The beauty of picture books is that they distill a universal theme down to about 500 or so words. When the goal is for the writer to communicate a familiar but unspoken truth with power and heart, this turns out to be no easy feat.
The Picture Book of the Week is A Thousand No’s, written by DJ Corchin and illustrated by Dan Dougherty.
About the Book:
The book is simple. It starts with a girl who has a bright, shiny new idea. She shares it with other people, who begin to see flaws in her idea. “No,” they said. The no’s trickle in and then they become an avalanche. She tries to stop the no’s from getting in her idea, but they do. So, she has to figure out what to do. She could either be buried under the heavy no’s or see them as a challenge.
Writing Exercise:
Write two paragraphs. In the first one, write (fiction or nonfiction) about a person/character who has an idea, gets lots of no’s, and is buried under the heaviness of the no’s.
In the second paragraph, write about a person/character who has an idea, gets lots of no’s, and sees the no’s a challenge.
How is the outcome different?
Happy Writing!