5 Picture Books for Presidents' Day

Here are a collection of picture books about presidents, the presidency, and extraordinary Americans they choose to recognize. Some are funny, some are fictional, all are somewhat factual.

1. Duck for President by Doreen Cronin. Duck is ambitious. No farm can hold his dreams. In fact, he's so ambitious, he works his way up through the barnyard until he reaches the White House. And once he's there, he realizes it's too much work and pulls a George Washington -- he heads back to the farm. Of course, unlike Washington, he never finishes a single term. Fans of Duck will love his rolling term as the fowl in charge, while adults get the references to the way politics really works.
2. Otto Runs for President by Rosemary Wells. Otto's the good kid in school who turns the run for president into a three-way race against the popular girl and the school jock. Against all odds he shows that the key to winning is listening to the people (well. dogs) -- not beauty, not money (OK, it's a kid's book -- you have to allow some suspension of disbelief!), not bribery, not bullying, and not dirty campaigns. Otto pulls off an upset and becomes top dog!   
3. John,Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith. OK, only one of them is president, and that's the honest one -- George. George Washington is joined by John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Ben Franklin, plus a surprise visit by the fifth Beatle, err, Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson (who went on to do quite well as our third president). Lane Smith is as funny as ever with imitation woodcuts that provide plenty of action as George chops down a cherry tree, John displays wonderful penmanship, Paul can't use his indoor voice, and Ben just doesn't know when to SHUT UP!
4. Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama. Most picture books are about presidents; this one is by a president, and while most presidents choose to write books after leaving office, this one is the current occupant.  Barack Obama honors an odd mixture of Americans, including the two presidents most associated with President's Day -- Washington & Abraham Lincoln, but also great Americans from history, sports, and entertainment.
5. So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George. Sure, most authors can take on one or two presidents, but St. George writes about them all. This entertaining book, highlighted by the Caldecott Award-winning artwork of David Small, presents entertaining facts about all our past presidents. That's no small task, but she manages (somehow) to fit it all into one picture book. I guess William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore get short-shrift again.  

Well, we've covered books by and about presidents, but here's a bonus selection, a picture book CHOSEN by a president. When he was running for office in 2000, George W. Bush was asked to list his 10 favorite books. On that list? The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. He said he enjoyed reading it to his daughters. Very sweet. And he learned his colors.

Hope you enjoyed this list of presidential picture books. MUNCH!

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY!

*check out a sample from my The Spaghettisburg Address (in honor of Abraham Lincoln).

Writing for Children vs. Writing for Adults

A polite response to Martin Amis...

Martin Amis writes compelling, complex prose. That doesn’t make his oral arguments convincing. 

 

During a recent interview on the BBC’s Faulks on Fiction, Mr. Amis dismissed writing for children as “anathema to him.” Why? Because in his view, “fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.” Fair enough. Of course, by not writing for children, he’s placing restraints on himself. He writes for adults, generally a certain kind of adult, which is its own restraint.

 

Of course, in fairness to Mr. Amis, he did say he’d write for children if he had “a serious brain injury.” Well, I hope it wasn’t too serious, but I think there must have been a small brain injury somewhere along the line.

 

Follow me here…

 

Writing for Adults vs. Writing for Children 

1. Mr. Amis, I doubt any editor has ever said to you, “This is juvenile! Are you writing for seven year olds?” but I have had my editor say, “This is a bit too adult. Could you tone it down?” And do you know why no editor has told you that, Mr. Amis? Because you’re writing with an audience in mind, and that audience is adults. Otherwise your work would be a scattershot, cob-jobbed piece of fiction. It’s not, because you place restraints upon yourself. Your audience may be a reflection of you, or it may be a wide range of adults you wish to reach or offend or transform, but they’re certainly all out of short pants. Now, I know my audience, too, generally boys 3-8, but like Mr. Amis, I like when people outside that narrow demographic read my work. Yes, Mr. Amis, we children’s authors write for a particular audience, just like you, even if you don’t recognize it (and yours doesn’t curl up with a parent to enjoy delightful stories and breathtaking artwork).
2. I am sure, Mr. Amis, that most parents sensibly shield their children from your work, even their teens, but writing Young Adult means getting to have an adult fan base. Sometimes a rabidly adult fan base. Just ask J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Rick Riordan and plenty of others. We get to transcend audiences, rather than write for that specific audience you openly crave.
3. Anything you can write, we can write, too. Oh, the language is different, but the subject matter can be just as difficult. You can be serious? So can we. Funny? Yep. Satirical? You betcha. Dramatic? Of course. Our characters run the gamut of emotions, and if you read YA, you'll notice they have plenty of adult thoughts on sex, suicide, revenge, drugs, alcohol, you name it. If you want to dismiss picture books as unworthy, they've covered death, disease, gay marriage, gay adoption, racism, sexism, physical challenges, mental challenges and well, you get the picture. Yes, the stories are aimed at children, but for children to enjoy and discuss with adults.
4. You write for minds that are already shaped; we write for minds that are being shaped. Psychologists say our personalities are hard-wired by the age of four, no later than six, anyway. You're generally writing for people who agree with you; we're writing for those experiencing the world anew. As a case in point, someone who reads one of your books but doesn't like it is unlikely to pick up another one you've written. A child who doesn't like one of our books may love the next one. That next book is new to them, or perhaps they grew into it.
5. To sum up, Mr. Amis, one can easily extrapolate your argument to say that you don't write for a specific audience. That you write for adults, correct? Adults of every shape, size, and stripe, while we foolishly limit ourselves to children. Oh, and their parents. And grandparents. And teachers. And librarians. Of all shapes, sizes, and stripes. Sounds to me, Mr. Amis, like you're writing for a very narrow audience, while we keep a very large audience in mind.

