VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Baby Come Home is a story of the young bird, “Baby”, who learns the value of unconditional love and acceptance after he decides to break free from the confinement of his cage and those who love him most. The story gives children a different perspective on rules and why we need to obey them while also offering a teaching on the unconditional love our perfect God has for His imperfect people.  Overall Thoughts: My girls (ages 3 and 8) really enjoyed reading this book with me. They asked questions about decisions Baby makes in the story, which opened some wonderful topics for us to talk about. My three-year-old didn't understand everything in the story as I feel this is more for ages 6 and up, but she understand the importance of following rules and how bad things can happen if you don't. My older daughter, however, did walk away with a better understanding about choices. Something we have been talking about a lot lately as she gets older and closer to baptism in our church.

Last week, I talked about the basic understanding of what a picture book is. Today, I want to cover the plotting, vocabulary and readability of picture books. To rhyme or not to rhyme? One of the greatest questions is should picture books rhyme. That’s totally up to you. If you do decide to write a picture book in rhyme, make sure to the sentences short. There are two rules to writing a book in rhyme: Reduce the distance between beats. Reduce the number of beats. Here are some things to think about if you do choose to rhyme your book: Does rhyme enhance the story? Does rhyme come easily to you? Is there rhythm and meter to back up the rhyme? Does the rhyme make the story sound trivial in any way? Could the same story be told just as well in prose rather than in verse? If the answer is YES to the last questions, you will probably be more likely to sell the story if you write in prose. Of course, how tight the rhythms should be will depend on the moo