While there are plenty of websites, magazines, books, and other resources about kidlit in general and PB in specific, here are some that I find especially helpful in my own life as a writer, teacher, and PB fan.
Awesome Articles on PBs
- “Josh Funk’s Guide to Writing Picture Books”
- “Picture Book Math (and why you should write something new)” by Kate Messner
- “20 Tips for Writing Children’s Books” by Pat Mora
- “What Makes a Good Young Picture Book” by Marilyn Singer
- “Want to write a good children’s book? Here are 7 tips to guide you” by Sarah Maizes
Beautiful Books on Making PBs
(Want to grab a copy of any of these? Just click on the covers.)
Ann Whitford Paul’s Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Creation to Publication “helps you develop the skills you need by walking you through techniques and exercises specifically for picture book writers.”
Uri Shulevitz’s Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books is a “step-by-step guide to creating children’s books. It offers advice covering a book’s preliminary stages through publication, and describes how to tell a story visually, develop settings, and draw characters.”
Anastasia Suen’s Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens is an “interactive and innovative resource [that] provides children with the necessary tools and techniques to unleash and enhance their creativity in writing by concentrating on the selection of every word, image, and phrase to construct evocative characters, settings, and plots driven by description.”
Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy’s Writing Children’s Books for Dummies “provides step-by-step information on everything aspiring children’s book authors need to know—from researching the current marketplace to developing story ideas, strengthening writing skills, dealing with editors, and submitting proposals and manuscripts to agents and publishers.”
Wow-Good Websites by PB creators
Super Handy Websites on PBs in general
Book Riot
“Book Riot is dedicated to the idea that writing about books and reading
should be just as diverse as book and readers are.”
Picture Book Publishers 101
“What makes each picture book publisher unique?
We’e trying to find out–one publisher at a time.”
Kidlit.com
“A one stop information shop for all your kidlit information needs.”
Celebrate Picture Books
“Picture Book Reviews for a Year of Holiday Fun”
Picture Book Builders
“What goes into building a great picture book? Why is this one successful
and that one … not? That’s what we’re here to explore–
how one element of a picture book’s story or art manages
to grab us or wow us to strike an emotional chord.”
Picture Book Den
A UK blog “about picture books and the art of writing and illustrating them,
written by picture book authors and illustrators.”
This Picture Book Life
This blog by writer Danielle Davis “brings picture books to life
through crafts, roundups, recipes, and other fun stuff.”
Picture Book Makers
This UK blog is “an interesting and inspiring resource
for publishing professionals, illustration students and graduates,
and anyone else with a passion for picture books and a curiosity
about the different approaches taken to make them.”
Undergraduate Creative Writing Programs that Teach Picture Book Writing
Graduate Creative Writing Programs that Teach Picture Book Writing
