Jennifer Tarr

Writing picture books for kids and their grown ups.

Category: Pizza

  • Toddler Teaches…Toddler-Approved Book Subjects

    Toddler Teaches…Toddler-Approved Book Subjects

    I’ve written a bunch about the ways that subject matter influences S’s willingness to read books over and over again, and about the fact that even having a favorite subject in the background of an illustration can be enough to get a repeat reading request. To that end, I thought it might be interesting to create a list of the (sometimes idiosyncratic) subjects that seem to be toddler gold:

    • Animals – bonus points for foxes, penguins, dogs, bunnies, and cats
    • Transportation – bonus points for airplanes, helicopters, and buses
    • Construction vehicles – bonus points for excavators and bulldozers
    • Birthdays – parties, candles, balloons, cake, characters saying “Happy Birthday!”
    • The moon
    • Letters of the alphabet
    • Counting
    • Babies
    • Challah bread
    • Pizza
    • Characters wearing bows (bowties, hairbows — you name it)
    • Being upside down
    • Camping – bonus points for marshmallows and campfires
    • Bubbles
    • Popsicles
    • Legos
    • Hanukkah
    • Playgrounds
    • Clocks – S loves to point out wall clocks in the background of things

    If you really want an A+ on S’s picture book report card, combine one or more toddler-approved book subjects into your story. This can be in the main plot or in the illustrations.

    Nikki Shannon Smith and Tamisha Anthony‘s In the Neighborhood was an immediate favorite in the board book category because of its sweet refrain and because it seems to deliberately (and brilliantly) hit on just about every topic a toddler might like. Baby goes on a walk (with “laces in a bow”), blows bubbles, gets flowers, meets a horse and a puppy, gets berries, sees cars, gets car stickers, watches friends learning how to throw a ball, sees a friend reading, and has a picnic.

    As noted above, even putting toddler-approved book subjects into the background of illustrations is often enough to get a re-read request. We’ve been getting a ton of mileage recently from books like Goodnight Bubbala where a favorite object (there, a toy schoolbus) can be spotted in the background in different places on different pages.

    I you happen to know of (or write) a book that fits these categories, let me know in a comment. We’ll be first in line to grab it!

  • Toddler Teaches…HOW TO DRAW A HAPPY CAT

    Toddler Teaches…HOW TO DRAW A HAPPY CAT

    I first came across How to Draw a Happy Cat when our local children’s librarian suggested it for my own writing research. (Side note: Librarians are awesome. Ideas to support your local library here.)

    As a more advanced picture book (SLJ suggests it for grades K-2), I did not expect it to immediately enter S’s favorite book rotation. I should have. Here’s why:

    1. It combines multiple kid-favorite topics.
    2. The language is declarative and snappy.
    3. The book invites the reader to participate in the action.
    4. The illustrations are active and colorful.

    As pretty much all my previous posts have established, S’s current favorite book subjects are animals and transportation. If your book has animals and/or transportation vehicles, S will probably at least give it a spin. If your book combines animals and transportation vehicles, you have dramatically upped your odds that S will want to read your book, and likely more than once. (Exhibit A: Animals Go Vroom!, an all-time S favorite.)

    How to Draw a Happy Cat does one better, and introduces not only animals and airplanes, but also one of S’s favorite foods: pizza.

    This may be one of S’s favorite images in any picture book we’ve read. It’s got a cat eating pizza being flung from a catapult, all while hanging onto an airplane. Pretty much toddler heaven.

    It’s like Ethan Berlin was handed a list of S’s interests and told to craft a story around them. Even without a great story, S would be predisposed to flip through the story over and over again, just to look at pictures of cats, airplanes, pizza, and cats eating pizza on airplanes.

    But the story works. It’s a hysterical, modern, interactive version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. And while the story is complex, the way it’s written and illustrated extends the age range downward.

    The story starts by inviting the reader to participate in the action — drawing our main character.

    Learning how to draw a happy cat may be fun and easy, but no one said anything about keeping that cat happy…

    It goes on from there in the same vein – each time we think the cat is finally happy, something happens, and we have to draw/solve her next problem.

    The sentences are often short and limited to one or two per page, conveying complicated problems and emotions with clean, simple language that is easy for S to understand. (How is the cat going to get the pizza? We have to turn the page to find out!)

    The cadence is great for listening, and the interactive language choices also keep S engaged – S is getting all the credit for helping out our new friend Cat. (“Great! She’s so happy! Good job!”)

    The sentences are also frequently accompanied by an illustration per idea. This decision is genius from a craft perspective, because it gives the reader the impression that they are impacting the story by “drawing” new things as the narrator directs them to do so.

    It also has a possibly-unintended benefit from a toddler attention-span perspective. As with Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn, the sentence-per-illustration model of picture book creation is crucial to keeping S’s attention in longer books because each sentence gives S a new thing to look at (and the new illustration reinforces S’s ability to understand what the text is saying).

    So while Ethan Berlin and Jimbo Matison probably almost certainly didn’t set out to create this book for an under two year old, a few simple choices turned this book into an unexpected repeat pick.

    How to Draw a Happy Cat By the Numbers:

    Pages: 40

    Word Count: 311

    Words Per Illustration: 7.78

    Words Per Sentence: 5.65