Comments on: A writer’s lessons from board books http://www.attract-mode.net/2009/01/28/a-writers-lessons-from-board-books Mind the bloody-minded individualist. Sat, 11 Dec 2010 04:42:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Cathy http://www.attract-mode.net/2009/01/28/a-writers-lessons-from-board-books/comment-page-1#comment-3140 Cathy Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:18:25 +0000 http://www.attract-mode.net/?p=889#comment-3140 You should consider writing a children's book and getting Tiffany to illustrate it. Wouldn't that be fun?! You should consider writing a children’s book and getting Tiffany to illustrate it. Wouldn’t that be fun?!

]]> By: Kevin http://www.attract-mode.net/2009/01/28/a-writers-lessons-from-board-books/comment-page-1#comment-3139 Kevin Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:54:03 +0000 http://www.attract-mode.net/?p=889#comment-3139 I like SS because it has tension that builds up to a payoff. Tension: Will the narrator find the seahorse? Build-up: The scenes become darker and more mysterious. Coral, flickering fishes, then a group of alien-looking octopuses, then a mythical creature, then a shark-infested shipwreck, and then finally the cave. Payoff: We get the titular seahorse, sure, but we get plenty more. It really helps in reading it aloud to him that I can convey the narrative structure in how I read aloud. That's hard to do with most of his books. (It also helps keep me from being driven insane with ennui at the 139483240985th reading of SS...) I like SS because it has tension that builds up to a payoff.

Tension: Will the narrator find the seahorse?

Build-up: The scenes become darker and more mysterious. Coral, flickering fishes, then a group of alien-looking octopuses, then a mythical creature, then a shark-infested shipwreck, and then finally the cave.

Payoff: We get the titular seahorse, sure, but we get plenty more.

It really helps in reading it aloud to him that I can convey the narrative structure in how I read aloud. That’s hard to do with most of his books. (It also helps keep me from being driven insane with ennui at the 139483240985th reading of SS…)

]]>