Day 4 Challenge  – 14 Day Picture Book Challenge –

Describe the Main Character of Your Picture Book.

Step 1: Decide what story that you want to tell.

Step 2: Decide who is the star of your story.

Step 3: Describe that Character

Your assignment today is to fill your mind with as many details as you can about your main character. Allow me to share with you some of my favorite picture book characters.

Small in the CIty
Sydney Smith
2019 Holiday House

Rated as One of the Best Picture Books of 2019 by School Library Journal

This book has become one of my all-time favorites. But I won’t give away many of those reasons. This is the kind of book that you absolutely MUST read for yourself.

There is one very clear main character in Small in the City: the little boy who narrates the story:

I know what it’s like to be small in the city. 
People don’t see you, and loud sounds can scare you.
And knowing what to do is hard sometimes.

I don’t care. I stand in the baby one, and my friend swings on the big one. We go so high butterflies rush through my stomach. We go so I can see far out to sea.

When there are big storms here, the waves crash against the shore, battering his gravestone with salt-soaked spray.

That’s okay. My grandfather is used to storms. 

as I fall asleep I can hear the whooshing back and forth of the waves. I think about the sea, and I think about my father, I think about the light days of summer and the dark tunnel underground. One day, it will be my turn.

If life is a book, then Smoot the Shadow had been reading the same yawn-colored page for seven and a half years.

And much like two pages in a book, or two ripples in a brook, Smoot and his boy were inseparable.
Every day they brushed the same teeth, frowned the same frown, and drew the same pictures–always staying perfectly inside the lines. 

The boy neverlaughed.
He never leaped
And he especially never did anything wild.
So Smoot never did either.

But shadows can dream.
And when they do, the dreams are filled with color.

I, monk and scholar share my room
with my white cat, Pangur.
By candle’s light, late into the night,
into the night, we work, each at a special trade.

Far more than any fame, I enjoy the peaceful pursuit of knowledge. . .
Panguar as his own pursuit, his game of chase and catch.
The silent hunter, he sits and stares at the wall.

George Ella Lyon develops the character of the Starfinderthrough carefully crafted, lyrical [but non-rhyming] words.

He wore old soft clothes and sat in an old chair on an old green porch and told stories. …
For starters he told me once he saw a star falling and since he’d done his chores and it was still light he followed that star across the field.

Way, Way ahead of him it landed so he kept walking and when he got to the spot he picked the star up.

He kept it, of course. . .
Put it my hands—glass, blackish green like puddles around a coal pile.
I held it tight, trying to feel its journey.

I suspect that the little girl hearing the Starfinder’s story is Lyon herself, and the little girl is also a strong character in The Starfinder. But I believe the Starfinder is the main character of this book.

Although I love the wacky illustrations in the book Is That You, Winter, I must be critical of the fact that Gammell [who also wrote this book] does not seem to have a clear understanding of who the main character is for that book, and his ambiguity is a problem.

At the beginning of the book, Winter seems to be the season who is only clothed as a cowboy and who crashes into town, driving an old pick-up truck. I liked the book when I thought that Winter as a season is the main character. Many non-human things have become main characters in picture books. But toward the end of the book, the reader is encouraged to believe that Winter is just a doll. I didn’t buy that leap. Great illustrations but the story is confusing because there is no clear character.

Old Henry – Joan W. Blos – 1987

The story begins when a stranger appears and moves into a house that was vacant for years. . . .

the house was drafty, dark and gray, and more than seven years had passed since anyone had lived there last. . . . [the neighbor thought that Old Henry would fix things up, but Old Henry was comfortable with the house just the way it was}

the hollyhocks wilted, unwatered unkept, the gatepost stayed crooked, the walk stayed unswept. . .

The above words develop the setting for the book Old Henry. Today, I will join you as we question who the main character of this book actually is.

