GENRE: Humor, Rhyming
WORDS: 510
Query:
As an award-winning writer for the role-playing game industry, I have the ability to draw people into my worlds and lead them on adventures. For the last two decades, I’ve been honing my writing abilities through the creation of both picture book and novel manuscripts. I’ve been told by fellow writers and published authors that I have a knack for critiquing and especially for meter and rhyme. In fact, I was hired as a ghost editor by a celebrity for two rhyming picture books and helped polish their manuscript line-by-line. One of those picture books was a highly ranked book in Amazon’s Children’s Religious Holiday Books category.
BOOKANEERS is a 510-word picture book written in the form of a rhyming sea shanty. This story sets itself apart from other piratical tales, such as Melinda Long’s HOW I BECAME A PIRATE and Carolyn Crimi’s HENRY AND THE BUCCANEER BUNNIES, through its distinctive blend of storytelling voice, sing-song rhythm, and whimsical wordplay. The book’s theme of discovering the pleasures of reading makes it an ideal title for National Reading Month and other literacy development programs, while its layered and humorous storyline promises to lure readers back again and again. It is a whimsical read-aloud and perfect for storytimes.
Excerpt:
Ahoy! I am the cabin boy
aboard the Crusty-Ears
and here’s the tale of how I changed
these rogues to bookaneers.
Me mateys, who’d been born at sea,
had never known the need
to mind their Ps and Qs or learn
the ropes of how to read.
But then, one day, they found a book
inside a treasure chest
and split it into shares despite
me squawking from the nest.
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
As a librarian, I’m a huge fan of humorous rhyming picture books because they work so well with kids, especially if there are good storytime reads. I also enjoy picture books about pirates and ones that have a clear meaning for children, but also offer something for parents to notice, too. Last but not least, I had a moment of inspiration of using the term “bookaneers” in a story. Putting all of these together, I came up with the idea of writing a story about how pirates would become BOOKANEERS.
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