Leslie Leibhardt Goodman Children's Writer

Writer

Month: July 2018

Perfect Picture Book Friday Looks at The Most Magnificent Thing

July 27, 2018 /

Perfect Picture Book Friday looks at The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, a story about never giving up no matter how many failures come.

Back when I was about ten years old, I colored a picture of a field of flowers for my room. I drew some teeny-tiny blooms and some enormous ones. I gave each flower unique petals, shapes, and colors – no two were alike. I worked until I had filled the field with the happiest flowers I could imagine. Then, I ran to show it to my mother, eager for her praise and pretty sure I had earned lots of it for my masterpiece!

Note: My mother was a scientific illustrator at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

Does anyone see where this is going? 

Picture me dashing into the kitchen, clutching my drawing, and putting off as much enthusiasm as Charlie Bucket did when he found the golden ticket, wrapped inside a Wonka bar.

My mother smoothed out my drawing and studied it. I watched her eyes sweep over my art as she took in the beauty of each of my carefully executed blossoms and my impressive array of colors.

“Well?” I begged. “What do you think?”

Mom pointed to a yellow flower with spiky petals. “What kind of flower is this one?”

“That’s a daisy,” I said, “and that blue one is a daisy, too. This red one is rose, of course. And that hairy, pink one is a clover. And that orange one is a marigold. Over here, I drew a lilac bush, and in that corner is a tulip. And look,” I said, my enthusiasm nearly pushing the roof off of our house, “I even drew a cactus exactly like the ones we saw in Arizona on vacation last summer!”

“And all these flowers are growing where?” Mom asked.

“In a big field.”

“And where is this big field?” Mom pressed.

“Here,” I said, holding up my picture. “Right here.”

“Well, if that’s so,” Mom said, “this picture could never exist anywhere. In real nature, these plants wouldn’t grow in the same place. If you want to draw an accurate picture of flowers, you can look them up in one of my botany books by region and season.” She handed the picture back to me.

I walked to my room and drew a picture of a flower–one flower. On another sheet of paper, I drew a different kind of flower. By the end of the day, I had drawn lots of flowers. I pinned them next to each other because, in my room, anything I could imagine was possible.

The Most Magnificent Thing

Written and illustrated by- Ashley Spires

Published by- Kids Can Press – 2014

Topics – Determination, imagination, and persistence.

Opening – This is a regular girl and her best friend in the whole wide world. They do all kinds of things together. They race. They eat. They explore. They relax. She makes things. He unmakes things. One day, the girl has a wonderful idea. She is going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! 

(Seriously long) Synopsis from Amazon – Award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires has created a charming picture book about an unnamed girl and her very best friend, who happens to be a dog. The girl has a wonderful idea. “She is going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. All she has to do is make it, and she makes things all the time. Easy-peasy!” But making her magnificent thing is anything but easy, and the girl tries and fails, repeatedly. Eventually, the girl gets really, really mad. She is so mad, in fact, that she quits. But after her dog convinces her to take a walk, she comes back to her project with renewed enthusiasm and manages to get it just right. For the early grades’ exploration of character education, this funny book offers a perfect example of the rewards of perseverance and creativity. The girl’s frustration and anger are vividly depicted in the detailed art, and the story offers good options for dealing honestly with these feelings, while at the same time reassuring children that it’s okay to make mistakes. The clever use of verbs in groups of threes is both fun and functional, offering opportunities for wonderful vocabulary enrichment. The girl doesn’t just “make” her magnificent thing — she “tinkers and hammers and measures,” she “smoothes and wrenches and fiddles,” she “twists and tweaks and fastens.” These precise action words are likely to fire up the imaginations of youngsters eager to create their own inventions and is a great tie-in to learning about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Why do I like this book? Kids need to learn not to give up at the first sign of failure, and this story provides the perfect example of how trying, again and again, can lead to success. This story also shows that taking a close look at “why” something failed can lead to better results. The specific areas Ashley Spires chose to color in the illustrations keeps the focus on what is important in each scene. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best), I give this book a solid 10!

Learn more about the author/illustrator, Ashley Spires HERE.

