Writing Rhyming Picture Books
Diverse Verse Team Member Valerie Bolling shares secrets about writing picture books that rhyme, as we celebrate her latest release!
Ride, Roll, Run: Time for Fun!
Why does an author choose to write a picture book in rhyme when we’ve often heard that some agents and editors are not interested in books that rhyme?
Agents and editors are interested if the rhyme works and the story is engaging.
The rhyme works if it is tight, not forced, and if the meter is correct. It also helps if the rhyme complements the story. If the story can be better told with prose, then that’s the approach to take. If the cadence of rhyme works well for the story and flows naturally, then rhyme may work best. For example, it was natural for me to use rhyme for my stories in motion, LET’S DANCE!, TOGETHER WE RIDE, and RIDE, ROLL, RUN: TIME FOR FUN!, to convey action and fun.
The rules around whether the story works are the same for any story. Is it a story with a traditional arc, a concept book, or another format? Whatever the case, the story needs to be engaging for a child. The child should want to read it again and again. Rhyme often enhances readability because it begs the reader to read along.
Why do I write in rhyme?
Children love rhyming stories, and adults enjoy reading them to children.
Who doesn’t love chiming in with the word that rhymes with one that was read seconds earlier? The predictability of rhyme entices children to join in. Adult readers naturally pause as they wait for a child to fill in the missing word. While this can be done with a non-rhyming book, it can occur more smoothly and intuitively when the text rhymes. Adults and children often read together, and rhyming books are often the first that children learn to read – or memorize – on their own.
Do I only write in rhyme?
Absolutely not.
Though all of my currently published books rhyme, I enjoy writing different types of books – rhyming/prose, fiction/nonfiction, picture books/early readers and chapter books. For me, writing books is like poetry. There are so many ways to make a story work. You can follow a particular format, or you can use free verse. Writing stories that rhyme allow me to play with words and to challenge myself to find the right rhyming words. (Sometimes I even create new words!) I enjoy the rhythm and energy of the language, and I hope both the adults and children who read my books feel the same way.
Order Ride, Roll, Run via the author’s website: https://valeriebolling.com/ride-roll-run.html
Bio
In addition to RIDE, ROLL, RUN: TIME FOR FUN!, which Kirkus Reviews described as “pure joy," Valerie Bolling is the author of TOGETHER WE RIDE, which has received starred reviews from the Horn Book and School Library Journal, and LET’S DANCE!, a 2021 SCBWI Crystal Kite award winner and CT Book Award finalist. Sequels to her 2022 books (TOGETHER WE SWIM and BING, BOP, BAM: TIME TO JAM!) as well as a Scholastic Acorn early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS, are slated for 2023.
A graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University, Teachers College, Valerie has been an educator for 30 years. She currently works as an Instructional Coach and also teaches picture book writing classes. She is a WNDB mentor and deeply immersed in the kidlit writing community, particularly involved with SCBWI, the 12X12 Picture Book Challenge, Black Creators HeadQuarters, and Diverse Verse.
Valerie and her husband live in Connecticut and enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing.
