Thomas Rippon

I'm not writing an autobiography. But there's something in the frankness, the unapologetic championing of childhood, that I'll always be chasing in my own work, I hope.

Perhaps against the grain, my favourite was his autobiography of his own childhood. It was so much like the fictional adventures he wrote, full of strange grownups and horrible circumstances, but I loved it. I loved that there really could be a childhood like something in his books.

Oh, it had to be Roald Dahl for me. I read everything he wrote and then, when I was done, read them all again. It's been a minute though.

You don't find your writing voice or ideal medium by picking one and sticking to it. Not everything needs to be a novel. You can (and should) explore and experiment and let the story idea be the shape it wants.

I always thought third was necessary if you were cross-cutting between characters, but so many YA books stick with first even with multiple POVs. My guess would be that YA readers like to project themselves into the story more but I'm sure somebody knows the actual answer.

I think it comes down to whether the story leans more towards character or plot. A PB retelling of a fairy tale or fable, for example, feels right in third person. But a MG small-town adventure feels better in first.

Like lots of the other replies, it really depends. If there's a clear voice or point of view, first person feels like too much fun to pass up. But if the story has a lot of moving parts, third person is the only way I can cover that much ground. #kidlitchat

The writer and his dog sitting in a park.

Good morning. The Detective and I have stepped out to work on some things: I am working on a MG graphic novel idea; he is working on sitting still for five minutes.

Can anyone recommend some #kidlit in which the main character is a fictionalised version of the author?

I'm thinking:
Mac B., Kid Spy
The Saga of Darren Shan
A Series of Unfortunate Events (sort of)

Is there a name for this? Author surrogate/avatar doesn't seem quite right.

A longtime resident of the to-read pile: Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman. Here's a picture of me holding it.

I re-read His Dark Materials in the spring and picked up Pullman's annotated Paradise Lost a few weeks later.

With The Rose Field due in autumn, this is long overdue.

#kidlit #booksky

I remember reading interviews with Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak where they waved off the idea that they wrote for children. They just wrote. Then somebody decides who to market it to. I love the idea of that worry just being passed to someone else down the line.

I think that's it for me, too. It feels like a place you can really play with words and images, with an audience that's open to almost anything.

I write picture books because I like being one half of something. Art always evolves in the hands of readers, but I like to see what I've written evolve even earlier than that. #kidlit #kidlitchat

This was a wonderful book, by the way. Inspiring and packed so tightly that I'll have to come back to it again soon.

There's a lot going on over the next few weeks, too. So, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to the things that matter. Those things are writing picture books, workshopping existing manuscripts, developing ideas for longer things. See you on the other side!

I've had periods before when I've felt stuck on "receive" when I wanted to be "transmitting". I've always disliked those periods. I hold too many ideas in my head but I don't have a chance to test them.

We just got home after two weeks in the south of France with my in-laws. That meant working hard on my French. I was also working on actual work. In fact, the only things I took a break from were my personal projects.

This was something we said again and again in interviews and talks about the Ladybird books.

When you give a child something made carefully and skilfully, they feel it. A treat. “For me?”

We all remember that feeling.

When you give a child something half-arsed, you tell them they don’t matter.

I keep seeing generative AI being used on stuff for kids, like maybe they won’t notice, or it doesn’t matter as much. The opposite is true. Anyone who’s created anything for kids knows you should make more effort for them, not less.

New on the bookshelf (as recommended by Taylor Sterling of Moonbow) is Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Here's a photo of me holding it.

moonbowbooks.substack.com/p/5-books-to...

Everyone thinks I took up running to get fit but really I just had six unused Audible credits.

#ILikeKidLitBecause I can't always convince my wife we have room for a new 500-page novel but I can always convince her we have room for a new 32-page picturebook.

Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett at Mac's inauguration as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Find someone who looks at you the way Mac Barnett looks at Jon Klassen.

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

— Harper Lee,”To Kill a Mockingbird”

Thanks for sharing this, Jacob.

"Be careful / Take chances" is a perfect double-whammy.

Makes me want to dig out Mac Barnett's picture book pledge.

I mentioned a few days ago that I hadn't really used social media since the infamous (and divisive) Bad Art Friend story. It feels like a good sign that the Muppet thread is one of the first things I saw when I decided to come back almost five years later. Thank you Katie!

Oh, I wouldn't touch that if I were you. That "to read" pile is load-bearing.

How to Write a Newsletter the Right Way and why sometimes you should do it wrong

I’ve been off social media since the "Bad Art Friend" story of 2021. Mostly, I was tired of moving between this and that site. Then I read Taylor Sterling’s post about starting over with Moonbow. Thanks Taylor. I think I’ll give somewhere new a shot.

moonbowbooks.substack.com/p/how-to-wri...

a cartoon character is standing in front of a large group of black bugs with big eyes . ALT: a cartoon character is standing in front of a large group of black bugs with big eyes .

Anybody down to hang out and talk about children's books?