A writer’s prompt: Write about a something you made that took many, many, many tries to get right.

Until next Friday.

Perfect Picture Book Friday Looks at Crow Call by Lois Lowry

July 20, 2018 /

Perfect Picture Book Friday looks at Crow Call by Lois Lowry.

Near me, where I write, stand two tall bookshelves–an anniversary gift from my understanding husband. I dedicated shelves to picture books, middle-grade novels, nonfiction books for children, and books on the many aspects of writing books.  On my picture book shelf, one book sits with its cover facing me. That book is Crow Call by Lois Lowry.

A couple of years ago, my daughter asked me to bring her to the book fair at her school. Since we had too many bills to pay off that month, I told her I could only afford to buy one or two books for her and none for me.

Who was I fooling…? My addiction to books began as a child when my father covered one wall of our living room, end to end and floor to ceiling, with bookshelves he handmade. Over the years, we filled those shelves to brimming. 

Crow Call by Lois Lowry Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline.

In the room set up for the fair, I said to my daughter, “Go ahead and look around. I’ll be over here, browsing the picture books.”

My eyes roamed over the titles and then…a book caught my eye.  Crow Call by Lois Lowry. I immediately identified with the young girl with blonde braids on the cover. She looked like me when I was her age. The girl was standing on a golden hillside, staring up with wonder at a sky filled with crows. The illustration, made with the loving hand of illustrator, Bagram Ibatoulline, perfectly captured the landscape of my childhood. I read the opening lines, continued to the last page of this feel-good story, and swallowed my tears.

Right about the time when I closed the book and held it in a hug that I heard a familiar voice…

“I thought you weren’t going to buy any books for yourself,” my daughter said.

“I love this story so much,” I managed to say. And that’s all I said as I clutched the book harder.

Then, she noted the tears in my eyes and hugged me. “I think you need to buy this one.”

Crow Call

*Written by- Lois Lowry – Drawn from her own personal experience as a child.

*Illustrated by- Bagram Ibatoulline

*Published by- Scholastic Press, 2009

*Suitable for – 4 and up

*Topics/Theme – The bond of parent and child, specifically father and daughter.

*Opening –  It’s morning, early, barely light, cold for November. At home, in the bed next to mine, Jessica, my older sister, still sleeps. But my bed is empty.

Words from the author “The details of Crow Call are true. They happened in 1945 to me and my father. But parents and children groping toward understanding each other — that happens to everyone. And so this story is not really just my story, but everyone’s.” —Lois Lowry

Synopsis from Amazon

This is the story of young Liz, her father, and their strained relationship. Dad has been away at WWII for longer than she can remember, and they begin their journey of reconnection through a hunting shirt, cherry pie, tender conversation, and the crow call. This allegorical story shows how, like the birds gathering above, the relationship between the girl and her father is graced with the chance to fly.

Why do I like this book? So many picture books these days have sparse text and are 500 words or less–often less. But this book, with it longer text, tells a rich and satisfying story of a relationship between a father and daughter separated by a war. It captures the shyness of a little girl who sees her father as a stranger. Their journey into the day becomes an important step in finding their way back–together. Through the father’s generosity, sensitivity, and gentleness, a bond is formed which leads to a perfectly satisfying ending. Now, team up the beautiful writing of Lois Lowry with the soft, realistic illustrations of Bagram Ibatoulline, and you have a Newberry Medal winner in your hands.

Lois Lowry’s website (author)

Classroom author study of Lois Lowry

Bagram Ibatoulline’s website (illustrator)

To listen to Lois Lowry speak about Crow Call, visit YouTube.

A writer’s prompt: Write about a special time you shared with your mom or dad when you were a child–a time that strengthened your parent-child bond.

Until next Friday.

Why I Write For Children.

July 13, 2018 /

Yesterday, while I browsed through posts on my blog from 2015, I reread one I titled, Why I Write For Children. Three years have passed, and my reasons are still true today. Here is that post.

