Showing posts with label #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 Writing for children's books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 Writing for children's books. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Writing to Read Aloud - Guest post by Michelle Robinson, author of "Goodnight Digger" for #readitmummiesanddaddies2013
Labels:
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013,
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 Writing for children's books,
Goodnight Digger,
Goodnight Princess,
Michelle Robinson
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| "Goodnight Tractor" by Michelle Robinson and Nick East (Puffin Books) |
Writing to read aloud
Sharing books with children means reading aloud. You or your child -
you and your child together - it’s a vital part of learning to read, and the
more you do it as a kid, the more confident you’ll be as a grown up. If you
want your writing to be heard and shared one day, start listening to it
yourself, right now.
Excuse me while I give you a bit of backstory: When I was a kid I
read a LOT. I was good at it, so my teacher very rarely asked me to read aloud.
(He knew I could do it, so why bother wasting time on me when other kids needed
attention?) As a result, I began to find reading aloud pretty terrifying. At
university and in my first job, I would shake so much when I had to read in
front of people that I could actually hear myself bleating like a nervous
sheep. I had plenty of good stuff to say, but I lacked the confidence to voice
it.
The best thing I ever did was to get my second job: writing radio
ads. Not only did it mean I was constantly writing and developing my craft
skills, it also forced me to face my Reading Aloud Demons. I had to present my
work to both colleagues and complete strangers on a daily basis. If you want a
client to buy what you’ve written, you’ve got to make a bloody good job of
selling it. Within days I was sitting in an open plan office presenting scripts
down the phone in loud, silly voices for all to hear. I once did a full volume
Tarzan impression in a bathroom showroom. Seriously. I blushed while I did it,
but I’d come to LOVE reading aloud. Handy, really, as it was a vital part of
being good at my job.
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| Shout like Tarzan! |
It still is, and I’m so glad of my time in radio. I now
instinctively write to read aloud. I think about how long it takes to read one
of my books from cover to cover - will people get bored? I dread that, so I
make them as snappy as possible. How do words sound when placed next to one
another - does anything make you tongue tied when spoken aloud? If so, it’s got
to go. Does a sentence end too bluntly? Does a particular phrase come out
clumsily unless you read it in one very specific way? Can I put two words
together that are such a joy to say out loud they feel like a sweet in the
mouth? (‘Bananas are rather tasty toasted’ - I’m still proud of that one, even
though an extra word got slipped in during the editing process).
If you’re a writer, this probably isn’t the first time you’ve been
advised to read your work aloud. I suspect you may be nodding along and
thinking ‘Yes, good idea. I want my stories to be read aloud, so I ought to try
it myself’. But will you actually go and do it? You must. As obvious as it may
sound, it’s impossible to read aloud in your head. Do it at full speaking
volume and at a natural pace. Don’t whisper or waffle your way through it. Why
not record it, if you can bear listening to your own voice played back.
Don’t cheat. Like all aspects of critiquing your own work, it won’t
get you anywhere - whereas if you can yell like Tarzan, well, let’s just say it
hasn’t done me any harm.
Michelle Robinson is the best-selling author of the "Goodnight" series of books, including "Goodnight Digger", "Goodnight Tractor" and the upcoming "Goodnight Princess" with illustrations by Nick East - published by Puffin Books. Described as one of the "rising stars of picture books", Michelle penned 5 books in 2012 with another 5 to come this year. Phew!
Monday, 4 February 2013
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 - Writing for children's books - Strong Words, Softly Spoken
Labels:
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 Writing for children's books,
Pants,
Rabbityness,
We're going on a bear hunt
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| Words are gifts when freely shared |
For this week's #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 theme I thought we'd take a look at writing for children's books and some of our favourite CBs that are intoxicating more because of their use of the language than their use of flashy illustrations (that's not to say that each and every one of the books we've picked in our list isn't also visually beautiful, but it's the way they were written that meant they became books of the week).
First, one of the earliest books we read to Charlotte - and one that so many parents (and children) will be able to recite by heart...
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| "We're going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books) |
The genius of this book is how interactive it is for young children. Before they can even begin to form words properly, before they can understand what words mean - they can get a lot out of a book that has such deliciously addictive alliterative sounds in it. Squishing, squelching, swishing, stumbling. Lots of 'S' words that trip off the tongue and for babies and toddlers, the chance to bounce in their seats and attempt to match what mummy or daddy are saying.
It evolves with the child too. As they get older, they love the feeling of tension that ramps up as the book reaches its brilliant climax. If you're like me, you read the last 3 pages of the book in an absolute mad rush (it's funnier if you trip over your words at the end too, as I often do in a mad dash to get them all out and jump under the duvet to safety!)
The power of language is self-evident in this and it's really not hard at all to see why it's such a well-loved classic.
Moving on and another book that appeals to a child's built-in subversive streak...
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| "Pants" by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt |
Whether you like it or not, your little darlings will undoubtedly go through a phase where they find pants funny. Pants, bottom burps, belches and of course poo and wee. Here, the power of "Pants" is put to brilliant effect in a book that causes kids to giggle uncontrollably as it's all about something slightly 'naughty' (in fact, in a whole brace of books but really we only liked "Pants" and "More Pants", "Socks" was a bit of a miss!)
It helps that Pants is rhyming, and rhymes can help a child memorise and identify a story extremely quickly. Again before Charlotte could read, she could recite this story word for word, start to finish (also helped by the fact that this was read almost nightly for quite a while when she was tiny). Rhyme is very well established as a method of engaging a child with a book, and "Pants" is such a good fit (pardon the pun) that you can even sing along with Lenny Henry if you've bagged the version with the bonus music CD.
Last but by no means least there's the power of words to help children understand concepts and subjects that are seen as the realm of the grown up, and often steered well clear of in children's books.
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| "Rabbityness" by Jo Empson |
How does one begin a discussion about death with a child, when a pet or a loved one dies? Many books have tried to deal with the subject fairly directly. The beauty of Jo Empson's book is in the way it helps a child think past death itself, and through to the fairly abstract concept of dealing with grief and celebrating a person's (or a rabbit's) life and their influence on others around them. It's done in a way that doesn't insult the intelligence of a child, doesn't ask them to buy into an esoteric and idealogical view to 'soften the blow'. Rabbit dies, but it's what Rabbit leaves behind that triggers the further discussion.
I remember reading this to Charlotte for the first time and watching the rollercoaster of emotions the book invoked, but the look of sheer joy when she realised that all Rabbit's friends would inherit its "Rabbityness" as a legacy. Utterly, utterly beautiful.
Writing for children's books is definitely no easy option. Many celebrities seem to think that this may be a great inroad into mass adulation by a whole new generation of fans, that it's an easy gig. But it isn't. Not if you want your books to become classics like these, and the sort of books that parents and children are happy to read for years and years to come.
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