Prompts and Exercises

This behavior may be typical of a 2½-year-old, but all children—adults too, if we’re honest—sometimes live in just this way. Imagine a child who insists on two opposites at once: I want it! I don’t want it! I can do it! Help me! Explore a situation that captures the whirlwind of shifting demands, the comedy, the frustration, and the truth of wanting everything at once.

Picture books make the complex simple—not by shrinking ideas, but by distilling them so children can feel and understand. Choose something big—love, loss, belonging, courage—and explore how you might make it simple enough for a child to hold. If you’re working on a draft, look at one passage and ask: What’s the simplest way to show this? What can fall away so that only the essential truth remains?

Explore the kinds of impossible things a child might imagine—before breakfast or any time of day. Let the impossible pile up, growing wilder and more delightful with each new thought. See how far you can go before lunch!

An old wives’ program for Thanksgiving week. A holiday is never just a day—it’s the rhythm of preparation, anticipation, and finally, celebration. Explore how a child experiences this week of getting ready and the joy (and chaos) of the big day when it finally arrives.

Expectations for children have always existed—some old-fashioned, some timeless. Explore a moment when a child tries to live up to the rules set before them, does so only “as far as they are able,” and discovers what it means to grow within those limits. Have fun!

When we open ourselves to connection and mystery, we can feel part of something larger than ourselves. Children may experience this with particular intensity—a moment of blending with the world, of becoming part of nature, part of something beyond themselves. Explore a moment when a child feels this kind of transformation, where attentiveness to wonder makes the boundary between self and world almost disappear.

We know that willpower and discipline matter. And that there are times when willpower holds, and times when desire wins. Imagine a child standing in that in-between space—considering the rules, the reasons, the “shoulds”—and then making a conscious choice to set willpower aside, not for danger or mischief, but for joy. Explore that moment of decision, when the pull of cake outweighs restraint, and what it means for the child to follow through.

Imagine a child with a secret identity and a gift that comes from another world. It might be art or music, a sport, inventing, noticing, or dreaming. It doesn’t matter what it is, but the gift is huge, magnificent, undeniable. Explore how this extraordinary gift lives inside an ordinary child and how carrying such a secret could shape the way they move through everyday life on Earth.

Choose something you want children to better understand—an everyday experience, a big question, or a small wonder. It might be friendship, fairness, belonging, nature, loss, or something else entirely. Explore how a picture book could open that subject up, giving children space to see, feel, and make sense of it in their own way.

Making friends is a risky thing. A smile, a question, an invitation to play—none come with guarantees. Explore a moment when a child reaches out in friendship, not knowing what will happen. Notice what that risk feels like, and how the act of reaching out matters as much as the response.