Writing Tips

What do picture books and sonnets have in common? There are the obvious connections: wonderful language, the distillation of a concept, the rhythm, the (sometimes) rhyme. And the fact that both are made up of fourteen units. The sonnet is essentially a fourteen-line poem. That’s the important thing about a sonnet. And a picture book…

Writing from the heart is the only kind of writing that’s really worth anything. Your heart, as the truest, deepest part of you, is the source of writing that’s meaningful and valuable and transformative. And that’s the only kind of writing those of us who are in the business of making books for children should…