voices, disability voices, etc. His national heritage, his skin color, the way he came into our family, his cognitive disability--these were all things I could easily see, things I knew about from the time he was adopted, things I could prepare for. What I didn't know until much later is that he would also have a transgender sister (who was also undiagnosed on the autism spectrum). I didn't know, when my kids were very young, how helpful seeking out LGBTQA books would have been for them. Unfortunately, these stories were fewer and farther between when my kids were little (they're in their twenties today), and queer characters didn't appear in books nearly as often as they do now. And while my kids read widely, I don't think they read their first book with a trans main character until after we knew my daughter was trans. I often wonder if it would have been easier for everyone if it had been the other way around. The same goes for reading books with autistic main characters.

We don't always know ahead of time what type of representation our kids need to see, not just to be better citizens of the world, but to understand themselves or someone they have a personal relationship with better. We don't know who our kids' eventual neighbors will be--or their teachers, teammates, bosses, coworkers, in-laws, partners... the list goes on. 

I've been so happy to see more and more diverse representation on the shelves (at any random bookstore!) over the past ten years or so. I hate to think we might go back to a time when readers had to "seek out" diverse books to see themselves and those they love on the page. We can't let that happen.

Marginalized readers aren't the only ones who lose when their stories are banned.

Nicole M. Hewitt is an active member of SCBWI Illinois, where she's a co-rep for the Far North Suburban Network. She has been blogging about books (mostly MG and YA) for the past twelve years over at Feed Your Fiction Addiction. Nicole's debut middle grade fantasy novel-in-verse, THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN released in January of 2025 and was chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

 

 

"Knowing your history is generational wealth" —Carole Boston Weatherford on the importance of children's books about Black history

This Publishers Weekly Q&A with seven children's book authors "about their books showcasing Black cultural and historical figures, and the importance of teaching young people about the full scope of American history" is full of insights and wisdom.

Screenshot from the Publishers Weekly feature

While the quote above by Carole Boston Weatherford resonated the most with me, there's so much more good stuff shared. Read the full Q&A with Kwame Alexander, Regis and Kahran Bethencourt, Ruby Bridges, Cheryl Willis Hudson, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Carole Boston Weatherford here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

P.S. It's also a fun exercise to consider how would YOU answer the questions about your latest book (or even work-in-progress):

Why did you choose your subject? 

How did you approach the research? 

Why a picture book? 

What do you want young readers to understand about your subject? 

As book bans expand, why is it important to continue creating books that include this history for young readers?

Reaching Distracted Middle Grade Readers in New Ways

There's been much talk lately about the fact that middle graders just aren't reading as much as they used to. The middle grade market is tough right now, and publishers are scrambling to figure out how to capture the hearts and minds of kids who'd rather be staring at a screen than a printed page. The jury's still out on whether COVID's to blame or if our digital world is simply creating shorter and shorter attention spans--it's probably a combination of those things and more--but we do know that we need new strategies to get kids reading. 

Here are a few things that seem to be working:

Graphic Novels

The MG graphic novel market has been huge, and it's not showing signs of slowing down. I work at a Barnes & Noble, and I can attest to the fact that middle grade readers come out in droves for the newest big graphic novel release. Many books that were originally written in prose are being adapted into graphic novels as well. The Wings of Fire Series and the I Survived Series are great examples of books that sold extremely well in their original format and are now seeing a huge surge as graphic novels.

Shorter Books

I did a school visit the other day, and the librarian said she can't convince students to read a 400-500 page book anymore. Kids simply won't pick a book of that length up in the first place. Publishers have noticed this too, so they're looking for shorter MG novels these days. Books that are around 200 pages (40-50k words) seem to be in high demand. 

Christina Soontonvat's Legends of Lotus Island Series is a great example. These fantasy adventure books come in at only about 150 pages each, but each book has a satisfying story arc.

Highly Illustrated Novels

I've been seeing more and more highly illustrated MG novels on the shelf, a trend that I love. These books generally have a lower wordcount, just like those shorter books do, but they also have plenty of illustrations. These types of books have been around for a long time (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, anyone?), but they're becoming even more popular as a bridge from graphic novels to prose novels or as a bridge from chapter books written for younger readers (up to age 8) to novels written for 8-12 year olds. 

One of my favorite examples of a highly illustrated series is The Area 51 Files by Julie Buxbaum. I recommend this one all the time at the bookstore, and it's always met with great enthusiasm!

