What Do Challenging Picture Books Offer? Interest and Engagement for the Adults!

Interest and Engagement for the Adults!

I write for the entertainment of the family, children, and parents alike. When creating the story, I see it as a puzzle and attempt to add writing techniques, plot lines, and characters that will engage and inform the child and be compelling for the adults reading to the child. My hope is that parents and their children enjoy reading my stories.

As a writer, teacher, and parent, I don’t separate my world from children. My life has revolved and been rooted in communicating and seeing life with, (and through the eyes of) my fellow little humans. Are they younger? Yes. Are they less mature? Yes, however, they often exhibit more insight and wisdom than many adults. Do children like being challenged? Yes. Do children like learning new words? Yes. Moreover, children, like adults are attracted to the same archetypes and story arcs. Storylines and characters that we all as humans experience through our life journey.

Although our lives as adults can seem so stressful, complex, and separate from the world of children and fairy tales. Ironically, if we stepped back, we often see our problems boil down to the same simple plot lines found in children’s stories. The children’s picture book becomes a metaphor for life in general. Bedtimes stories are a time that parents can garnish subliminal insights and coaching that provide not only entertainment but answers to their own dilemmas.

For many adults staying engaged in reading a simple level picture book can be difficult. My wish is that my stories packed with alliteration and expanded vocabulary may also entice the adult. Subsequently, the reading experience becomes enriched as the adult sense of dramatic enthusiasm to play with alliteration is ignited, (Abbey’s Dental Jewel). Also, my hope is that the involved adult readers will initiate enthusiastic discussion of the storyline and new vocabulary.

Many of my stories are inspired by adults and learning situations that have unfolded in my life. These characters and scenarios are adjusted to fit the animal kingdom or a child’s world. The adults are imagined with behavior as if they are children. Sometimes the reimagined characters act in a way that is contrary to how the character would react as an adult. At times I have combined the inspiration of everyday life with classic fairy tales like the Gingerbread Boy or the opposite of the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf, (Timely Umit Upturns Tim and Watchful Wishing Whirling Wanda’s Whale Pleas!).

Yes, engaging, entertaining, and developing literacy skills in children is a primary goal, however, nothing is more satisfying than when adults have read my stories and given them a thumbs up. The biggest compliments have been after a reading of Abbey’s Dental Jewel tears have welled up in adults. That’s when I know that a story not only speaks to the children but touches the childhood hearts of adults. And are we not all children in our hearts?