Prompts and Exercises
Picture Book Prompt 27
—Waldorf Games Handbook for the Early Years
What do you think could help children understand the body in which they live? Write about that. Read More
Picture Book Prompt 26
Make a commitment to take time observing the interaction between a child and an adult that you know, between two children, or between children and adults. Listen for words spoken, and watch for body language. Take notes! Read More
Picture Book Prompt 25
Spend some time figuring out when, where, and what you need to do your best writing. Consciously set out to create that environment for yourself. Read More
Picture Book Prompt 24
—Jeff Kinney
Do you remember what it was like to be a kid?
Set a timer for fifteen minutes and mine your memory for events and for feelings.
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 23
–David Remnick
Revision, according to vocabulary.com, is “the act of revision or altering (involving reconsideration and modification).”
What is it that you have revised recently? A perspective, a belief, an activity or something more concrete. How might a child reconsider and modify something—their behavior, an activity, a creation like a block structure? Write about that.
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 22
–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!
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 21
—Walter Benjamin
What is your favorite fairy tale? Re-tell it. Then check your telling against the original for both story and language.
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 20
—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.
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 19
—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.
Read MorePicture Book Prompt 18
—Jack Kerouac
What does it mean to ‘go everywhere’ from the perspective of a child? Write about it.
Read More