September - October 2004
 

BOOK REVIEW
How to Write a Children's Picture Book: Learning from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and other Favorite Stories by Eve Heidi Bine-Stock
 (E&E Group Publishing 2004, ISBN 0-9719898-8-5, $18.95)
Reviewed by Susan Sundwall

It's not every day that someone reminds you of your eighth grade English teacher. But halfway through How to Write a Children's Picture Book, a long forgotten lesson tiptoed into the forefront of my consciousness and sat there grinning. If Miss McFarland taught us anything it was how to diagram a sentence. And now in a departure from more commonplace advice, Eve Heidi Bine-Stock takes us step by step through the process of diagramming a picture book. It makes me wonder if they knew each other.

The focus here is on structure. All great stories employ structure and its usefulness is laid out before us with clear and easy to follow examples. We are introduced to the concept of the Symmetrical Picture Storybook Paradigm. In the progression from simple repetitive structures such as those found in The Carrot Seed to the more complicated diagramming of a story like Owen, we come to understand their common underpinnings.
As a result we are able to see the symmetry in each story. A symmetrical story satisfies and satisfaction sells.

It's enlightening to slice and dice a work using the diagramming method as I did with a story of my own. I was amazed to discover that it had good balance and maybe even – symmetry. You won't know that about your own stories unless you read the book. For myself I can say I'm pretty sure Miss McFarland would be proud.
Susan Sundwall writes from her home in upstate New York where she lives with her husband and their Springer Spaniel Gracie. She writes picture books, short stories, children's plays, greeting cards and articles on the craft of writing.
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