Customer Reviews

How to Write a Children's Picture Book Volume II: Word, Sentence, Scene, Story: Learning from Leo the Late Bloomer, Harry the Dirty Dog, Lilly's ... the Purple Crayon, and Other Favorite Stories

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I was having trouble with rhythm and beats in my picture book writing. This book really helped me learn the beat structure in picture book writing and how they create rhythm. My picture book writing seemed flat and lifeless and now, thanks to this book, it has the rhythm it was lacking. I would also suggest Volumes I and III for other parts of picture book writing. Definitely a must have for those writing picture books and those needing to learn the structure, rhythm and specific language used in those types of books.

I'm thrilled to see a second volume to Bine-Stock's first in this series dedicated to taking the mystery out of writing a picture book. Bine-Stock rises to the top once again as she explains, simply and clearly, how to build a picture book from the ground up. Focusing on choosing the right words, using the best sentence structure, creating a scene, and utilizing a powerful storytelling technique, this book is a valuable tool. I plan on recommending it to other authors I know!

If you're ready to make each word and sentence shine in your picture book this is an invaluable resource.

I disagree with the reviews that state this series is invaluable. It is helpful but not invaluable and not worth spending a lot of money on. That being said, the strength in this series of three books is that the author dissects some classics and uses them to explain basic writing principles. Only the principles exhibited in the chosen classics are discussed. This volume discusses sentence structure (ex. how it affects meaning), transitions, and story telling strategies such as writing the action first, problem first, or character trait first. What is nice about these books is that you have examples from the classics to understand the writing principles discussed especially if you have trouble seeing them yourself when you read. That is what these books are about- dissecting the classics. The author writes in a consistent way often repeating phrases. This can be disappointing but yet it cumulatively adds up to gaining understanding of picture books. What the books do not do is explain all of your choices or define things beyond the examples so sometimes you can be left wondering, "does that statement always apply or is it specific for this instance only?" Overall, if you are having trouble knowing how to start writing your own book the discussions are helpful to give you a good strong overview of what creates good story. Classics, afterall, are the best examples.

Bine-Stock excels in examining the aspects of good writing, though in her three-volume work she confines that to writing for children. In this book, as in the previous, the author uses examples from popular children's books, and this use of examples is a great strength in her instructions, helping us see how successful authors have accomplished what they set out to do.

In Volume II, Bine-Stock examines the Sentence and the Scene. Her instruction on sentences isn't the typical type of writing instruction. She talks about use of the comma, changing the word order in a sentence, use of power words, use of time, frequency, and duration words, and use of superlatives. And that's just for starters. She goes on to discuss parallelism in sentences, sentence focus, sentence order, action-reaction vs. reaction-action, and so on. All of this information and observation is very instructive -- not just for people who want to write children's books, but for people who want to write well at any level. Highly recommended.