Designing A Children’s Book

The next step of my inquiry journey primarily involves planning and action towards my end goal. I started diving into the specifics of creating my own children’s book and the steps I need to take to create the finished product. I found it a bit intimidating and overwhelming, and I was not quite sure where to begin at first. So, to help with this, I started with some quick research. I explored the website Atmosphere Press, as well as a blog, The Busy Birds. Both these sites provided some helpful steps related to the process of creating your own children’s book, and gave me an idea of what to start with.

To get my ideas out and onto paper, I started with a quick free write session. I wrote out some helpful notes from the websites, notes about BC curricular competencies that I wanted to apply in my book, and then I started brainstorming. I just started writing, beginning with a mind map about what I needed to do/research, my key ideas, and concepts I wanted to highlight in my storybook. Then, I brainstormed storyline ideas that aligned with the key concepts I wanted to highlight.

See notes from my brainstorming session here:

I plan to write a children’s book for children around a grade 3 level, but this is quite flexible. Children’s books can be used with a wide range of ages, depending on children’s strengths and challenges, and whether they are reading alone, with peers, or with an adult. My first teaching practicum is in a grade three classroom, so I want to create a book I could use with my students.

The key themes I identified that I wanted to highlight in my book include:

• Identity: Girls belong in rugby
• Participation over talent
• Everyone has unique strengths that matter
• Sport creates community/belonging

The rough draft storyline I developed in my brainstorming session:

A girl wants to play rugby, but only ever sees boys playing and doesn’t think she belongs. She tries to join with the boys, but spends practices running along the side of the field, and the boys never pass to her, so she doesn’t get the ball. One day, she walks past a field and sees all these different girls playing. She is surprised, because she was always told rugby is only for boys. The girls correct her and say that girls can play too, in fact, everyone can play! They invite her to join their team, but she doubts herself, saying that she isn’t good enough to play with them, as she has never played before. They tell her that no one starts as a superstar, but with practice, she will get there! Everyone has unique strengths that matter on the rugby field (everyone is good at different things on the rugby field). She realizes she does not have to be exceptional to be an athlete; being herself is enough/she does not have to change.

I thought the storyline I developed emphasized the key concepts I aimed to highlight and contained some important messages for young girls looking to play rugby. However, I was aware this was a very rough draft/outline, and after typing out my story from my brainstorming notes, I knew I was missing some key components that would be important in strengthening my story and making it engaging for young readers. I continued sketching out my ideas on paper, identifying a few major areas in my story that I could make improvements in.

See more of my notes below:

My two key areas for improvement stem from showing moments of success/realization as opposed to explaining them in the story. Specifically, I want to show a moment of success in action (a moment where the main character realizes that she belongs) and make the lesson more subtle, while still having a strong finishing storyline to the book. I still need to determine what exactly these actions will be in the storyline, but I know that I want the action to stem from participation as opposed to talent.

Now that I have a rough concept of my storyline, I plan to write out the storyline in more detail, editing and revising the plot until I think it is well-structured and there is a clear story development that readers can grasp. I also need to create characters for my story and ensure they are relatable, engaging, and serve a clear purpose. Then, I plan to craft the text, layout, and design of my storybook.