How to Write a Children’s Book

…and make it good

Material• Make sure to work with concepts

children understand• Difficult ideas are NOT off limits, but

they need to be simplified• Yours may be holiday-themed or not.

This is Teddy Roosevelt. He lived in ND for a little while. Later, he became president

NOTTHIS

Many historians agree that the impetus to place Roosevelt in the vice presidency came from a desire to do away with him politically rather than any hope of his further ascendency to power.

This

Layout

• Use big letters that are easy to read.• Don’t put more than a couple

sentences on a single page.

The dragon was excited to be invited. He began practicing his dance moves.

Sometimes, even fewer words.

Appearance

• Make pictures big and brightly colored

• Yours will all be drawn by hand.• There are lots of different drawing

styles. It’s okay for pictures to be simple!

More about Appearance

• Keep lines of text straight.• Use the whole page.

It looks silly when your picture and words are tiny and there’s a ton of white

space.

Composition• You can use Kid-

friendly strategies like:– Rhyme– Repetition– “Sound effects”– Changing text

appearance– Color-coding words– Interactivity– Letting pictures help

tell the story

“Rar! I’m hungry!” the bear yelled.

“Shhh,” the mouse said. “Everyone else is still sleeping!”

Editing• Children learn about language and

how to read it from looking at children’s books

• That’s why it’s really important that you write correctly!

• Misspelled words and run-on sentences will really affect your grade!

I didn’t know monkeys was spelled with a Z!

Grading

• You’ll be graded on the quality of your story and how well you follow the guidelines here, NOT on your artistic ability per se.