How to Write a Fun Picture Book About a Not Fun Topic
As a mother, I love reading fun whimsical stories that send my kids to sleep with warm, happy thoughts in mind. However, as an author and illustrator, I love seeing a variety of stories and like being able to sneak in little life lessons into our reading time.
(How to Tap Into Vulnerability and Show Strength in Picture Books.)
So I’d like to share how I, as an author and illustrator, created a story that teaches a heartfelt, but sometimes hard life lesson, in a way that is still fun and light as a bedtime story. I’ll share how I did so with my debut picture book, Even Yetis Get Colds. But first, you’ll need a little synopsis to know what the story is about on the outside and the deeper lesson that flows underneath.
Even Yetis Get Colds is a whimsical story about a little girl and her best friend, Yeti. Every year Yeti gets a cold. His sickness causes a snowstorm, and he hides out alone, grumpy, until the cold passes. This year, however, the little girl is determined to find a cure. Many fun shenanigans take place as she tries and fails to cure him. In the end, she realizes that what he really needs isn’t a cure, but just his friend by his side. The story ends with the two besties cuddled up for warmth as they brave the storm together.
It’s a silly, fun story. Yeti’s cold is not contagious, or deadly, and is in fact a little fun, because it causes snowstorms and windstorms and other only slightly destructive whimsical problems. We also know this happens every year, so eventually he will feel better on his own.
If I were to replace Yeti with the little girl’s mother who is sick and can’t be cured; the story would instantly be dark and possibly scary for children—and for me (I’m a softie).
The underlying life lesson is that not everyone can be helped and that there isn’t a cure for everything. It’s one of the hardest lessons I’ve ever had to learn. To be honest, I’m still learning it. I spent years watching someone I love suffer, feeling helpless to do anything about it. I still find myself in that little girl’s shoes trying everything I can do to help, failing, and realizing yet again, the best thing I can do is just be by their side, listen, and wait for them to tell me what they need.
This helpless feeling is even worse as a child, when you feel you have very little power over anything; much less the ability to help a parent or pet or friend or yourself feel better when they’re unwell. It’s especially hard for children to understand that sometimes your body just needs time to heal, and you might not just feel better right away. Or even worse, that there may be no cure at all.
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In truth, this is a story about a person who can’t be cured, and the child who fails to help them. Although, I’m sure someone could write that book at face value and it would be beautiful, it’s not how I prefer to tell stories, and not the kind of book I’d like to read to my kids.
So, how can I make that message more digestible, and dare I say… fun?
I didn’t want the person who is sick to be someone we might think of or worry about in our real life. So I made sure that the person who is sick is a fully fictional character. That way we won’t relate it too closely to our own mom, or dog or whatnot. In addition, the sickness isn’t a deadly disease but a snowstorm. We know storms eventually pass.
In fact, the snowstorm is the perfect excuse to have the characters get stuck in giant snow piles; to get thrown about by tornadoes, and tons of other silly and physical humor to carry the story along. If this were a real cold, a big pile of snot might be a little too icky. Although I think many kids would find a snot pile pretty funny, I don’t think parents would appreciate the messaging. This also helps ensure that we know the sickness is not contagious and we aren’t worried about the little girl catching Yeti’s cold.
An early lesson I learned in illustration and writing is to pull from my own life experiences. That connection to real life is what makes stories feel real and relatable. However, that doesn’t mean every aspect needs to be true to life, just the emotional experiences. So taking my real life experience of struggling to help someone in need, but then replacing myself with the little girl, and the person I failed to help with a Yeti and the trouble they suffered from with a snow storm. I have a true to life, personal experience packaged up in a fun and engaging format.
In this way I hope that it doesn’t feel like I’m hitting the reader over the head with the messaging, but letting them feel and experience the emotions for themselves.
And that’s how I wrote a fun silly story about an un-fun topic.
Check out Carlianne Tipsey’s Even Yetis Get Colds here:
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