Category: Rhyming Picture Books

ReFoReMo Day 15: Corey Rosen Schwartz Rolls out the Red Carpet on Rhyme

3/16/2016

By Corey Rosen Schwartz

It’s hard to find picture books with stellar rhyme. Stories where the words flow so seamlessly that you forget to focus on reading it “correctly” but instead get mesmerized by the savory sounds- the rhythm, the alliteration, the assonance, the internal rhymes. Books like these are a treasure for the tongue!

Corey is giving away a signed copy of her book, What About Moose? This is a great rhyming mentor texts! Thank you, Corey! To be eligible, you must be a fully registered participant, comment on this post, read daily, and keep records of your progress.

Corey Rosen Schwartz is the author of several rhyming picture books and fractured fairy tales. Corey has no formal ninja training, but she sure can kick butt in Scrabble. She lives with three Knuckleheads in Warren, NJ.

210 Comments

June Mentor Text Check In & Rhyming Challenge

6/16/2015

17 Comments

How did you do last month with the interactive mentor text challenge? Did you find anything you’d like to share? Rebecca Gomez’s June THINK QUICK Author Interview got me thinking about great rhyming picture books. We ALL need to be reading them! Even if you don’t write in rhyme, poetic techniques will subliminally infuse themselves into your writing database by simply reading. Yep, brain power. Therefore, your new challenge will be to read at least 25 rhyming picture books by July 14. To get you started, I personally recommend anything and everything written by Corey Rosen-Schwartz or Lori Degman. (Bonus: Each of their links has a book trailer to watch!)

What About Moose? by Corey Rosen Schwartz, Rebecca J. Gomez and Keika Yamaguchi
Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Dan Santat
Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears by Corey Rosen Schwartz, Beth Coulton and Nate Wragg
The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Dan Santat
One Zany Zoo by Lori Degman and Colin Jack
Cock-a-Doodle-Oops! By Lori Degman and Deborah Zemke

Here are a few more immediate recommendations straight from my rhyming friends. I love the fact that some of their recommendations overlap. That’s the true sign of a good recommendation.

Corey Rosen Schwartz recommends Lori Degman’s books, as well!
Corey’s other picks:
I AM COW,HEAR ME MOO by Jill Esbaum
BEAR SNORES ON by Karma Wilson.
(And she has always been a huge Seuss fan!)
In addition, BOTH Corey and Lori chose:
OLLIE AND CLAIRE by Tiffany Strelitz Haber and Matthew Cordell.

Additional recommendations by Lori Degman:
Hogwash! by Karma Wilson and Jim McMullan
A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock and Fritz Siebel

And both Lori and Josh Funk recommend:
CIRCUS SHIP by Chris Van Dusen

You won’t have to wait too much longer for my critique partner Josh Funk’s debut rhyming book, LADY PANCAKE and SIR FRENCH TOAST (Illustrated by Brendan Kearney.) You can already view the book trailer HERE!

While you're waiting, Josh also recommends his all time fave:
IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

And his long time love of Seuss:
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

For my final recommendations, visit Paul Czajak’s fun rhyming Monster & Me series

And anything by Lisa Wheeler, but especially:

The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses
Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum

These recommendations are only the beginning. Have fun exploring rhymers and please share your progress in the comment section or the Facebook group (for 2015 registered participants). And DON’T FORGET the What About Moose? THINK QUICK interview is ready for you HERE.

17 Comments

ReFoReMo Day 4: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Rocks Rhyme

3/5/2015

162 Comments

by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

I love writing in rhyme – even though we all still hear publishers talk about how little they like rhyming picture books. But in the years I’ve been working in publishing, I’ve realized that it isn’t rhyming books that are despised – it is badly written rhyming books that give the entire sub-genre a bad name. The books I’ve listed here are some of the best examples of picture book rhyme that I’ve seen (well, nine of them are. Then I added one of my own titles because, well, you know…I wanted to make the cut!).

