Best American Magazine Writing and Writing Pictures Books

It feels as though writing and/or journaling could make for a great New Year’s resolution.  Here are a couple of ideas to help with getting started.  Learning the craft of writing (or just being attuned to current events and good writing) means exposing oneself to high quality examples. In fact, we are always looking for short pieces to share with students and this collection (over 500 pages and recently published by Columbia University Press) offers some great ideas: THE BEST AMERICAN MAGAZINE WRITING 2018 edited by Sid Holt for the American Society of Magazine Editors.  Articles from Rebecca Traister, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others deal with heavy, critical issues like the #MeToo movement, race relations, international atrocities, maternal mortality, and robotics. 

When reviewing this book, I learned that the Ellie Awards are distributed each year by the American Society of Magazine Editors and they have a searchable database of past winners and finalists. Those chosen for this recent edition were published in a variety of places like the New Yorker, ProPublica, Wired, ESPN, NPR and Smithsonian. Other awards and sources for the “best” journalism pieces of 2018 include lists from Longreads, from Longform, via David Brooks (the Sidneys), and/or the Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism. Plus, The Atlantic journalist Conor Friedersdorf will publish a list of 100 choices later in the new year (here are his recommendations for 2017).

Perhaps your interest tends more towards children’s books; in that case, have a look at WRITING PICTURE BOOKS Revised and Expanded Edition by Ann Whitford Paul who taught about writing picture books for ten years through UCLA.  I love that her first section is titled “Before You Write Your Story: Becoming a Picture Book Scholar” because there are so many fabulous examples in this genre. And she provides insightful comments such as on the number of words versus readers’ ages or on the intended audience which really has two components: parents and children. Of course, Paul’s newest edition also includes sections on the details of developing one’s own book whether she is discussing building the frame, creating compelling characters, plotting, finding an ending, or choosing a title. The exercises included here assume that the reader has a rough draft to revise. Then, she continues to the world of publishing with suggestions for creating a mock-up of the book, submitting a manuscript, and a review of self-publishing considerations. Overall, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS is a helpful, valuable resource.

It is always fun when one of our creative writing, language, or art classes tackles a picture book assignment, too. The students have so many fond memories and learn so much! They can consult works like Molly Bang’s Picture This! or Light the Dark. Paul’s text on WRITING PICTURE BOOKS prompted me to pull out Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books for Publication. Created in a collaboration by Berthe Amoss and Eric Suben more than twenty years ago, it is filled with exercises for aspiring writers. We have also previously suggested other books about writing short stories and some additional journaling resources. Enjoy experimenting with them all and have a Happy, Creative New Year!

Writings on Children's Literature

Two new books dealing with commentary on Children's Literature.

WILD THINGS by Bruce Handy, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, is a fun look at children’s literature, prompted in part by Handy’s rediscovery and enjoyment of Where the Wild Things Are when reading it to his own young son. Readers will be familiar with many titles that Handy notes: Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web, The Snowy Day, Beezus and Ramona, House at Pooh Corner, the Giving Tree, and SO many more.  The book begins with picture books, moves through animal stories, and eventually profiles books for older readers through late elementary and early middle school; biographical information about key authors like Margaret Wise Brown, Beatrix Potter, and Maurice Sendak is provided with a conversational tone that manages to be both informative and entertaining. Handy’s affection for children’s literature is evident throughout as he says, “I hope this book will shed light on why we loved the books we loved, and on the social and personal contexts that produced them in the first place; what they meant to their authors and illustrators …”  WILD THINGS, available this month from Simon & Schuster, received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal AND Publishers Weekly.

Called a “a fascinating and necessary critical work” by Kirkus, WAS THE CAT IN THE HAT  BLACK? by Philip Nel

explores the hidden racism in children’s books while promoting the need for more diverse selections. Across five chapters Nel argues “we must change the ways we produce, promote, read, and teach literature for young people” and then, near the end of his text, offers 19 specific suggestions, including, for example, the need to “recognize that personal racism is often unconscious and that systemic racism is typically invisible.”  He references work by Karen Fields and Barbara Fields as well as that of Anna Holmes to raise awareness about racecraft, or use of language that may conceal racial assumptions (e.g., racial profiling vs. racist profiling or “diverse books” positioning White males as the default and everyone else as “Other”). Along the way, he encourages all of us to be skeptical, critical readers and advocates for a series of questions which could be used with any text (e.g., Who is silenced/heard here? What assumptions does the text make about culture and culture of its readers?). Nel is University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University and his opinions and scholarship are both evident in this well-researched and heavily footnoted work published by Oxford University Press.