Writing Children's Books for Dummies
by Lisa Rojany Buccieri
from For Dummies
Everyone loves a children's book. And many dream about writing one. But is it actually possible for an unpublished writer—armed with a good story idea and a love of kids—to write, sell, publish, and promote a book? Yes, it is! Veteran children's book publishing executive and author Lisa Rojany Buccieri and author Peter Economy show you how, in their incredibly useful 2005 first edition of Writing Children's Books For Dummies®.
Buccieri and Economy begin by explaining the basics of the children's book business, from the nuts and bolts of the various formats and genres—with helpful illustrations to aid you—to the intricacies of the book publishing market, a list of recent award-winning books, and a first peek into the particular mind set that writing children's books requires. (Hint: Throw out the adult rules, and think like a kid!)
Then the authors dive into the actual writing process itself, with tips on setting up a workspace, brainstorming great book ideas, researching the subject you decide on, even speaking with the sorts of kids you hope will eventually read the book. They show you how to create compelling characters and develop them in the manuscript; how to outline and write a plot "arc" of conflict, change, and resolution; how to master the difficult art of writing dialogue; and how to use active (rather than passive) language to keep your story moving along and interesting to young minds.
Or, if you're planning to write a creative nonfiction children's book—on a topic such as science, nature, or a historical figure, for example—the authors include a chapter on this, too. Ready, set, go… it's time to sit down and write!
Once you've finished your book, however, the process has only begun. Now you will refine, submit, and hopefully sell your manuscript. Here again, the authors of Writing Children's Books For Dummies come through for you. They deliver solid advice on hiring an illustrator—or not; participating in workshops and conferences to learn the business and hone a story; finding an agent; and, finally, submitting the manuscript to publishers and—if you are successful—signing a contract.
Along the way, the authors also include tips on handling rejection; a quick primer on the various editors in publishing houses (and how they work to make your book its best); and making a plan to publicize the book, including hiring a publicist if necessary.
Like all For Dummies® books, Writing Children's Books For Dummies highlights "The Part of Tens," which includes the Ten Best Ways to Promote Your Story and More Than Ten Great Sources for Storylines. And the ever-helpful Cheat Sheet includes Tips for Editing your Children's Book Manuscript, Children's Book No-No's, Twelve Commandments for Writing Younger Children's Books, and Tips on Promotion.
From setting down that first word on paper to doing a successful publicity tour, Writing Children's Books For Dummies gives you the confidence and the insiders' know-how to write and sell the story you've always wanted to write.
Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of AmericanChildren's Literature
by Leonard Marcus
from Houghton Mifflin
An animated first-time history of the visionaries--editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others--whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture
What should children read? As the preeminent children's literature authority, Leonard S. Marcus, shows incisively, that's the three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children's book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it's the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children's book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business.
Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians--most of them women--throughout the twentieth century. His story of the emergence and growth of the major publishing houses--and of the distinctive literature for the young they shaped--gains extraordinary depth (and occasional dish) through the author's path-finding research and in-depth interviews with dozens of editors, artists, and other key publishing figures whose careers go back to the 1930s, including Maurice Sendak, Ursula Nordstrom, Margaret K. McElderry, and Margret Rey.
From The New England Primer to The Cat in the Hat to Cormier's The Chocolate War, Marcus offers a richly informed, witty appraisal of the pivotal books that transformed children's book publishing, and brings alive the revealing synergy between books like these and the national mood of their times.
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
by Michael Ward
from Oxford University Press, USA
For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery.
Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as "spiritual symbols of permanent value" and "especially worthwhile in our own generation". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains connaitre knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody.
Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance.
Teaching Art With Books Kids Love: Teaching Art Appreciation, Elements of Art, and Principles of Design With Award-Winning Children's Books
by Darcie Frohardt
from Fulcrum Publishing
Using more than 100 illustrations from 20 Caldecott Medal or Honor books, this delightful resource provides teachers with all the tools necessary for teaching art. Classroom teachers will find that the explanations of artistic elements and principles of design, as well as examples and project directions, provide everything a busy teacher needs. Complete with bibliographies and lists of related fine art, this curriculum also relates the projects to the Core Knowledge Sequence Content Guidelines for Grades K-5. Teaching Art with Books Kids Love is an invaluable resource for teachers required to teach art and art instructors looking for fresh ideas.
Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter
by Seth Lerer
from University Of Chicago Press
Children's Literature, Briefly (4th Edition)
by Michael O. Tunnell
from Prentice Hall
Written in a conversational tone, this brief book introduces readers to the nature and genres of children's literature and enumerates the authors' favorite books for various purposes. Expands the booklists at the end of each chapter to include Ten Picture Books, Ten Easier to Read, Ten of Our Favorites, and Twenty to Thirty Others We Like. Keeps booklists and other topics related to literature brief in order to allow time for reading children's literature. For educators and administrators.
Books to Build On: A Grade-by-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers (Core Knowledge Series)
from Delta
Children's Writer's Word Book
by Alijandra Mogilner
from Writers Digest Books
This title's unique design ensures that writers speak to their audience with a vocabulary and style they both understand and find appealing. A fast-reference guide meant to be used along with a dictionary, thesaurus and yellow pad of paper, it will help fulfill the dream of becoming a published children's writer.
Through the Eyes of a Child: An Introduction to Children's Literature (7th Edition)
by Donna E. Norton
from Prentice Hall
This is a fresh, new edition of one of the most widely-respected sources for introducing future teachers to the wealth of literature available to children. The sixth edition is replete with expanded coverage of key topics, numerous new features, and an enhanced focus on multicultural literature. Its unique two-part genre chapters—one part content, one part methods—once again provide everything instructors need in order to teach the core concepts and knowledge of children's literature content supported by methods to teach it. This book covers what constitutes good use of literature in the classroom and offers readers access to additional material on children's literature and teaching about literature. It covers what to look for in good literature and how to identify the best among what's available. For professionals in the field of teaching or anyone interested in children's literature.
The Classic Fairy Tales (Norton Critical Editions)
from W. W. Norton
The cultural resilience of fairy tales is incontestable. Surviving over the centuries and thriving in a variety of media, fairy tales continue to enrich our imaginations and shape our lives. This Norton Critical Edition of The Classic Fairy Tales examines the genre, its cultural implications--and its critical history. The editor has gathered fairy tales from around the world to reveal the range and play of these stories over time. The Classic Fairy Tales focuses on six different tale types: "Little Red Riding Hood,' "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and "Hansel and Gretel." It includes multicultural variants of these tales, along with sophisticated literary rescriptings. Each tale type is preceded by an introduction, and annotations are provided throughout. Also included in this collection of over forty stories are tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde. "Criticism" collects twelve essays that interrogate different aspects of fairy tales by exploring their social origins, historical evolution, psychological dynamics, and engagement with issues of gender and national identity. Bruno Bettelheim, Robert Darnton, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Karen E. Rowe, Marina Warner, Zohar Shavit, Jack Zipes, Donald Haase, Maria Tatar, Antti Aarne, and Vladimir Propp provide critical overviews. A Selected Bibliography is included.
About the Series--Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source materials, and a wide range of interpretation--from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory--as well as a bibliography and a chronology of the author's life and work.
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