After the house had been empty for 7 years and had begun falling apart, Henry moved into it, and the neighbors were thrilled by the prospect that Henry would fix things up and make their neighborhood look better. But Henry had a different idea. He was content with the house in its dilapidated condition, and he didn’t mind the weeds. He simply ignored the complaining neighbors, and the neighbors finally registered their complaints with the mayor. The mayor’s advice was that the neighbors needed to try being nicer to Henry. But when the neighbors tried to bring him pie and shovel his snow, Henry refused their help. [As usual, both sides are usually wrong–at least part of the time]. Henry responds by leaving the old house in the dark of night

As you might expect, after Henry had abandoned his old house, the flowers began to grow:

His day lilies bloomed, his phlox grew tall.
They picked his apples in the fall.

The neighbors began wondering if Henry was ever coming back.

His house looks so empty so dark in the night.
Having him gone doesn’t make us more right.
‘Maybe some other time, we’d get along,
not thinking that somebody has to be wrong.’
‘And we don’t have to make such a terrible fuss
because because everyone else isn’t exactly like us.’

Meanwhile, Old Henry, to his great surprise, was missing the neighbors who brought him the pies.

[Insert my opinion about the above text — it seems to be a copy of the voice and cadence in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas]

Although we might quickly assume that Old Henry is the main character in the book that bears his name, I suggest that the main character in this book is the House. Henry and the neighbors are just supporting characters. It is the house that I feel most compassionate about in Old Henry.

In Old Henry, the neighbors act together to form a group that becomes a character in the story. In Cynthia Rylant’s story The Relatives Came, there are two groups that act as two different characters. In The Relatives Came, seems to be no main character, and that works fine. I taught art for many years, and I always told my students: Rules Are Meant to be Broken. That is also true in writing. During the 14 Day Picture Book Challenge, you might be trying approaches that you will never use again. Remember, I am not trying to impose any permanent changes on anyone. These exercises are merely opportunities to test new water. The Relatives Came seems to have no main character, and it is one of my favorite books.

Again, in Rylant’s The Relatives Came, there seems to be no single main character. That story is a group thing. It is about two sets of relatives — one set visits the other. But upon closer observation, I would ay that there are two main characters–Family and Appalachia.

The Sneetches is another book that seems to have no main character. Again, there are two groups of Sneetches that learn significant lessons.

The Star-bellied Sneetches have bellies with stars, but the Plain-bellied Sneetches have none upon thars. And thus, the conflict begins. In my opinion, Dr. Seuss does an excellent job of describing the attitudes and behaviors of these two kinds of Sneetches. It is another one of my favorite books, and my final opinion is that the main character of this society is a fickle and cruel society.

On the other hand, The Cat in the Hat has a main character, and the Cat has a very distinctive personality.

Mrs. Spitzer is the main character in Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden.

In this story, it seems that this teacher never leaves school. We have no evidence that she has a life outside of school. The text of this picture book establishes her character. She is a teacher who carefully plants and watches over her school garden. [Perhaps, this suggests that Spitzer also carefully plants and watches over the children in her classes.]

Mrs. Spitzer is a teacher. She is in Room 108 of Tremont Elementary School.

Inside Room 108 are six tables—four circles and two rectangles. There is a rug in one corner with real hopscotch squares and checkerboards woven in bright colors. There is also a size chart., a birthday chart, a gerbil in a cage, a housekeeping and dress-up corner, a row of twenty-two pegs for coats and backpacks, and in another corner, Ms. Spitzer’s desk.

At the end of summer, Mr. Merrick, the principal, walks down the hall to Mrs. Spitzer’s room and gives her a packet of seeds.

Mrs. Spitzer consults her calendar and plans her daily schedule. She checks her tools.

She makes sure the soil is right—light and well-drained, with plenty of room for sprouting. Then Mrs. Spitzer plants the seeds.

She waters them, feeds them, and makes sure they get plenty of sun.

The seeds begin to sprout.

As the plants grow, Mrs. Spitzer watches them closely. She checks daily for weeds and pests.

David Shannon’s Duck on a Bike is daring and free.

At one point in the story, the Duck on a Bike takes the huge risk of standing on the bike while he rides. Duck is a risk-taker, but he is not incorrigible, like David Shannon’s David.

David Shannon created both David and Duck — but each of those characters is unique. A good practice would be to write a character description of David — from ideas that form in your head as you look at illustrations of him.

