KEIKI BOOKS
Defining a good children's book

By Jolie Jean Cotton

Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" is loved by children and teachers.

I was searching for advice to help you determine what makes a good children's book.

One featured speaker at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference was Australian author/educator Tony Stead. Stead has taught elementary school for 13 years in kindergarten through 6th grade and now lives in New York City, where he works with children and teachers in classrooms in the Bronx and Queens.

Stead's talk focused on picture books, those 32-page stories in which the art is as important as the text. Stead's remarks were based in part on his interviews with children, ages 5-11, in Australia, the United States and Canada.

Stead asked over 1,000 children, "What do you think makes a good picture book?"

These were the top responses:

• It makes me laugh.
• It has a naughty character.
• There is justice in the end.
• Good pictures (usually simple, with bright colors).
• Funny pictures.
• Scary pictures.
• Rhyme (especially for young children).
• Novelty books (fold-outs and pull-ups) and nonfiction.

Stead also talked to more than 1,000 Australian, U.S. and Canadian teachers. When he asked the same question, "What do you think makes a good picture book?," Stead got very different answers.

These were the top responses from teachers:

• It needs to teach my children an important issue or moral.
• Good language structure. Pleasing to the ear.
• High interest — it needs to keep moving.
• Interesting and unusual pictures. Different types of art.
• Not too long.
• My children want to hear it again as soon as I've finished reading it.

Stead concluded that a good picture book has to please both kids and adults. Stead pointed to Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" as an example of a picture book that fits much of the criteria gathered from his research and that is loved by both children and teachers.

Another featured guest, award-winning author/illustrator G. Brian Karas, has illustrated more than 70 books for children. Karas has written and illustrated five children's books of his own, as well, and is the father of two boys. I asked, "How do you know when you've found a good picture book?"

"When I'm engaged as a reader, when I have forgotten that I'm a parent reading the book, or that I'm grown up for that matter," Karas said. "When it transports me and I feel after finishing that I've been somewhere else. When it makes me laugh."

Featured speaker Emily Easton, publisher of Walker and Co. Books for Young Readers, has published five picture books illustrated by Hawai'i artist Scott Goto. Easton, like many others I talked with, thinks finding the right book is personal. Easton suggested adults ask themselves, "Does this book speak to you?"

On my way back to Honolulu, I thought about what all these publishers, authors, artists and educators had said about children's books. I realized the answer to what makes a good children's book is elusive and as individual as each of us. So I came up with an answer that suited just me: A good book for children has to speak to the child in all of us.

Jolie Jean Cotton's reviews of children's books appear here on the first Saturday of each month.