[SarahW Posts: 304 Status: Offline The extraordinary in the ordinary. WWW]

Are picture books that have un-rhymed verse considered on the same merits as picture books with rhyming poetry? I tend to write non rhyming picture books, though it still has the line breaks to make it poetry.

[Arona Posts: 449 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

You say line breaks...? You aren't talking about where the stress falls from line to line?

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 6,947 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

Make sure your meter is spot on and go for it. You can submit it in the poetic format.

[SarahW Posts: 304 Status: Offline The extraordinary in the ordinary. WWW]

Ah cool, I'll submit it then.

Well something like haiku or haikai no renga.

I'll still need to edit Eika's Deck though, as it's gone off format.

[jeanne k Posts: 54 Status: Offline WWW]

Even picture books that don't rhyme should have rhythm.  The sentence length, phrasing, and words should be carefully selected to optimize that rhythm. It sounds like that's what you're doing.

If you're talking about picture books that are in an "official" non-rhyming poetic form, I've seen a few picture books written in haiku.

I would say that if your "line breaks" make sense for the rhythm of your manuscript, that's how you should write it up and submit it. You can briefly explain it in your cover letter.

I'd love to see more non-rhyming rhythmic picture books.

[SarahW Posts: 304 Status: Offline The extraordinary in the ordinary. WWW]

I actually saw one that was like composed of cinquains (another form I love.) :D