Read these books. Study them. Enjoy them! Sing them to yourself under your breath while you’re making dinner. And while you’re absorbing them, here are a few things to think about that these authors are doing particularly well – because a lot of what works for them can work for you, even if you don’t write in rhyme. Hopefully, some of these techniques can be incorporated into your own work!

Rhythm is Gonna Get You: The best thing about these books is how well the authors use rhythm to drive the story. There is consistency to the rhythm – except for when a deliberately extrametrical line is used for emphasis (like “One dark night…” in Lisa Wheeler’s book of the same name). This rhythmic consistency is possibly the most important thing to recreate in your own rhyming picture books.

Unusual Rhyming Pairs: It’s very important in this market to make sure every aspect of your story is fresh and interesting, from the plot to the language. No one needs to read another book about a fat cat with a bat and a hat, or a duck who is out of luck while stuck on a truck. Instead, bring the freshness level way up by incorporating new language, rhymes no one has thought of, words that might be unfamiliar to a picture book age child but sound beautiful enough to entice him or her to learn their meanings. With everything I love about Sandra Boynton’s BUT NOT THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, what stands out the most is how she rhymes “lot of us” with “potamus.”

Rhyme Into a Refrain: Refrains – repeated elements that reinforce story plot points – are very effective in picture books because young children respond so well to repetition. So many rhyming books use this technique to drive the plot forward – think “The Bear snores on” from Karma Wilson’s BEAR SNORES ON or “Those chicks run wild!” from my own CHICKS RUN WILD.

Saying More with Less: Rhyming picture books are almost always shorter in word count that their prose counterparts – because reading 1,400 words of rhyme before bed would be truly taxing! Authors who write in rhyme keep their word counts low by doing a couple things:

· Utilizing strong language: Poetry is famous for using powerful imagery and lyrical phrasing. Study these books and see how the authors do in one verse what a prose author might do in a paragraph!

· Working cooperatively with the art: Because the word counts are sparser, rhyming picture books often utilize the art for storytelling very effectively. Make a mental note of this and try to consciously do that in your own manuscripts.

My List of Ten:

1. SNOOZEFEST by Samantha Berger

2. THE THREE NINJA PIGS by Corey Rosen Schwartz

3.     ONE DARK NIGHT by Lisa Wheeler

4.     BUT NOT THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by Sandra Boynton

5.     BEAR SNORES ON by Karma Wilson

6.     LLAMA LLAMA RED PAJAMA by Anna Dewdney

7.     HOW DO DINOSAURS SAY GOODNIGHT by Jane Yolen

8.     OLLIE AND CLAIRE by Tiffany Strelitz Haber

9.     OVER AT THE CASTLE by Boni Ashburn

10.   CHICKS RUN WILD by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Happy World Read Aloud Day! Let's read!

PRIZE ALERT
Sudipta will be giving away a 20 minute phone critique at the conclusion of ReFoReMo! To be eligible, please leave her a a comment here, read consistently, and record your efforts.

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is the co-founder of Kidlit Summer School and an award-winning author whose books include DUCK DUCK MOOSE, TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS, ORANGUTANGLED, and over thirty more books. Her books have been named to the Junior Library Guild, the California Reader’s Collection, the Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year lists and the Amelia Bloomer list. Find out more about her by visiting www.sudipta.com or her blogs www.NerdyChicksRule.com and www.NerdyChicksWrite.com.

In April 2015, Marcie Colleen, Susan Hawk, and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen will be teaching a course in picture book revision through Kidlit Writing School. For more information about this course, please click on this link: http://www.kidlitwritingschool.com/picture-book-a-to-zs-revision.html

Twitter: @SudiptaBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SudiptaBardhanQuallen

162 Comments

ReFoReMo Day 15: Corey Rosen Schwartz Rolls out the Red Carpet on Rhyme

June Mentor Text Check In & Rhyming Challenge

ReFoReMo Day 4: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Rocks Rhyme

ReFoReMo

Archives

Categories