Hybrid Forms

Books that use alternate or hybrid formats can be very successful at capturing kids' attention. Verse
novels work well for reluctant readers because of the lower wordcount and because the increased whitespace tends to be less intimidating. Jarrett Lerner's A Work in Progress is a great example of an illustrated verse novel. Megan E. Freeman's Away uses news articles, text messages, letters, verse, scripts, and more to tell the story.

Books for middle grade readers aren't going to disappear--but the market may be changing, at least for a little while. It will be interesting to see what the next innovations are!

Your Book In The Spotlight. Two Minutes. What Would You Say?

Awards season comes with acceptance speeches for the lucky winners. Hands shaking with adrenaline and excitement as they unfold the paper so the winner can remember everything they wanted to say in the two minutes they have in front of the microphone before the orchestra plays them off the stage...

Which of course, inspires the exercise: what would you say?

You've worked so hard on your book, it's finally out in the world, and it has this moment in the spotlight.

And while your cheering section is watching, so are people who have never heard of you or your book before. What's your strategy?

Would you read a giant list of names to thank?

Would you share an anecdote about why this book is important to you – and hopefully others?

Would you acknowledge the other finalists?

Read the dedication?

Thank the judges?

Aim to make folks laugh? Cry?

Would you try to do it all?

Or would you do something else entirely?

Two minutes goes pretty fast, and while none of us control whether we'll have this opportunity, I hope it's a fun exercise for you.

Want to see how eight of your fellow #KidLit creators handle their book's moment in the spotlight? The online SCBWI Golden Kite Awards are this Friday Feb 21, 2025 from 4pm-5:30pm Pacific. You can attend for FREE – register here.

On a personal note, this exercise is real for me this year, with my The Gender Binary is a Big Lie a finalist in the Nonfiction for Older Readers category. So I have to prepare something to say... And yeah, that inspired this exercise for you.

Hope you'll join me and so many others in our #KidLit community for the online ceremony!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Write the Book of Your Heart... Even If It's Not Sellable?

I'm going to tell you a secret. When I wrote The Song of Orphan's Garden, I had no idea if I would be able to sell it. This book doesn't follow the rules--it's a fantasy in verse, a genre that basically doesn't exist. It incorporates formal poems (in other words, not free verse, but poems that follow strict rules), and I didn't even stick to only the simple poetry forms that most middle grade readers would know, like haikus. No, I put a blitz poem and an awdl gywydd poem in my book! Why? Because I like them. Because, when I started writing this story, I wanted to feel free to play. I experimented. I failed sometimes, but each time, I got closer to something that felt right to me. 

People often ask me why I wrote this story in verse. There's a school of thought that says you should only write in verse for very specific types of books: introspective stories that don't have a lot of external plot. Fantasy worldbuilding in verse is hard--and generally not recommended. So, why did I break all the rules? 

Well, when I get the inevitable question of "why verse?," I point out that my story is certainly more introspective than your average fantasy. The book is about a world falling apart, yes, but it's more about two kids who are trying to keep their hearts and minds (and bodies!) intact while the world crumbles around them. So, there certainly are good reasons this story works well in verse. But the real reason I wrote it that way? Because that's the way it came to me. 

This is the book of my heart. A story born from an image that stuck with me from a favorite childhood picture book ("The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde). That image formed such an indelible imprint on my mind that it still haunted me forty years later. When I began turning that image into The Song of Orphan's Garden, I was writing for myself, partially as a way of processing my own feelings about the divisions and problems we were facing as a country and in the world (I started writing this book in 2019--there was a lot to process). I was already on submission with another book, hoping to hear good news at any time. So, I gave myself permission to write this one exactly the way I wanted without worrying about the MG market or the eventual editor who might read it. 

Of course, you should pay attention to the old adage that says you should know the rules before you break them. 

In the end, I got the book I wanted, and I also got a publishing deal. I can't guarantee that if you write the book of your heart in exactly the way you want to, the same will happen for you. But I can guarantee that you'll learn some things along the way!

Three middle grade books that broke the rules--and sold anyway:

The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - I don't want to be too spoilery in case there are people in the world who haven't read this book yet. (What are you waiting for? You must read it!). Instead, I'll just say this book does not give us the typical happy ending we've come to expect from middle grade. This book made me sob. But I also still think about it 40 years later.

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri - This book is told in an unusual non-linear format, jumping between the present and memories, and incorporating myths as well.

Mightier Than the Sword by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison - This fun novel includes interactive elements where the reader completes puzzles, draws pictures, fills in words, and more!