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| Creating Children Picture Books Workshop, Universiti Putra Malaysia. July 2015. Photo courtesy Dr Noris Norowi. |
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Have Fun Creating Your Own Picture Books Workshop, Bedok Library, Singapore - for the Asian Festival of Children's Content (www.afcc.com.sg). 31 May 2015. Photo courtesy of En Zamri Mohamad. |
For the past one year, I’ve had the privilege of sharing/giving talks to primary school students, university students, parents, fellow writers and librarians.
Subject: How to create your own picture books for children
With these sharing sessions, came great feedbacks. I think it would be useful to share some of what I shared during the sessions with you today. Hopefully we both can learn a thing or two, and can put them into good use :)
What I would normally do is present slides on the ingredients of a children picture book (story, characters, settings, backgrounds, story arches, conflicts, scenes setups, motifs, and if the audiences are up to it - layers).
I will then read some of the books from the DR Bubbles series (I had them in PDFs) to the audience - it makes it easier for them to understand my presentation. One of the favourites is the DR Bubbles & Anak Dinosaur. To the school children, I read the text (together with the animated sounds!) from page one to the end. Sometimes I do this to the adult audiences too! (Note: I'm not good with storytelling to audiences. But the Word Arts helped a lot!)
Here are some of the slides:
Time and time again, I get encouraging nods (moments of discoveries) from adults. Some had the awakening instance when they just realised that there are even depths in the stories, hidden meanings, and layers – in children picture books!
The Anak Dinosaur has many elements that embodied the title of my talk. Which is why I'm sharing these pointers via the title.
Let's divide them in chunks for easier understanding.
Story
Currently there are 5 titles in the DR Bubbles series (+ 2 activity books):
(Below are the titles in chronological order. Well, the first three were published simultanously, launched during the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair in April 2014)
DR Bubbles dan Anak Kucing
DR Bubbles dan Baim
DR Bubbles dan Wak Kerusi
DR Bubbles dan Anak Dinosaur
DR Bubbles dan Panda
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| The DR Bubbles series. All books are published by Karangkraf. Available from major bookstores, and also from The Karangkraf Mall, together with other picture books here: http://mall.karangkraf.com/categories/Siri/89 |
In a way, the Anak Dinosaur has reached some maturity in term of storytelling and illustrations. But I must say that the number of illustration panels are higher here than the other books, and took a while to get it finished (I have since learned my lesson, so for the next book - Panda – there were less small panels, but more full page illustrations, and better detailings).
Here are the principles that we try as much as we can – adhere to, when writing the story:
Language: Bahasa Melayu Tinggi. Reason: Not many good quality Bahasa children books around.
Problem-solving: While all five books presented problems (and solutions), the Anak Kucing and Anak Dinosaur followed a three-tier problem-solution pattern. For the Anak Dinosaur, it was the Anak Dinosaur who solved the problems. In later books, this should be the pattern.
Word counts: 300 words. Writing children picture books encourage you to be economical in your words.
Texts can be taken out: Whenever the illustrations show, descriptive texts can be omitted. And vice versa. Texts and illustrations work together to tell a unified, wholesome story. They are not separated. The writer has to work closely with the illustrator.
Humour: The story should be funny, and not instructive/declarative. Children do not like to be told. “You must respect your parents!” kind of thing should be avoided. Children are smarter than we think. I’ll elaborate on this point later when we discuss about the Anak Dinosaur.
Characters: For the main characters, three is a maximum.
Show, don't tell.
I will add more points on this.
I have already written some entries on how some titles were made, from character design to storyboarding, to the final layout in a 3-part series. Here’s how the DR Bubbles dan Panda were made.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Messages
Sometimes you don’t really plant messages in a story. Messages sometimes reveal themselves when you are halfway crafting the story - especially when you see a pattern forming up. The DR Bubbles series in general promote good values, creativity and encourage readers to help others.
Message 1
Whenever I finished reading the Anak Dinosaur story to the audience, I asked them if there’ve learned/noticed anything. One particular student said “Love your mom/family.”
Yet, there is nowhere in the book that one can find the texts that said so.
