I’m Going INSIDE…14:14 Picture Book Blog Challenge

I am hyped about the upcoming 14:14 Picture Book Blog Challenge issued by Christi Wright Wild at her blog.  THIS CHALLENGE really taught me so much about picture books that I remember it as one of the best highlights of my writing year.

I remember as an 8 year old having seen an intriguing line-art diagram of the inner workings of a camera in Highlights, or possibly some encyclopedia.

I promptly, at the first opportunity (Mom must have been visiting next door) got out my Mother’s precious Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. Using a table knife for a screwdriver and toothpicks and tweezers as other tools, I performed my duty as a scientific investigator and took the camera apart.

I mean…screws, springs, gears, brackets, lenses–and a long curvy strand of film–scattered across the grey formica surface of our chrome kitchen table.  All the working parts in all their glory.

I learned a lot, in a real time hands-on way, how cameras worked, back then in 1961. (I learned other things associated with that experience that I won’t examine here.)

Do you want to learn how a picture book works?  Christi Wild’s ELEMENTS of picture books, all 10, are the essential parts that makes picturebooks what they are.  Taking on this challenge will put you inside fourteen picture books–dis-assembling, re-reading, and analyzing what makes them click.

There’s no better way to learn than to take apart what some talented writer has put together.  I encourage you to join me and other writers during February. Sign-up for an inside view of picture books.