The Craft of Storytelling

Topics
- Create a picture book (must be uploaded/available to view online) and describe the experience in your blog  

- Censorship

Anybody can write a story. But not everybody can write a good story. This is what I learned when I attempted to write a children’s picture book. I read many books, blogs and websites in order to be inspired and find out how to write a successful picture book. The best resources I found were:

• Writing picture books: a hands-on guide from story creation to publication by Ann Whitford Paul
•  Mem Fox’s  website that shares her own experience and advice for writers

It was a more challenging task than I thought it would be.  Many hours were spent scribbling sentences, scrunching up paper, and looking up a rhyming thesaurus for words. Once I had created a story that I was happy with, I had to illustrate it. The illustrations were all done on the computer, using a graphic tablet and MS Paint. This process has given me a greater appreciation of children’s picture books. As a Children’s and Youth Librarian, I read picture books every day, for myself and at story time. My struggles have given me greater perspective when evaluating books and patience when presenting activities for children or youth that involve writing or illustrations.

Here is the finished product.

simplebooklet.com

For full screen : Ten Little Cats

During the process of creating my own picture book, I wondered what about the bad or controversial children’s picture books. Do they get censored or just not published? Who censors them? Is censorship common in Australia? 

Censorship is a complex issue to comprehend and describe in its entirety because it is intricately intertwined with issues and rights, including freedom of access and the democratic rights of all humans. Its current implications on our society, the laws concerned with censoring items or that protect against censorship, are all such lengthy areas to explore and discuss, therefore fall outside the scope of this blog. However, I highly recommend the following resources:

• Cut it out: censorship in Australia by Robert Gott and Richard Linden
• The website Libertus.net by Irene Graham
•  Censorship and the school library media center by Nancy Kravitz
• Opinions and experiences of Queensland-based Public Librarians with regard to censorship of materials in public library collections: an exploratory analysis by Kim Moody

All of these resources gave me a greater awareness of an issue that is sometimes forgotten. Therefore, I thought about the situations that I have experienced in Libraries. In my career I have repeatedly had conversations about the following two books:

Everyone’s got a bottom by Tess Rowley and illustrated by Jodi Edwards

It is a very import tool for parents when introducing the subject of self-protection from sexual abuse to their children. However, a few parents have felt that it is not appropriate material outside this context. 

Mr McGee & the Biting Flea by Pamela Allen

Towards the end of this book you can see his “Private Parts”. Many parents have expressed their opinions that this book is not appropriate and many people have defaced the book in many, sometimes creative, ways to cover up the offending parts.

My recommendation is that you can’t please everybody. If parents are concerned about what concepts a child may be exposed to in picture books, read the book first before giving the item to the child. Lastly, everyone should have the right to choose for themselves what they will or will not read.

References

Allen, P. (2001). Mr McGee & the Biting Flea. Ringwood: Puffin.

Fox, M. (2013). So you want to write a picture book. In Mem Fox teaching, learning, living. Retrieved from http://www.memfox.com/so-you-want-to-write-a-picture-book.html

Graham, I. (2013). Libertus.net. Retrieved from http://libertus.net/

Gott, R., & Linden, R. (1994). Cut it out: censorship in Australia. Carlton: CIS Publishers.

Kravitz, N. (2002). Censorship and the school library media center. Greenwood Village: Libraries Unlimited. 

Moody, K. E. (2004) Opinions and Experiences of Queensland-Based Public Librarians with Regard to Censorship of Materials in Public Library Collections: An Exploratory Analysis. In ALIA 2004 Biennial Conference: Challenging Ideas, 21-24 September 2004, Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, Queensland, Australia. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/479/

Paul, A. W. (2009). Writing picture books: a hands-on guide from story creation to publication. Ohio:  Writer's Digest Books.

Rowley, T. (2007). Everyone's Got a Bottom. Fortitude Valley: Family Planning Queensland.

Simplebooklet (2012). Retrieved from http://Simplebooklet.com