What You Need to Know About Children’s Books
What You Need to Know When Writing a Children’s Books
What is the secret of capturing children’s attention to a story?
Firstly, it is essential to make it clear that different generations are not different species. In other words, as much as children today are subject to an abundant and excessive amount of information 24 hours a day, which does not make them aliens or robots.
Children will be children! They need (and like to) develop their own imagination, they dream, they create a thousand theories for everything in their heads, and, above all, they are hyper-creative.
“Ah, but with so many tablets and games, certainly the space for books has plummeted!” Exclaim the prophets of negativity. Well, they are wrong. Very wrong!
Breaking myths: yes, children not only continue to read books, but they do so much more intensely than in past generations. In the same way that the incentive to read grew, the offer of titles also increased, which means that the competition between children’s books jumped exorbitantly.
Books play a unique role in the formation of young minds. They help them with the development of their cognitive skills and the ability to think abstractly.
What makes an excellent Children’s Book?
If you wish to create an excellent children’s book, the child characters should solve their own problems. In these books, they might have assistance or guidance from adult characters, but they still act independently.
This makes the child also understand what he/she can do in such situations when needed.
I will mention here 11 different tips that may help you better understand the dynamics of this unique literary genre’s illustrations.
1. The children’s book usually has several pages multiple of 8. This is to make better use of the paper and form the ‘notebooks.’ Books with 16, 24, or 32 pages are the most common—important information when planning a book from start to finish.
2. The story does not start on page 1. Look at children’s books (at home or at the bookstore). The cover page usually comes on the first page. On page 2, the Catalog Card sometimes also has a dedication or summary.
Sometimes no. In this case, the book starts on page 3. And it is not customary to insert a page number on the cover page.
3. There is also no need to fill all pages with illustrations or make them all the same.
4. When planning the illustrations, think about the amount of text that will go on each page.
5. If there is any suspense or surprise in the story, it is worth planning ahead. The illustration ought to be on an even (or left) page. This way, the reader does not see it before turning the page.
6. The text can also be part of the illustration. By diagramming, we can deform or change the font to demonstrate what happens in the book.
7. When planning a character, do your best to make it consistent across pages and recognizable. In the children’s book (for very young children), the expressions can be more straightforward. As the children get older, the illustrations can be more elaborate.
8. You may have noticed that some characters’ clothes’ stopped in time. ‘ This is because the book lasts many years, and some illustrators prefer the book to be ‘timeless.’
9. When assembling your ‘model book,’ look at the pages that are right in the middle of the book. Since many children’s books are stapled, it is worth noting that these illustrations combine or even form a ‘large’ double picture.
10. Observe the formats of children’s books. A square or ‘landscape’ format is more common than a ‘portrait’ format.
11. An illustration need not follow anatomy or perspective.
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CHILDREN’S BOOKS & THE POWER OF PLANTING SEEDS
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