Have you got a great idea for a picture book? Writing consultant Renee Gray-Wilburn (pictured, via) offered some advice for working with the form.

Gray-Wilburn urged writers to avoid offering parental guidance to young readers in a picture book. She also talked about incorporating repetition, the five senses, and fun words into your picture book manuscript.

Here’s more from the blog post: “Kids love nothing more than to know that they were responsible for solving a problem. So whatever conflict or crisis situation you’ve set up in your picture book, allow the child character to be the one to figure out a solution. It’s OK to have parents in your picture book; this is a normal part of a child’s world, so they’d probably be expecting them.”

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The New York Times generated hundreds of comments last week, reporting that picture books don’t sell very well anymore.

The article offered a few explanations, including the increasing pressures of school-issued standardized testing and parents transitioning their children from picture books to chapter books at an earlier age. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers publisher Justin Chanda explained: “There’s a real push with parents and schools to have kids start reading big-kid books earlier. We’ve accelerated the graduation rate out of picture books.”

Teacher Monica Edinger offered a rebuttal in the Huffington Post. She saw an increase of chapter book presence in her fourth grade classroom after Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire came out. At the same time, she encouraged her students to read whatever it is they desired; some clung to J.K. Rowling‘s boy wizard, while others reverted back to their beloved picture books.

Edinger wrote: “So, yeah, I think there is a trend for kids to read longer books younger, at least in the sort of community I teach in. But I don’t get the sense that this causes them to abandon picture books earlier. Rather, they read both…So while kids seem to be reading chapter books younger they are also enjoying picture books when they are older. Good news, I’d say.”

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Do you have a favorite board book or cloth book you read with the baby in your life? Today we studied the world of books for babies and toddlers–exploring the list at children’s publisher Priddy Books. Book reviews rarely pay attention to this genre, so share your personal recommendations in the comments section.

This GalleyCat Reviews editor will be a father very soon, so we caught up with publisher Roger Priddy to find out more about the art of baby books.

With over 200 books on its list, Priddy Books has sold more than 30 million copies around the world. Five of the imprint’s titles–My Big Animal, My Big Truck, Happy Baby Words, Happy Baby Colors and Puppy and Friends–have sold over a million copies apiece. “Books are best when kids handle them. When a book is beat up, it’s had a good life,” Priddy explained in a telephone interview.

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