Ask a Picture Book Editor

The Magic of Christmas – What Makes a Lasting Christmas Picture Book?

'Tis the season to be jolly – and to buy books as presents for little ones! 


The bookshops are filled with Christmas-themed books on display tables:

Display of Christmas-themed picture books at Waterstone's High Street Kensington

They are jam-packed with classics. There are countless re-tellings and re-packagings of The Night Before Christmas,

some beautiful newly illustrated versions of The Twelve Days of Christmas,

not to mention an exquisite new edition of Snow by Walter de la Mare, illustrated by Carolina Rabei.

And of course, there are Christmas adventures for favourite characters, including Peppa Pig, Blue Kangaroo, Snoopy, Alfie and Paddington Bear.

So what, in this market seemingly populated by traditional classics and character-led publishing, is breaking through to become a modern classic? The trouble with Christmas books is that they have to sell now, but they also need to work year after year. Here are some examples of Christmas books that we love and why:

 Ellie's choices:

1. Father Christmas Needs a Wee by Nicholas Allan

This has to be a modern Christmas classic! This funny picture book is just jam-packed with cheeky, festive fun. Not only do we have poor Father Christmas desperately in need of a pee (definitely a theme that most of us - young and old - can relate to!) but there's also a brilliant counting element seamlessly woven into it too. It's fast becoming a permanent fixture on the Christmas best-seller lists.

2. The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

This is another timeless classic, and also a Kate Greenaway medal winner! What's NOT to love about this fantastically festive tale? Set in a magical winter wonderland, not only is there a wonderfully jolly rhyming text, but the novelties are such great fun! Oh, and the story is  also full of characters that are immediate and recognizable to all young readers. 

3. How Many Sleeps Till Christmas? by Mark Sperring and Sebastien Braun

Similarly, this lovely story by Mark Sperring picks up on a well-worn phrase and uses strong characters and a clever counting-down element that will strike a chord in lots of households in the run-up to Christmas. What makes this really special is the clever use of a relatively modern, and now extensively used phrase, to hook and engage with the reader.

 Natascha's choices:

1. Dear Santa by Rod Campbell

This delightful board book boasts hours of lift-the-flap fun for the very young, as little ones try to guess what present Santa has sent this time by the shape and size of the wrapping paper. The cute, fluffy touch-and-feel kitty cat has that 'aw' factor - what child hasn't wished for a pet for Christmas at one time or another?

 2.  The Christmas Angels by Else Wenz-Vietor

A beautifully-illustrated book, translated from the original German, that embodies the spirit of Christmas. With clever use of novelty and a short text, this book is a firm favourite in our house at Christmas time. It has a kind of nostalgic feel to it and is one of the few around that actually speaks to the message of giving that is central to the holiday, but often forgotten in the modern, commercial world. 

3. Is it Christmas? by John Prater

This story beautifully depicts a small child's anticipation in the run-up to Christmas and all the homey activities - card-making, baking, decorating and waiting for Santa and the family to arrive - that punctuate modern-day Christmases the world-over. Its sequel and companion book, Baby Bear's Christmas Kiss, carries on the story on Christmas Day, with Baby Bear's quest to find the perfect present for Grandbear and all the humour and warmth of Christmas Day surrounded by family.

 What are your favourite Christmas picture books? 

We wish all our readers a festive season. Thank you for following our blog! 

We hope that 2015 is a productive and inspiring year for you. See you then!

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Natascha Biebow is editor, mentor and coach at www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com

Check our my new online small group-coaching courses:

http://www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com/new-online-courses

Gift vouchers available!

 

Ellie Farmer is Commissioning Editor at Little Tiger Presswww.littletigerpress.com

Visual Storytelling in Picture Books

© Chloe Yelland

Understanding the importance of narrative in picture books is a key part of development for writers and illustrators. Today, student Chloe Yelland offers her personal perspective on the way pictures and text work together to create stories. 


The thing that fascinates me about picture books are pictures and words as fragments of sequential imagery and language. Picture books not only visualize information, but also bring out meaning to the story as well as entertain and educate the reader. Parents who read to their children help them understand the importance of reading, as well as entertaining them.