Earlier today, I visited a blog that invited writers to answer why they write for children. To answer the question, I only had to look at my daughter.

illustration by Leslie Leibhardt Goodman

From the time my little girl turned two, she rarely wanted me to read to her at bedtime. Instead, she asked me to tell a story I made up. She’d scrunch up the blankets in her hands, roll back her eyes, think of a character, a situation, and say, “Tell me a story about a princess with the sniffles. Ready? Set? Go! 

I had zero seconds to brainstorm a possible plot. No, not every story was good, and frankly, some lousy, but still, my daughter liked bedtime because of this game. I loved her widening eyes, her impish smile, and her wild applause when I finished.

I write for children because their world inspires me. My world, the world adults live in, is a serious, rule-filled world stuffed with responsibilities. Children openly love silliness. They accept the improbable and impossible. They thrive on magical and believe in happily ever after.

I write for children because the three-headed monster hanging out under their bed is as real to them as the bills on my desk are to me.

When I write for children, I think back to my childhood when my sister and I explored the forest around our house. A fallen tree became a ship we co-captained. Squirrels scurrying under leaves were distant pirates. A bird perched high in the branches was our lookout. Through the eyes of our parents, we were playing on a dead tree, risking infection from a splinter or a bite from a spider. Strange how they could never see the tree for more than it was.

I write for children because it’s what I love.

How To Write Better Story Details

July 6, 2018 /

Instead of a picture book review this Friday, I’ve chosen to share a favorite writing exercise I read about in an art book a while back. The instructions were straightforward: using a pencil or pen, fill the bottom of your page with a drawing of grass. It sounded simple enough. I sketched a row of haphazard, waving, wandering wisps across the bottom of my paper, thinking I’d captured grass-ness.

young grain

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Next, the instructions said to head outdoors and bring in a clump of grass, study it, and draw grass again. I dug a one-inch patch out of the corner of the lawn where I hoped it wouldn’t be noticed. Back inside at my desk, I brought out my magnifying glass and studied each blade. Clearly, I had missed some details in my earlier drawing. The blades of grass grew thin at the top where they reached a point and thicker in the middle. One of the blades had been nibbled by a hungry insect, leaving a tattered line along one edge. Another blade had a crease from being stepped upon. And at the base, where the roots disappeared into the earth, the deep green had faded away.

As a writer, I found this drawing exercise relevant. How often have I placed a story in a setting where I have never spent a minute or in a place I knew as a child but haven’t visited since? While I’m writing, I think I’m recalling the details of sight, sound, touch, and taste accurately. However, my descriptions, as it turns out, might be simplified, like my first drawing before I brought in the grass I dug from my lawn. So, what did I learn?

Set aside time to visit the location I’ve chosen for my story.

Take pictures from low on the ground and up high (if possible) for a bird’s-eye view.

Photograph as many details as possible.

Pull out my notebook and pen and jot down sensory details.

Make sketches of anything that interests me.

Video record with my cell phone so I can listen to and observe this place while I’m writing.

And, if visiting the location isn’t possible, do an internet search. Look up videos of the ocean, videos taken in space (if your picture book has a planetary setting), videos of farm life, etc… Google maps is also a great place to check out towns and cities on our globe you want the characters in your manuscript to interact with.

Let’s pretend my story is about two children who visit their grandparents near the sea. Let’s also pretend I live close enough to a beach to spend the day there.

I step onto the sand and take off my shoes. In my notebook, I write down the details about this moment.

The golden color of the sand, the warm temperature against my feet, the gritty, abrasive feel of crushed shells and sand beneath my feet.

I step into the ocean and notice…

The many colors of the blue and gray sky reflected on the surface, the foamy edges of the tide washing over the beach, a smooth seashell pushed up on the shore, the force of the waves washing against my legs, the roar of the waves, the cry of the seagulls, and the salty smell perfumed with a touch of fishiness… 

Before I leave the sea, I photograph the water pulling around a shell on the sand, a wave building in the distance, and the entire shoreline. I add a few more drawings into my sketchbook of a crab scraping over a stone in its path. Then, I fill a small container with sand and collect a few seashells to bring home along with the memories I have gathered.

I’m ready to write.

Until next Friday.

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