Of course, that's getting a bit far away from your original point. You meant adult fiction provides freedom within the context of the story, and perhaps we are a bit limited in what we can say and how we can say it, but we are less limited in imagination and far less limited in audience. I will take that trade.

I'm sorry this is so long-winded, Mr. Amis, like one of your novels. I write pithy, sparse picture books where every word, every punctuation and pause, has to matter. I feel they do here, too.

I've written for children and adults, without casting aspersions on either. I enjoy both. All I will say is that the audience is different and the stories are different, but then you know that because you restrain yourself by writing for adults. Good luck with that. I'll keep writing for children, with this caveat -- your audience is not anathema to me because I welcome them. You cannot welcome mine.

Great Picture Books Featuring Man's Best Friend

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club's 135th Dog Show (roughly 945 dog years), here's a list of some of my favorite picture books starring our lovable friends.

1. Best in Show: How could I not pick The Poky Little Puppy, the bestselling children's book of all-time. Sure, it had a headstart on the other contestants, seeing how it was published in 1942, but it remains a favorite among  children today. This adorable pooch repeatedly escape troubles until his siblings see that he gets caught in the end. What child hasn't gotten away with something for a little too long before getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar? A great book from Janette Lowery and the folks at Simon & Schuster.




2. Best of Breed: Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don't know what breed he is. Looks like an Irish Setter that swallowed a Saint Bernard, but he's certainly the best of his breed. Norman Bridwell's dog, star of the printed page and the small screen, is a giant among pups.

3. Biggest Litter: Go, Dog, Go. Dogs in cars. Dogs in trees. Dogs racing everywhere, and in crazy hats. P.D. Eastman found plenty of fun things for his cartooned canines to do in this energetic early reader.

4. Best Trick: Martha Speaks. It's a common trick. Teach your dog to speak. Maybe a deep woof or a high-pitched yap. But in this series, Martha speaks in complete sentences and is willing to explain the big words to you. Susan Meddaugh brings the joy of words and self-expression to little readers who hope they can teach their four-footed pals to "Speak!" like Martha.

5. Best Behaved: City Dog, Country Frog. Okay, so this picture book has more than just a dog, but City Dog learns a lot from Country Frog: friendship, fun, patience, loyalty. Great qualities for man's best friend, in real life or on the page. Intricate watercolors from John Muth really capture the simple words of Mo Willems, who takes a serious turn for a change.

6. Most Playful. How Rocket Learned to Read. Another book featuring interspecies friendship. Rocket is just that -- a ball of energy bursting to play, until an imaginative bird teaches him the joy of reading by creating stories around Rocket's adventures. When the bird flies south for the winter, Rocket learns to read on his own. Tad Hills' playful pup just might give your youngster the confidence to read on his own, too.

No surprise, there are just too many great dog books to name in a simple post -- Nick Bruel's Poor Puppy, Mark Teague's LaRue series, and on, and on. If you have a favorite, please add it below. But first... a bonus pic!

Johnny K, 8 months old & trying to figure out Clifford.

Hope to add my own to this list someday. Thanks for reading!

5 Great Bedtime Stories for Your Young Reader

I’ve seen several newspaper articles that say bedtime stories are dead. Passé. You know, like newspapers. Or picture books. I don’t know. I have my doubts. Yes, I’ve largely stopped reading them to my 7 year old, who generally reads on his own at bedtime, but from ages 2 to 5 it was a nightly ritual.