In the fifteenth century, Leonardo Da Vinci pointed out that ‘the more you describe, the more you will confine the mind of the reader’, he felt it was necessary to draw and describe at the same time because colour, pace, rhythm and suspense are used to tell a story whether in a painting or picture book. Sequential illustration is an example – though it is mainly imagery with no words, narrative is addressed visually. The child develops the process of reading imagery in visual sequence, from left to right, and top to bottom.

Cover, The Very Hungry Caterpillar © Puffin Books

Some books which tell stories visually have unique ways of telling stories about life-cycles. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, first published in 1969, serves as a good example, showing a young caterpillar going through the stages of development into a beautiful butterfly. It educates the reader about the life cycle between a caterpillar and butterfly but also entertains them. By looking at the images and listening to the story, the child is also reading the pictures.

Sequential illustration can be transformed into animated short films or adverts, for example The Snowman, written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs and first published in 1978, a children’s book without words about a boy whose snowman comes to life. The picture book was such a huge success, it was adapted into a 26-minute short animated film in 1982, with new additions such as the snowman taking the boy to see Father Christmas. Also a theatre play was developed based on the book. Both versions became as successful as the book, being shown every Christmas.

Sequential images without words in Raymond Briggs' The Snowman ©Puffin Books

I had experience of sequential illustration during the first semester of my second university year. The task was to make a picture book based on the theme of circus – the storyline was a child attending the circus with her mother. I attempted to adapt elements from everyday life to intrigue the audience, e.g. using fun and humour in the book to promote the circus. After developing this theme in thumbnails and drawings, I researched more about the fairytale side of the circus and created characters, starting off with miniature sketches and then adding larger images with circus surroundings.

Chloe Yelland college project

Picture books are a very important part of the child’s intellectual and imaginative development. They are also educational because readers are learning about something, and through that something, there's a chance they may get to experience it in reality.

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Chloe Yelland is studying for a BA (Hons) Illustration degree at Derby University
Her blog is here

Ask a Picture Book Editor

Our blog this month is all about . . .

(Well, the first five are here for you this month. Tune in next month for steps 6-10!)

Hooray! You’ve hooked your editor. You have found a loyal and friendly ally who will champion you and your text (or picture book dummy)! But, what will happen next?

Your editor will take it to . . .

Who’s at the editorial meeting? 

- Members of the editorial team (including the Editorial Director and Publisher)

What will they say about my text?

- They’ll talk about what they like and also what they feel needs work.

- The publisher will assess how your text will sit on his or her list. Is it a good fit? Is it the sort of text they’re looking for? Is it commercial?

- They will also think about whether it’s a good fit for the current market, does it have popular appeal, who is the book for and will it sell to this audience?

Possible outcomes of the editorial meeting:

GREEN FOR GO! 

Your editor will be asked to take your text to the next stage: discussion at the acquisitions meeting.

AMBER FOR PAUSE! 

The team saw potential in your text, but would like you to develop it further. Your editor will work with you to try and reach this goal. When your editor thinks it’s ready, he or she will take your text back to the editorial meeting. Hopefully it will make it to the next stage: discussion at the acquisitions meeting.

RED FOR STOP! 

The team didn’t think that it was right for the list and your editor will be asked to write you a letter of rejection.

N.B - It’s really important to remember that all publishing houses are different. A rejection from one publisher doesn’t mean that it won’t be accepted by another publishing house. Keep persevering!

Who’s at the acquisitions meeting?

Members of the wider publishing team:
- UK Sales team
- Export Sales team
- Foreign Rights team

- Financial Director
- Managing Director
- Publisher and your editor

What will you discuss about my text?
- Your editor will have put together a presentation to pitch your text to the wider publishing team, with its all-important HOOK and USP (see last month's post), and a designer will present some illustrators who they think would be a good match for your story.
- The UK, export and foreign rights sales teams will talk about whether this book would be a good fit for any or all or their customers in their respective territories.
- The Managing and Financial Director will look at a profit and loss sheet that shows projected sales against the costs of producing the book (company overheads, reproduction, printing, warehousing, author/illustrator advances & royalties/fees, marketing spend).

