October 2023 - Picture Book People

Picture Book Prompt 22

“EIGHT [-year-old] … thinks he knows more than he really does and often assumes a know-it-all tone of voice.”
–Arnold Gesell, The Child from Five to Ten

What are some things—both real and fantastical—that an eight-year-old might think they know but really get very wrong.

Set your timer for nine minutes and make a list.

Don’t stop until the timer goes off.

It’s okay if the list of things they think they know but don’t know gets very weird!

Picture Book Prompt 21

“The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales.”
—Walter Benjamin

What is your favorite fairy tale? Re-tell it. Then check your telling against the original for both story and language.

Picture Book Prompt 20

“Up the children went—and before they knew what had happened, there they were out in the sunshine, in a new and very strange land.”
—Enid Blyton, The Enchanted Wood

Make up a new and very strange land in which your character/s find themselves. Make sure you find an interesting way to get them into this strange land.

Picture Book Prompt 19

“When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people’s lives when they go in one direction, not another.”
—Joyce Carol Oates

Sometimes it’s a small event that takes children in one direction as opposed to another. Write about what those might look like and about a story that might arise out of one of them.

Picture Book Prompt 18

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
—Jack Kerouac

What does it mean to ‘go everywhere’ from the perspective of a child? Write about it.