But then, earlier in the story, the reason why Anak Dinosaur cried was that he wanted to get back to his mother (who is in jurassic period - the past. Hint: There’s a deeper meaning here for those of you who like layers hehe). The main chunk of the pages are about a clown doctor and a dinosaur travelling back in time to find the dinosaur’s mother.
There is also a scene where Anak Dinosaur hugs his mom (parents told us that their children hugged them because of this scene - which was 100% intentional!).
And then on the last page, DR Bubbles went back to his family instead of coming back directly to the Pusat Sains Negara. Didn’t those mean something?
Message 2
The story took place at the Pusat Sains Negara. The illustrations in the establishing scenes were based on real settings: The Aquarium, Taman Sains Kanak-Kanak, Alam Mesin Pintar and Taman Purba (where DR Bubbles met Anak Dinosaur). The Rocket became the Time Machine. All these help children relate to the story better (and wanting to visit the Pusat Sains if they haven’t).
The Time Machine took the characters time travelling, back to the time when Tanah Melayu celebrated its independence (1957), to the time when the Dutch attacked Malacca (1641), and later The Jurassic (some 160 millions years ago).
We’re teaching children to love history here, through science.
Message 3
When DR Bubbles and Anak Dinosaur arrived at the Time Machine, it was locked. Anak Dinosaur used its hard and sharp claw (he’s a vegetarian T-Rex). Later when they were attacked by the Dutch, Anak Dinosaur roared - sending the army trembling back to the sea. It was Anak Dinosaur who solved most of the problems, using what he already have (hard sharp claw, load roar). We want children to focus on their strenghs and what they already have in solving problems.
Playing with Sound
Whenever the duo pulled the lever inside the Time Machine, a BIG word art ‘Woooooooooooshhhhhhh!!!’ came out. That’s the sound of time travelling! It makes the story more fun to read. Even toddlers love them!
Other sounds (we call them Word Art. They are drawn texts to highlight certain actions sounds) you’ll find in the book:
“Kreeeeeeek!” - when they pulled the lever
“Merdeka!” - Stadium Merdeka, independence
“Pom! Pom! Kabush!” - when the Dutch attacked Malacca
“Pling!” - whenever the Time Machine landed
"Mamamamamama!" Anak Dinosaur cried when he he first met DR Bubbles.
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| The word Woooooooooooosh! has 12 'o's, to accomodate the 12 hours on a clock's face. And the time were presented in reverse - travelling back in time! |
Sounds make the story interesting, and the storytelling even more fun! (In the Anak Kucing title, there were only “Miau! Miau! Miau!” sounds - but those were fun enough to keep children asking you to read the book).
Here are some other tips/pointers taken from the slides.
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| A spread from DR Bubbles dan Panda. Not all pages need texts. Some were omitted once the illustrations were completed, especially when the editors/team think that we're repeating ourselves. When there are NO TEXTS, parents and children can create their own stories, talk about the pictures, and explore the scenes. Most of the time they are self explanatory, but this allowed for better quality time/reading moments. |
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| Allow time for interactions. That's what reading storybooks to children is all about! :) The featured Pandas were from China, so I thought it would be cool to show them showing off their acrobatic skills (doing leg splits, climbing ropes and bamboo stairs). There are also other burrow-living animals featured. By the way, do you see to word 'panda' on the spread? |
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| Stories always move from left to right. This makes for easier reading and better flow. |
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| Changing camera angles make reading more interesting. Here, the high angle, wide shot complimented the story, where we see that the characters are stuck at a place far from home, unable to get back because there was no spare tyre. The distance from the characters and the readers also helped with the mood. A part of the road was shown in this scene to provide setting for what's to come on the next page (in this case: a motorcyclist who will give them a lift). |
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| This is a two-page spread. Sometimes there are opportunities to surprise readers, like a left-page or next-page reveals. An illustrator should always look for ways to make the storytellers look cool! This was suggested by the editors. |
Well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully you'll see children picture books differently after this. The DR Bubbles series are no mean amazing, but I personally had some really amazing moments when reading it to children (and adults too!).
If you have any comments/feedbacks please feel free to share it!
Thanks!