Possible outcomes:

GREEN FOR GO! 

Your editor will be told the project can go ahead! The author and illustrator will be made a formal offer and sent a contract.

RED FOR STOP! 

The wider publishing team didn’t think that it would work for them in some or all of their territories/customers. This can be due to a myriad of reasons including shifting tastes, economic climates and rapidly changing markets.

N.B - as before, all publishing houses vary, so just because you receive a ‘no‘ at this stage don’t give up! It’s likely that another house will operate, think and act differently.  

Now it’s time for the illustrator to start sketching, drawing and painting!

They will do . . .

The designer will set the text against the roughs and work with the illustrator to help them to refine and develop their style, making suggestions for composition or design where necessary. The editor will consult with the author throughout the process.

Slowly, the story will begin to look like the book that it will eventually become!

Copyright © Judi Abbot 2014. Excerpt from Train! published by Little Tiger Press

Copyright © Judi Abbot 2014. Excerpt from Train! published by Little Tiger Press

Copyright © Judi Abbot 2014. Excerpt from Train! published by Little Tiger Press

Getting the cover right is a really important stage of the process! This is the first thing that people will see and it should scream “PICK ME UP AND READ ME, PLEASE!”

There are often many rounds of design and development to get the look just right. Here are a selection of some pretty amazing covers that simply scream READ ME!

There’s a Lion in my Cornflakes! by Michelle Robinson and Jim Field

The Great Snortle Hunt, by Claire Freedman and Kate Hindley

Shh! We Have a Plan, by Chris Haughton

The Biggest Kiss, by Joanna Walsh and Judi Abbot

Specs for Rex, by Yasmeen Ismail

Mr Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown

 
So, the insides are ready, your cover is designed – it’s time to send files off to the repro house to get proofs (also referred to as blads or bound proofs). The illustrations and layouts look exactly as they will in the finished book – they look incredibly similar to the finished book but have card covers and are usually stapled together down the spine.

What are proofs for?

Next month: steps 6-10! We'll cover bookfairs, printing, publication and spotting your book on the shelf!

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Natascha Biebow is editor, mentor and coach at www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com
New small group-coaching course starting in November:
http://www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com/new-online-courses

 

Ellie Farmer is Commissioning Editor at Little Tiger Presswww.littletigerpress.com

Picture Book Master Class with Egmont

Heather Kilgour

This year I helped organise a picture book illustration master class with Sarah Malley, Art Director from Egmont Children’s Books, writes Heather Kilgour . 

The workshop had two phases. First, Egmont provided the fifteen illustrators who had enrolled with a picture book text that they had commissioned. The Illustrators produced black and white roughs of character studies and two full page spreads from the story, which were submitted to Sarah for feedback.


Then the illustrators used this feedback to produce final colour illustrations which they brought along to the workshop. 

Sarah started the workshop with a summary of what Egmont do, along with examples of what she is looking for in artwork. We then gathered round as Sarah reviewed and critiqued everyone’s colour work. To complete the day she showed as the work of the illustrator that Egmont commissioned for the book.

I always jump at the chance to get feedback

Illustration can be a lonely business so I always jump at the chance to get feedback about my work especially if it’s from an industry professional.

Unfortunately other deadlines prevented me from participating, but I have interviewed Anna Violet, Julia Woolf and Shana Neiberg-Suschitzky, about their experience.  Below are their paraphrased answers.

Why did you go?

A:   It was great to get feedback half way through a project, and have a chance to work on a new text. It also gave us the opportunity to meet Sarah Malley and get feedback in person.

J:    It sounded interesting and SCBWI events are always good value for money. You always gain something even if you think you won’t.

S:   I went to build my folio and get experience. In effects it’s like a commissioning opportunity where you work with a brief and a publisher and get feedback.

What were the positives? 

A:   It was great to see what everyone else had done as they all had completely different takes on the story, and then to see the one that Egmont commissioned.

J:    Sarah was very positive. 

S:    It was great to feel like part of a community, to see what fourteen other illustrators came up with from the same idea, and to get an idea of what publishers are really looking for at the moment. Sarah was so generous about giving advice about the industry and how we can improve ourselves to get through the door.