How old is David?

What kind of clothes doe he wear?

Is David obedient? kind?

Does David follow the rules?

What kind of expressions are on his face?

What is his personality?

Max is another little boy who pushes the boundaries, but he is not always incorrigible.

Max – who put on his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind or another.

His vivid imagination allowed him to sail away to another magical place, and he had enough bravery and tenacity to face monsters.

But he was soft enough inside to need his mother and home.

Chrysanthemum
Kevin Henkes
1988 – Green Willow Books

Chrysanthemum is one of my all-time favorite picture book characters. Her life was perfect until the other kids at school told her that she had a terrible name.

Chrysanthemum thought her name was absolutely perfect.
And then she started school.
On the first day, she wore her sunniest dress and her brightest smile.
She ran all the way.

By the end of the first day of school, Chrysanthemum’s self-confidence had been destroyed.

“School is no place for me. . . . I’m named after a flower.”

And then, Chrysanthemum met Mrs. Twinkle. All of the students thought Mrs. Twinkle was perfect, and in the way that only perfect teachers can do, Mrs. Twinkled fixed Chrysanthemum’s broken heart.

I’m named after a flower, too!
My name is Delphinium. Delphinium Twinkle.

Tammi Sauer’s Wordy Birdy is a flit, and she talks too much.

She is happy and free, but when the story begins, she lacks the ability to quit talking and listen. At the beginning of the story, Wordy is completely self-absorbed. She is unaware of the other animals around her. She doesn’t even hear them when they try to talk to her.

In the end, however, Wordy has a huge heart, and she becomes aware of the other animals around her, and she celebrates her newly discovered friendship with them,

Then Wordy Birdy says thank you the best way she knows how.

“I love you guys! Like, I really, really, really love you.
Seriously! I love your more than spaghetti and unicorns and . . .

Lotus & Feather – Ji-li Jiang –  2016

Lotus walked home from school by herself yet again. These days no one invited her to play. Ever since a winter illness had taken her voice, the other kids treated her like a strange creature.

Lotus lived with her grandfather, a craftsman who made beautiful baskets out of reeds.eee

Without a doubt, there is ONE main character in my debut picture book: The DonKey’s Song. It is the Donkey. Oh, yes, the Three Wisemen, the Shepherds, Mary and Joseph & the Wee Baby Jesus are also in the story, but this book is the Donkey’s story — it is HIS song.

All of my Southern Baptist friends are gasping! What????? The Main Character of the Christmas Story is always Baby Jesus! Blasphemy!

But in my retelling of the story, the Donkey is the main character. In fact, the story is so very one-sided character-wise that Sydney Hanson had the brilliant idea to create a friend for the donkey–the Mouse. I had not written anything about a mouse.  Mouse is Sydney’s idea, and it works fabulously.  My book was released just before Valentine’s Day, and I released a little movie about Donkey and Mouse and Friendship and Love.

But inadvertently, The Donkey’s Song is also a story about God’s greater love:

But primarily, my story is about my own child-like wonder about one of life’s greatest miracles, And beyond even that, it is my celebration of miraculousness.

And to think that Sydney and I accomplished all of that within 186 words. But allow me to say that I was only able to distill all of these feelings and bits of history because the story had been deep within me for many, many years,

Today, your job is to plant within yourself the seeds of the character for your next picture book. Today, you will write everything that you can about your character. Don’t edit. Don’t restrict yourself in terms of word count, voice, or anything else. Just jot down everything that you can about the character that you are creating. 

Allow me to share another bit about how my Donkey character came about. Years ago, I saw the short Disney animation Small One, and that Donkey inspired my Donkey’s Song.

When I first saw Small One, I had children of my own, and yet, it touched me in a way that children are touched,  When I wrote The Donkey’s Song, I was telling the important story about the birth of Jesus, but I was also telling the story about how the insignificant can be part of the miraculous. And Here’s the Truth: I didn’t even know that when I wrote the manuscript. That most important story happened as I wrote the story, and it happened because I knew that Donkey inside and out–long before I recorded his song.