READING FOR RESEARCH BOOK REVIEWS - Post #10

This post of book reviews for ReFoReMo 2017 is  about Rhyming Picture Books. Enjoy!

CIRCUS TRAIN by Jennifer Cole Judd 

This is a delightful little book about the circus. The easy-to-read sentences are very short. The concepts are simple. The text comes full circle as it starts with the line, "Circus trail spills over the hills" and ends with that same line.

The story is told in rhyme. It's very difficult to write in rhyme and do it well, but author Jennifer Cole Judd handles the task well. The bright illustrations by Melanie Matthews are an asset to this great little book.

IT'S ONLY STANLEY by Jon Agee

Stanley, the dog, is apparently a very noisy dog and a whiz at fixing things. Late at night, he wakes everyone up by howling at the moon. Then, he wakes everyone up again when he fixes the oil tank. Later still, he wakes everyone up again when he drains the tub, and other things.

This is a very cute story told in rhyme. It's very difficult to write in rhyme and do it well, but author Jon Agee does it brilliantly. Agee also does the delightful illustrations which perfectly set off the text of this wonderful picture book.

 

JAMBERRY by Bruce Degen  

This is a delightful book, filled with rhymes and word play about berries - blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. It was inspired by the author's memories of picking berries when he was a child.

The rhymes are wonderful. The illustrations are delightful. And the word play is magical. My favorite word is "razzametazzberry".

LITTLE BABY BUTTERCUP by Linda Ashman

This is just a delightful book about a day in the life of a toddler. Mom and her baby go through a full day of eating and playing and helping and shopping and all the things moms and kids do together. The colorful, kid-friendly illustrations, coupled with the rhyming text, makes this a sure-to-be favorite for the younger set.

NANETTE'S BAGUETTE by Mo Willems

"Today is the day Nanette won't soon forget." Nanette is sent to the bakery by herself for the very first time to get the day's baguette. But what happens when Nanette has the warm, wonderfully smelling baguette all to herself?

How many words can you come up with that rhyme with "baguette"? Mo Willems has a whole host of them that he skillfully uses in his rhyming text.

RHYMING DUST BUNNIES by Jan Thomas  

The Dust Bunnies, Ed, Ned, Ted and Bob, rhyme, all the time. Well, mostly.

When Ed asks, "What rhymes with car?", Ed, Ned and Ted say, "Far, jar and tar." Bob says, "Look!"

Of course the word "look" doesn't rhyme with the word "car". They try again. This time Ed asks, "What rhymes with bug? Bob's answer is, "Look out!"

What's going on? Why can't Bob rhyme?

This is not your typical "rhyming" book, but it sure is fun, with a great ending!

Whew!

Whew! RhyPiBoMo has come and gone and so has NaPiBoWriWee.

If you read my previous post, you know RhyPiBoMo means Rhyming Picture Book Month. The idea was to have a daily lesson about picture books, with an emphasis on the art of writing in rhyme. Of course, this meant participants such as myself had to learn the nuts and bolts of poetry. We also had writing prompts and lessons so we could put what we learned into practice. It was an intense month. I learned a lot, but alas, I still have a lot to learn.

Before RhyPiBoMo had ended, I jumped right in and participated in NaPiBoWriWee, which stands for
National Picture Book Writing Week. The idea was to write a rough draft of a picture book every day for a week. That might not sound very difficult, but trust me, it is. You not only have to have story ideas to work on, you have to spend the time actually developing your ideas and putting the words on paper. Thankfully, the stories didn't have to be perfect and polished. Before the week started, I had some ideas for stories to write. As I went along, I actually came up with more ideas than what I had when I started. One story idea developed into a picture book series idea! I'd say it was well worth my taking the time to participate in this endeavor.

There weren't many writers who signed up for the challenge. That's understandable, given the nature of the endeavor. But, all who participated were eligible for prizes. I won an autographed copy of a book! Yeah! Hopefully, there will be more participants next year. Don't worry, you don't have to pledge to write a rough draft everyday, but you should at least make the effort. As Paula Yoo, the host for the event says, she would be happy if you just write something everyday! If you'd like more info about NaPiBoWriWee, you can visit her website by clicking on the link.