What was helpful for you?

A:   Feedback on character design.

J:    It wasn’t a pitch so I could experiment and do what I wanted. It was a complicated story with lots of characters and no art direction to go by so it was up to you. It was a real challenge; you had to just go for it.

S:   The advice she gave us and the feedback on our work.

Has it inspired any long term changes in your work?

A:   I’m going to try to make my characters funnier.

What would you say to recommend it to others?

A:   Sarah brought promotional work so we could see that she likes, and what works for Egmont.  It’s a great opportunity to meet an art director and get direct feedback. You learn a lot from seeing other peoples work and hearing Sarah’s response to it.

J:    It made me produce some work I’m really pleased with. You can’t lose really, you get to put work in front of a publisher and get a reaction, and even if it’s not a positive one you can learn from it.

S:   It was a vital wonderful opportunity.  No other society generates these types of workshops and events that can really benefit you. SCBWI illustration events are special and unique and it’s all down to Anne-Marie. 

Thanks Anne-Marie and Sarah Malley! And to all the participants who made it a fabulous day. 

Left to right. Susmita Roy, Sarah Malley, Rachel Quarry, Amanda Pollard, Anna Violet, Sarah Underwood, Heather Kilgour, Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky, Katie Weymouth, Clare Tovey, Jasmine Mercer, Elizabeth Norris, Mary Blackshaw, Elisabeth Newson, Anne-Marie Perks, Julia Woolf 

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Heather has been an artist, a blacksmith, a film sculptor and now a picture book maker. She has embarked on an MA in children’s book illustration at Anglia Ruskin College in Cambridge – which might be the start of a collection, as she already has an MA in Fine Arts.

Picture Book Basics - Sketches and Layout

In the second part of a series for illustrators starting out in Picture Books, Words & Pictures Illustration Editor John Shelley takes a look at planning images and layout.



So you have a story, and maybe some character studies and other sketched drawings. The next stage is to plan out the book and make a dummy. 

Storyboards

A common starting point for illustrators is to mark out a storyboard on a single sheet of paper, representing the whole book in small thumbnail sized squares. This allows the artist to pencil in the basic design of each page, plan how the story unfolds over the pages, divide up the text, see where the dramatic points are, and consider the rhythm of the images. As the sketches are thumbnail size and very simple it's an easy matter to rub out and redraw. Some illustrators draw tiny sketches or write the text on sticky notes which they can switch around the pages, though I find these have the annoying habit of curling up and falling off! 

storyboard for one of my recent books Jack and the Beanstalk, note the stickies!

Sketching and Layout

Having roughly planned the book it's time to make larger sketches for each page or spread. Personally I draw pencil roughs at A5 size per page (so A4 for a double page spread) scan these to make my dummy and later enlarge for the final artwork stage, but everyone will have their own method. 

All books (indeed all illustrators!) are different and the variety of style, composition and design is much too big a subject to summarise here. However here are a few commonly accepted pointers:

Boxed, Vignette, Spot and Full Bleed

(This may sound somewhat obvious, but it's worth clarifying!) 
In classically constructed books, a "boxed" illustration has straight defined edges, possibly with a border or frame, and sits within the confines of the page, so there is a gap between the image and the trim (i.e. the edge of the page). The illustration might be cropped from a loose-edged original, or painted to a ruled edge. As the border encloses the scene these are particularly suited to images with a considered, balanced composition. 

Boxed in illustration from Levi Pinfold's Greenaway award winning Black Dog. Notice how the dog's paw breaks the straight line to bring the illustration out of the page. Pinfold also includes a small Spot by the text. (© Templar Publishing)

Vignettes are illustrations with faded or loosely defined edges. The loose edges incorporate the white of the surrounding page to give the image space, lightness and draw the viewer into the scene.

Quentin Blake is a master of vignettes, the background is minimal but loose borders encourage the reader to mentally fill in the rest. (© Quentin Blake)

A spot illustration is a small free-floating motif, usually with no background. In picture books spots are particularly useful as visual addenda to the main narrative.
 
