Before Christmas, I spent considerable time working on a children’s picture book, a completely new genre for me.  While I do find the genre fascinating, I also find picture book scripts particularly difficult to write.  Luckily, help was on the way…

Mr. Raskin’s Grade 2 Class (Yokohama International School)

I was very lucky to be able to read a draft of my picture book script to Mr. Raskin’s Grade 2 Class at Yokohama International School in early December.  While reading, I wanted to gauge which parts of the story the students found engaging, confusing, exciting, etc.

In order to help the students appreciate the collaborative nature of picture book creation along with the subjective nature of a reader’s imagination (i.e. “inner picture”), Mr. Raskin asked his students to draw the most memorable scene from the story.  The artwork, some of which can be seen in the video (below), was stunning.

After reading to the students and seeing their artwork, it wasn’t difficult to tell what had worked and what hadn’t.  It was crystal clear what needed to be clarified, what needed to be eliminated and what needed to be added.

My follow-up visit with Mr. Raskin’s class will focus on editing.  How can you make a boring story less boring?  How can you make a great story even greater?  Click here to find out!