My biggest concern with nonfiction for children is that I don’t write down to children. I don’t think I should use baby words. If they have any questions, they can ask their teachers or parents.
I want to make nonfiction visually exciting, but it’s sort of natural for me to do that. I mean I love bright colors, and I love doing my artwork. But when I’m plotting out a book, because of my graphic background and because of the television background, I can sort of visualize while I’m writing what is going to be on each page. Mentally, I can sort of see an image in my head of what is going to be on each page. And I don’t want it to be boring. I want it to be visually exciting. I will never do a topic that I think is dull or uninteresting. It has to really be something that I want to dig into and be curious about.
Sometimes publishers will call up with ideas, and I say, “Are you crazy? I don’t want to do that.” And then I’ll talk at schools, and some of the kids will come up with great ideas. So, my ideas come from a lot of different places from publishers, from my husband, from my kids, from school kids. And sometimes I actually come up with an idea myself. So, my ideas come from a lot of different places, and it has to be something that is exciting to me. And if it’s exciting to me, it comes out in the book. It just merges into the book.
