Desdemona McCannon

If you are new to children's book writing or illustrating, this book is a fanstastic overview of various techniques and styles used in creating various types of children's literature and art. As a writer (oh how I wish I could illustrate), I found this a bit heavy on the illustration information. That said, it is incredibly helpful to learn a bit about the illustration side of this industry if you plan to be at all involved in the artistic side of the process.

I especially appreciate the many examples of books that are good examples of the topic, illustrate a particular point or can be read to get more in depth information about a topic.

From paper engineering (pop-up books) to colour theory to writing to appropriate age categories, this book is an incredible reference. I do wish that some of the writing topics in particular had gone into more detail and would have appreciated a full chapter on rhyme and rhythm, but overall, I think this is an approachable and very informative reference book to have in any author's or illustrator's library.… (mehr)