How to Make a Picture Book

Written and illustrated by award winning picturebook creator Elys Dolan, this book provides an appealing and entertaining step-by-step guide for young writers and illustrators.

The process is broken down into easy to manage steps from generating ideas to production.

Stuck for ideas? No problem, we are shown how creating a gallery of favourite things can act as inspiration, and how these can help build an idea for a story by adding two together – playing a kind of story maths. Readers are shown how to develop characters and get to know them by drawing them in different situations and ‘interviewing’ them. The story setting can be developed by firstly imagining your character in their bedrooms and then zooming out to their house and then to their town. Not sure how to develop the text? Try the suggested writing frame with sentence starters.  Examples are provided throughout as Elys shows how a story about a pizza loving dinosaur might develop.

The book finishes with ways to make a simple paper book and how to design it. There is an interesting perspective on page layout and insights into composition – for example how to make the storytelling slow down with one large, detailed image or speed up with a series of small images. The impact colour can have on mood is also considered.

Each section is followed with activity time encouraging young picturebook creators to try the ideas themselves to develop their own stories.

Amusing, accessible and inspirational this guide is a useful and fun filled recipe for successful picturebook making.