Author Michelle Markel on the Changing Nonfiction Picture Book Industry and Your Place In It

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biography, Michelle Markel, nonfiction, picture book, picture books

MICHELLE MARKEL is a successful writer and a local SCBWI member! She’s the author of Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909, which won the Bank Street Flora Stieglitz Straus Award and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for Younger Children, and was also chosen as an NCTE Orbis Picture Honor Book. Her recent titles are Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children’s Books and Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! Your career has included a number of popular narrative nonfiction books as well as some fiction. How is the industry changing?

MICHELLE MARKEL: The field of narrative nonfiction has busted open. There are now books about little known historical events, unsung heroes, and underrepresented groups (women and people of color). Editors are interested in expressive language, innovative artwork, and uncommon formats. They’re looking for creative “hooks” to grab young readers. If you love telling stories, and love nonfiction, this is your moment.

CVZ: What’s your writing process for your biographies?

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Interview with Frances Gilbert, Editor-in-Chief of Doubleday Books for Young Readers

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Doubleday, editor, Frances Gilbert, Writers Day

FRANCES GILBERT started her career with books in high school when she worked in the children’s department of her town library. After graduating from university with an M.A. in English, her first job in publishing was as a Book Club Editor at Scholastic Canada in Toronto. She moved to New York in 2000 to set up a children’s editorial division at Sterling Publishing. In 2012, Gilbert moved to Random House Children’s Books where she is Editor-in-Chief of Doubleday Books for Young Readers. She is also a successful author of several children’s books.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! We’re excited to have you as a Keynote Speaker at SCBWI LA’s 2019 Writers Day event. You’ve been in the industry since a teen and, as an author yourself, understand publishing from both sides. As an editor, please share with us some reasons that picture book manuscripts are rejected.

Ask an Editor: Rhyming Picture Book, featuring Renee LaTulippe

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picture book, poetry, Renee LaTulippe, rhyming

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog. This month, we feature a guest host, Renée M. LaTulippe, children’s poet, freelance editor, and founder/teacher of The Lyrical Language Lab. 

Dear Editor – I’ve written a rhyming picture book, but now that I’m starting to search for an agent it seems a lot of them don’t want rhyming picture books. What should I do?

 —Sam, Los Angeles

Dear Sam:

This is a question that gets a lot of airtime in kidlit writer circles, and for good reason. After all, we can all see how many rhyming picture books come into the world each year, so someone is writing and selling and publishing them, right? Seeing so many agents and publishers put up “No Rhyme Allowed” signs on their clubhouse doors is frustrating indeed.

Interview with Garret Weyr

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Candlewick, dragons, Garret Weyr, middle grade

GARRET WEYR delights middle-grade readers with her novel, The Language of Spells (2018, Chronicle Kids). Previous publications include picture book, French Ducks in Venice (Candlewick, 2011), and YA titles from HMH Books for Young Readers, After the Moment (2009), Stay with Me (2007), The Kings are Already Here (2003), When I was Older (2002), My Heartbeat (2002), and, from Crown, Pretty Girls (1988).

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! It’s wonderful to share with our readers how a local author has successfully been published in PB, MG, and YA. What advice do you have for authors who write in more than one category?

Ask an Editor: Where Can I Find a Critique Group?

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critique groups, critiquenic, critiques, critiquing, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog.

Dear Editor – I think my YA novel is finished but would like to show it to other people for feedback. Where can I find a critique group?
—Effie, Culver City

Interview with Aaron Reynolds and Dan Santat

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Aaron Reynolds, After the Fall, Beekle, Bloomsbury, Brown Books, Caldecott Medal, Creepy Carrots, Dan Santat, Dude, illustrator, interview, Little, macmillan, Neal Porter Book, picture book, Roaring Brook Press, Scholastic, writer

In April, I had the pleasure of watching funny men AARON REYNOLDS and DAN SANTAT dazzle elementary school kids by acting out their new one-word picture book, Dude! Afterward, they graciously shared their wisdom and expertise.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: What advice do you have for prepublished writers and illustrators?

Ask an Editor: Should My Picture Book Have Page Breaks?

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editing, pages, pagination, picture book, picture books, submissions

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog.

Dear Editor – I’m ready to submit my picture book to agents but there are no page breaks in my manuscript. Is that a problem?

—Unbroken, Los Angeles

Ask an Editor: Query Letter and Cover Letter

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cover letter, editor, queries, query letter

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog.

Dear Editor – What is the difference between a query letter and a cover letter?

—Marissa, the Valley

Emma Chichester Clark’s TOTO Illustration Process and Her Muse—Her Dog, Plum

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chapter book, Dogs, Emma Chichester Clark, HarperCollins, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, interview, Michael Morpurgo, middle grade, Plum, The Wizard of Oz, Toto

Emma Chichester Clark is the illustrator of the beautiful middle-grade chapter book, Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz. Its 250+ full-color images showcase Chichester Clark’s signature style.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! In Toto, you collaborate once again with author, Michael Morpurgo. How does illustrating well-known stories differ from working on new fiction? Does having a dog as the narrator change your focus when you work on the art?

EMMA CHICHESTER CLARK: In fact, it’s my sixth collaboration with Michael. We have also done versions of Pinocchio, Aesop’s Fables, Hansel and Gretel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and a Christmas story called The Best of Times. Almost all of them were about well-known characters and I had to find my own ideas about that. This is a challenge because the images we all already know so well are imprinted in our heads. With each character, I have to draw and redraw them, over and over again, until I find someone that belongs to me but who is, at the same time, true to the character I’m representing. [In Toto], having a dog as the narrator was the most fun of all because I adore dogs. I have one, Plum, who is not unlike Toto in appearance and I spend a lot of my time trying to interpret what is going on in her doggy brain.

CVZ: You are also an author. Please give us some insight into your process, both as an illustrator and an author-illustrator.

Author Michael Morpurgo on His New Book, TOTO, and Writing From an Animal’s Perspective

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chapter book, Children's Laureate, Emma Chichester Clark, Farms for City Children, HarperCollins, interview, Michael Morpurgo, middle grade, Toto, Wizard of Oz

Today, we feature Michael Morpurgo, author of the middle-grade chapter book, Toto: The Dog-gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz. This retelling of the classic is from Toto’s point of view. Each chapter begins as he tells his tale to his puppies—only one of which usually stays awake until the end.

A former Children’s Laureate, Morpurgo has published over 150 books. His novel, War Horse, was successfully adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway play and a Golden Globe-nominated film by Steven Spielberg. Morpurgo’s books include retellings such as Pinocchio by Pinocchio (told from Pinocchio’s viewpoint), also a collaboration with illustrator, Emma Chichester Clark.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! What influenced your decision to rewrite The Wizard of Oz?

MICHAEL MORPURGO: We all know the original story from the film and perhaps less from the L Frank Baum book. It is a wonderful and magical tale—funny, frightening—and strange and a wonderful film, but I always felt that there was one character who had little part to play in the story. Dorothy we know and love, but her little dog, Toto, does little more than accompany her on her adventures, providing her with comfort and company, but we never know what he thinks of all that is going on. He just gets carried around a lot. So, I thought why not tell the story again, but through Toto’s eyes. But it was really my friend, the illustrator of Toto, Emma Chichester Clark, who originally had the idea of a retelling the story with her own beloved dog, Plum, as the inspiration for Toto.

CVZ: Please tell us about your writing process.