If you’re just joining this blog thread, check out my first two posts on writing engaging picture books: Part One and Part Two.

How Do I Become A Kid Again?

Here’s the thing. Some adults have forgotten what it was like to be a kid. They’ve grown up and gone all stiff like a stale marshmallow chick. Now, this is good for marshmallow chicks, because, in my opinion, they taste better that way. But for an adult writing for children, this is bad.

So, what’s an adult to do? How do we become kids again?

FIRST

Loosen up! Watch kids playing. What are they doing? Are they all stiff and formal and caring what adults think?

NO!

They run and shriek and laugh and play all their favorite things with their favorite friends. Most adults have forgotten how to play like a kid. Remember back to your favorite games. What were they? Hide and Seek? Tag? Cops and Robbers?

How did you play these games? Did you look to see if adults were watching? Did you care what they thought?

SECOND

Now that you’ve remembered playing, pull up even more memories. How did you feel to have the freedom to play without worrying about what anyone thought? Then think about the books you loved. Did they teach a lesson? Did you care if they used repeated words? Did you read them over and over and over? What did you love about your favorite books?

If you can find some of your favorite books, get them and read them. But don’t read them like a grownup. Use different voices and expressions. Pretend you’re reading to a crowd. Get loud. Wave your hands. Pretend you’re a kid reading it for the first time. REALLY get into it! Hey, if you have to lock yourself away somewhere so no one sees you or hears you, DO IT.

THIRD

Get down on your knees and see the world from a child’s height. What can you see that you can’t as a tall adult? Notice what’s on the floor. What’s under a table. Look waaaay up at the ceiling. Does it look different? How so?

How about people? How do people look from underneath? Can you see up their noses?

Go outside and crawl in the grass. Look under leaves. Feel the tree roots along the ground. Take a magnifying glass and watch the ants go in and out of their home. Watch a caterpillar chewing on a leaf. Make a wish on a dandelion or milkweed.

Make a daisy or dandelion chain and wear it to the grocery store.

Seeing things and doing things from a different perspective makes a huge difference in how you approach a story for kids.

HOMEWORK

Yep, kids get homework.    So, for your homework, pick one thing in this blog post and do it. Then, come back and tell us what you did. How did it make you feel? Did it give you an idea for a story or maybe ideas for revisions on a story you already have?

Most of all, HAVE FUN!

Pam Halter is a former home-schooling mom, has been a children’s book author since 1995, a freelance children’s book editor since 2006, and was the children’s book editor for Fruitbearer Publishing until January 2023. She’s the author of Fairyeater, a YA fantasy, and the Willoughby and Friends picture book series (available on her website.) Pam has also published short stories in Ye Olde Dragon Books , the Whitstead Anthologies and Renewed Christmas Blessings. Her first short story won Readers Choice in Realmscapes.  

Pam lives in Southern New Jersey with her husband, Daryl, special needs adult daughter, Anna, and four cats. When she’s not writing, Pam enjoys spending time with her grands, reading, quilting, gardening, cooking, playing the piano, Bible study, and walking long country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees eating wood gnomes.