RhyPiBoMo

As you can see on the right-hand side of this page, I am participating in RhyPiBoMo 2014, sponsored by Angie Karcher. This is a month's worth of lessons and activities related to poetry, with rhyming picture books as the main focus. However, so far this month (today was the 10th day), we have learned about different types of poetry - haiku, sonatas, ballads, and others - that don't rhyme. We are also learning the importance of alliteration, repetition, rhythm, meter, etc. If you don't know what all these mean, but you would like to find out, why don't you come on over to Angie's blog and join in the fun. It's FREE to join, and if you sign up before April 16th, you might win some great prizes. 

Come on! It'll be fun!!!

Rate Your Story

Remember my post about rhyming picture books? I said it was difficult to do rhyming verse and do it well. I also said I had written a picture book in rhyme that I thought was pretty good but I hadn't been able to find a publishing home for it.

Well, I don't have a publisher for it, but I did get some good news about it. I recently sent it to a website called Rate Your Story. They will rate a story you've written if you send it to them. They have published writers who volunteer to read your story and give it both a rating and a bit of feed-back. There is no charge for this service but there are some rules you must follow.

I sent my rhyming picture book to Rate Your Story on June 3rd and got my rating on June 17th. Now, bear in mind, it's a very short picture book, so that could be why the rating was received so quickly. I got a rating of 3 on my story! I'm very excited about that. I also got some positive feedback as well as some suggestions for revisions.According to their rating scale, it's a "Good story - Get a critique or two and polish before submitting." That's what I intend to do.

Because I got a 3 rating, I am allowed to post this badge on my website to tell the world about my accomplishment.

If you want to have your story rated, you can check out their complete guidelines on their website. The guidelines are simple, but you must adhere to them.

* They will rate only one story at at time. If they give it a rating you don't agree with, and offer suggestions for revisions, you may revise it and resend it, for a total of three ratings per story.
* They only accept submissions on the 1st through the 7th of any month. So, the next window of opportunity will be July 1 - July 7, 2013.
* It usually takes about 2 weeks to receive your rating.
* They rate stories on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the highest rating you can get.

Now that I've received a rating of 3 on my story, I'm going to see if I can get a couple of my writing friends to critique it to see what they think. Then, I'm going to try sending it out to see if I can finally find a good publishing home for it.

Wish me luck, and good luck with your writing, too!

 

Rhyme Time

I have a picture book that is written in rhyme. It has not been published yet, but I'm not sure if that's because the rhyme is badly done (I don't think it is) or I just haven't had the good fortune to find the right publisher for it. In any case, I know it's been difficult to make the rhyme work. You may not believe this, but rhyming (and doing it well) isn't easy. 

But, I recently came across an amazing site for learning about, and working with, rhyme. Lots and lots of children's stories are written in verse. Many of them are done well; unfortunately, many are not. I've been learning about meter and rhyme and verse in an effort to improve my writing.

If you're interested in learning about it too, you should visit RHYME WEAVER. It is THE go-to site for all your questions about meter and rhyme. As defined on the site:

Meter is the arrangement of words, syllables, or sounds into a regular, recurring pattern. In poetry, it is the rhythmic pattern of STRESSED and UNstressed syllables that makes up verse.

Lane, the author of the website, says:

"Adding Rhyme to a poem or story can make it lively and clever, but you don’t have to rhyme to publish or be respected. Actually, it’s highly UNfashionable to rhyme.  Rhyming your poetry in grad school is the social equivalent of schizophrenia– you could talk to yourself in public and be cooler.  

The publishing industry is a little better, but there are many editors who won’t even look at rhyme because when it’s bad, it hurts to hear it.

So don’t torture people with bad rhyme, it’s rude.  Make sure that you are rhyming because you want to and because you’ve taken the time to learn to do it well."

So, come along with me and learn to write rhyme so the editors, publishers, and ultimately your readers will thank you.