Writing a Picture Book for Adults by Katie L. Carroll

Writing a Picture Book for Adults by Katie L. Carroll

The idea for my picture book Mommy’s Night Before Christmas came in a flash of inspiration one night shortly before Christmas. That part is very distinct in my mind. The original idea was for a poem, not a picture book.

At the time, I had two young children and was feeling overwhelmed with all I had to do before Christmas, much like the mommy in what eventually became the picture book. I probably should have been wrapping presents or baking cookies, but I was exhausted and could manage little more than resting on the couch and feeling guilty over all the things I wasn’t doing.

Lines from the classic Clement C. Moore poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” commonly known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” kept running through my head. 

“The children were nestled all snug in their beds;

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads…”

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap…”

This idyllic scene was not at all like my reality of Christmas Eve with kids. Who were these perfectly behaved children that dreamt of sugar plums (whatever those are)? Where was the crying about having to brush teeth? The wrestling a wiggly baby into pajamas? The seemingly endless pile of presents that still needed to be wrapped?

As for the “long winter’s nap,” it was wishful thinking to be getting a good night’s sleep any night of the year, never mind on Christmas Eve. Parenting young children was more like one long sleep-deprived night after another, and that was with kids who weren’t bad sleepers.

In Moore’s poem, when Santa shows up with a “clatter,” shouting out all the reindeer’s names, the father reacts with amazement. That would not have been my reaction at all. The mommy in Mommy’s Night Before Christmas sums up my feelings when she says to Santa: 

“With all due respect, get your sleigh out of here;

If you wake my kids, you won’t see next year.”

I remember that burst of inspiration for Mommy’s Night Before Christmas very clearly. The part of the process that’s not so clear was the actual writing of the poem. Blame it on exhaustion, but writing it was like being in some sort of fugue state. One minute I had this idea, and the next thing I knew it was written. That same night, I posted it on my author blog, and there it stayed for many years. I would often repost it around Christmastime, but that was as far as it went. 

Last year as the holiday season rolled around and my thoughts turned to posting the poem on my blog yet again, I had another flash of inspiration. What if I made Mommy’s Night Before Christmas into an actual picture book? 

But what kind of picture book would it be? The blog post was largely targeted towards adults, not kids. And picture books are for kids, right? The more I thought I about it, the more I realized that picture books don’t have to be exclusively for kids. 

As a parent of three kids now, I’ve read thousands of picture books. I’ve come to understand that a good picture book can be a brilliant piece of writing paired perfectly with gorgeous artwork to tell a story that had the power to change a person’s perspective on life. A good picture book can also be hilarious and wildly entertaining, reducing an entire family to raucous laughter. Why would I pigeon-hole something so impactful into being just for kids?

That’s when the idea clicked. Mommy’s Night Before Christmas would be a picture book that was as much for the adults, maybe even more so, as it was for the kids. Go the F**k to Sleep, by Robert Mansbach with illustrations by Ricardo Cortés, already existed, so it wasn’t like there weren’t any picture books for adults out there. The difference with my book is that it’s also appropriate for kids to read.

I dusted off my old poem, cleaned up a few words that weren’t great for the kid audience, and I had a text that I felt good about. Then it was time to find an illustrator. I landed on Phoebe Cho, whose style had the right kind of whimsy combined with a modern sensibility. Her renderings of the characters pop off the page. It’s all come together to create this really beautiful and funny picture book that’s for the whole family.

——

Katie L. Carroll is an award-winning children’s author and mother of three boys. She began writing after her 16-year-old sister, Kylene, unexpectedly passed away. Since then writing has taken her to many wonderful places—both real and imagined. In addition to Mommy’s Night Before Christmas, Katie is the author of the picture book The Bedtime Knight and several middle grade and young adult novels. She teaches writing and publishing workshops for children and adults and works as a freelance writer. Visit her website at https://katielcarroll.com/.

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MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

In this humorous take on the classic Christmas poem, the concept of the serene night before Christmas is turned on its head. Instead of visions of sugar plums, the children are teething and playing loudly. There are presents to be wrapped and ornaments to be mended. Just when Mommy and Daddy take a moment to relax, a noise outside alerts them to a surprise visitor. But Mommy’s determined not to let anyone—not even Santa Claus himself—disturb the sleeping children on Christmas Eve. Children and parents alike will be entertained and delighted by this new classic Christmas story!

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Category: On Writing