Bleed refers to part of an illustration that runs off the page edges, 'full bleed' means an image that entirely fills the page and is cropped by the trim. Nowadays very many picture books are full bleed throughout, however it's particularly effective when suddenly brought into play for the most dramatic and panoramic images. 

Axel Scheffler double page showing a full bleed illustration and two vignettes
(© Alison Green Books)

 

Big or Small?

A small image on a page surrounded by white space focuses on detail, so it might suggest quiet intimacy, or a key-hole view of a drama about to unfold. Some books begin with smaller images, then gradually open up to full bleed as the drama unfolds. The reverse can work too - big to small. A classic example of this approach is Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, where the first and last illustrations are small, with very wide white margins, while the central fantasy spreads are full bleed.

Another use of small images is to break up a series of actions into details on a page. So for example, a piece of text might describe a character putting on a coat, then shoes, then tieing on a hat... one single image would suffice to cover all these actions, but by separating each into a series of vignettes or spots on a page a sense of time and motion can be introduced. 

sequential images from Emma Chichester-Clark
(© Emma Chichester-Clark)

 

Crescendos and Patterns

Picture books are a little like songs in that there is usually some kind of pattern or structure that the whole book follows, a regular rhythm flowing through, with choruses of loud, dynamic pages at key stages. It's equally true of both text and illustration. An image near the front of a book might be reflected with a similar design later to create a resonance. 

Two spreads from my in-the-pipeline book Stone Giant, the top image is page 06/07, the lower is page 26/27. I designed these two spreads with their sequences of square blocked in images to mirror each other, though they're at opposite ends of the book.

 

Page Turning

A key element of picture books is the need to move the narrative forward - the reader should always be encouraged to turn the page. This can be done by building tension and expectation in the image or text, ensuring plenty of movement from left to right, and drawing the reader's attention to the page corners. 

Rules are Made to be Broken!

Well, some of them perhaps. It's not necessary to mix image sizes in a book - regularity works well if the story has a strong rhythm. Full bleed images don't have to be panoramic. Within these basic patterns all kinds of fun can be had by breaking up these types and inventing ways to combine/contrast layouts. In fact this is what makes picture books so interesting. Go wild, be clever, be crazy! But remember, however mad the page layout, the narrative has to move forward, it has to be understandable as a book. 

The key thing is to follow instincts suggested by the text, do what the story conjures. 

challenging design and typography from Sarah Fanelli (© Phaidon Press)

Things to be careful of:
Remember the gutter (the book's hinge)! Avoid putting busy elements in the part of the book closest to the spine, they'll be lost in the final product. Be especially careful not to place key characters in the gutter! 

Consider the text - where will it lie? How much space will it require? Will it run over the illustration or be separate on the page? Likewise, leave a good gap between text and the gutter and page trim.

Page design is a big topic with myriad aspects. It's a good idea to peruse a lot of picture books and examine how other artists solve the challenges of page layout. There's also a lot of inspiring stuff on the Web if you dig around - for example Design of the Picture Book is a useful resource.

Dummies

Some illustrators make very elaborate dummies before submitting to publishers, but editors frequently say that a dummy that is too polished can actually make it difficult to consider the story. It's often recommended that artists sketch out spreads in simple black and white roughs, nothing too complicated, overlay the text, and draw just one or two finished images in colour to give an indication of the final look. 

One of my pencil roughs for Halloween Forest, from the first dummy. The finished image is here

Personally I sketch all my dummies in pencil on loose sheets, scan in to Photoshop, adjust, then lay out using InDesign, adding the text. I might spend a long time tweaking, changing around and so on before I'm happy with the result. Finally I'll save as a lightweight .pdf which I can then either email to my agent/art director or print out, clip into a plastic file and show as a physical dummy. 

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John Shelley is the Illustration Feature Editor of Words & Pictures and current Central East Network coordinator. 
He's illustrated over 40 books for children, many of them published in Japan where he lived for many years. His next title The Stone Giant is scheduled for release by Komine Shoten in Tokyo this autumn, and Charlesbridge in the US in Spring 2014.   www.jshelley.com