 

Back then, it was all Thomas all the time. Thomas the Tank Engine books, stories I recapped from the series, and original stories as they came into my head. I also read plenty of Dr. Seuss, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and even my own rough drafts of children’s books (plenty of my picture books were born while putting Johnny K to bed).

 

So, do you still read bedtime stories to your children, or is The Baltimore Sun, et al, right?

 

5 Great Bedtime Stories

 

1.      Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea – a dinosaur defeats everything from spaghetti to pajamas, but he can’t beat sleep. Complete with a tiring *yawn* at the end, this funny picture book reminds your young dinosaur they have to sleep some time.
 

2.      Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson – Harold goes on plenty of dreamlike, moonlit adventures before returning home to the comfort of his own bed for a goodnight’s sleep.

3.      Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems – sure the pigeon does what every child does – fights to get away with staying up late, but the more he protests, the more tired he gets until zzzzz…

4.       Harry and Horsie by Katie Van Camp – Harry gives up going to bed to play with his best friend Horsie, the stuffed animal he sleeps with every night. They undertake an out-of-this world adventure captured in retro art right out of a 1950s comic book or the Sunday funnies.

 5.      Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown – OK, so this is the all-time classic kidlit goodnight. Rich artwork, simplistic story, and a child who says goodnight to everything. What’s not to love? A reminder throughout that bedtime is coming (and pair this with Peggy Rathmann’s Good Night, Gorilla for a funny ending…)

Hard to recommend 5 books when you want to list 50. I tried to stick to largely contemporary works, though Goodnight Moon and Harold were just too good to pass up. That said, I also love Maurice Sendak’s brilliant Where the Wild Things Are or the pastoral works of Kevin Henkes. Consider folktales filled with Jerry Pinkney’s wonderful watercolor, the traditional stories of Hans Christian Anderson, the long-winded but delightful works of Oscar Wilde…

 

So many great stories to put your little one to sleep. So what are your favorite bedtime stories? What tales do you remember best?

Writers Conference Review

It's been a week since I returned from the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York, but I've had little time to post, although some time to reflect. Plenty of the professional writers who spoke (among them R.L. Stine, Jules Feiffer, and Jane Yolen) mentioned the opportunity this writers conference offers to network, to meet editors and find closed houses open to you -- if only for a submission or two.

They're right, of course. SCBWI opens up opportunities to meet editors who are all but unreachable otherwise. The majority of your networking, however, will be with other writers and illustrators. Not bad, mind you. They can make you better at your craft, send tips your way (and rumors!), and open even more doors. Conferences, recommendations and writers groups are wonderful things.

Of the three workshops I attended, I found Alessandra Balzer's of B+B (hey, that first B is for Balzer!) the most helpful. It was on book marketing. Most of what she relayed I already know or am doing, but there was one gem that got my wheels spinning. Not so much the advice -- "find something the market doesn't have, something it needs but doesn't know it needs" -- but how to pitch something that falls in that vein suddenly formed in my head. Something that the kidlit market has little of, but maybe, just maybe, I can fill. Will have to talk with Scholastic Press more on this one. Later in the day, I threw Alessandra a one-line pitch, based on her suggestions of the typical Hollywood this meets that pitch: Leaping Lemmings as Naked Mole Rat meets Humpty Dumpty. She said she loved Naked Mole Rat and couldn't wait to see my manuscript. B+B already has it, but it seemed like the right pitch anyway.

I was also impressed that Ms. Balzer remembered me from the night before -- at the SCBWI VIP party. She was making the rounds with Mo Willems. Yeah, that Mo Willems. Mo and I talked about stand-up comedy for maybe ten minutes. When Alessandra and Mo approached, I was talking with Mo's agent, Marcia Wernick, who just that week started her own agency. OK, yes, I freely admit it. The best part of  SCBWI NY was the VIP party. It's where the real networking gets done. I ran into Dianne Hess from Scholastic Press again, and Nancy Castaldo and I attempted to recruit her for the Capital District SCBWI Conference Falling Leaves this November. I talked Type I diabetes with Arthur Levine, also from Scholastic. I ran into Ruta Rimas, from B+B, who has Lemmings, and I spoke briefly with Rotem Moscovich. Well, I had to. Not only did she provide a great critique of The Bossy Witch some time ago, but I received a rejection letter from Cartwheel telling me she was no longer there. Turns out she jumped to Disney/Hyperion. Good to know. I also talked at great length to the very talented Katia Wish, the winner of the Tomie de Paolo art award. Great party (um, yeah, open bar... why do you ask?), good conversation, and I am thrilled -- absolutely thrilled -- to have attended.

Now about next year...