It’s time for another special poetry picture book interview.

Lee Wardlaw is an award-winning children’s author best known for her poetry book Won Ton—A Cat Tale Told in Haiku, and its companion title Won Ton and Chopstick. Lee has two degrees in education, and taught both elementary and preschool for several years before deciding to write full-time. She claims her first word was kitty. She is an active member of SCBWI and now lives with her husband and cats in Santa Barbara, CA. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

MY BOOK OF FIRSTS is a picture book poetry collection all about baby’s first moments (first tooth, first word, etc.). The illustrations show a variety of adorable animal families (instead of just one family going through each moment) which makes the book even more approachable for multiple readers. It can be read just for poetry, but it can also be a keepsake book for families (and a great baby shower gift) thanks to the page at the back of the book to record a baby’s first moments (i.e., what is their first word?, etc.). This is a sweet collection with plenty of laughs along the way that any reader can enjoy.

Welcome Lee!

Me: You are a very talented and prolific writer and poet. This is your 31^st book! Can you talk about your journey? When did you start writing?

Lee: This has been a life journey. I wrote my first book when I was 7. Illustrated it, too. Lots of stick figures. (That’s still my level of talent today!) I wrote my first poem in 3^rd grade. Title: “The Midnight Ride of Mouse Revere,” and it was about, obviously, a mouse, who saved the lives of his fellow rodent citizens when he rode through the countryside (on the back of a grasshopper), shouting: “The Cats are coming! The Cats are coming!” It was epic.

After that, I continued writing poems, stories, novels (my first two in 6^th grade; hand-printed on lined paper with a dull pencil), songs, and plays all through elementary, junior high, high school, college – and beyond.  My first published book, ME + MATH = HEADACHE, was actually written during a college math class. Yes, I had a headache! Took 11 years to sell it. (The book, not the headache.) It was published in 1986.

Me: This is an adorable collection of joyful poems told from the baby’s point of view. What gave you the idea to create a book of poetry about a baby’s first pivotal moments?

Lee: Watching my son grow up – especially that first year –  allowed me to see the world with fresh, dazzled eyes. (And believe me, I needed a bit o’ dazzle because I was bone-weary and eye-bleary from endless sleepless nights.) Every movement, every experience, every single sight/sound/touch/taste/smell was a First Time for him, and those moments were…momentous, mountainous, magnificent – for both of us…

I remember watching him learn to walk. No matter how many times he tottered or stumbled, tripped or plopped, he never cried, never got frustrated, never gave up. I loved that persistence and patience. So I wrote a board book called FIRST STEPS…which eventually led to a poem titled “First Haircut”  (which was a runner-up at an SCBWI-LA writing conference contest)…and those two poems eventually led to a whole batch of poetic ‘firsts’ that became MY BOOK OF FIRSTS.

Me: You included many firsts I thought of and some I hadn’t. How did you choose which toddler firsts to include in this collection? 

Lee: I chose the Firsts I best remembered. I also focused on Firsts that most parents can relate to; Firsts that are classic developmental milestones – physical, emotional, intellectual –  in every child’s life. In retrospect, I should’ve included “First Crawl” or “First Rolling Over So That I Can Grab the Cat” or “First Exploding Diaper Mishap at 30,000 Feet.” (That one could’ve been simply called “First Airplane Ride.” We were flying to Hawaii when my son, Patterson, was 15 months old. I figured out how many diapers he would need for the six-hour flight, and doubled that diaper amount. Oops. Should’ve tripled it.)

Me: Were there any poems that got cut out of the collection?  Or any poems you wish you had included?

Lee: I cut one poem from the manuscript before sending it to my agent: “First Ouch.” I removed it out of guilt. I just couldn’t stand reading it because I’d been the cause of my son’s first boo-boo – as many parents probably are.  I nipped the end of one finger while trimming his fragile nails. It drew a drop of blood – and an indignant wail. He still recalls that horrific experience today. ‘Hey, Mom, remember that time you almost severed my pinky with those dull scissors?” I’m kidding, of course. But I’ve never forgotten…

I wish I had written “First Bath.” Patterson took to water like a duck takes to…well, you know. I started swimming lessons for him before he was 3. The swim teacher said, “It’s great he loves the water so much, but if he doesn’t stop laughing and shut his mouth, he’s going to drown!”

Me:  Ha! I love that. The illustrations by Bruno Brogna in this book are delightful.  I love that he used a variety of animal families to illustrate each poem!  Were there any illustration surprises for you when you finally saw them?  Any favorites?

Lee: It’s not really a ‘surprise,’ but the illustration of the baby bear holding a Teddy bear made me chuckle. As far as favorites, you can’t beat the Parent Bunny reading to the Baby Bunny! I love the art in this book. I find it absolutely endearing.

Me:  I love that your book includes a Keepsake page for new parents to record their baby’s first milestones. That is marketing genius! Was that your idea or your editor/agent/publisher’s idea? Did you think about the baby shower and baby gift marketing angle when you pitched the book?

Lee: I wish I could take credit for the Keepsake page, but it was the genius of the marketing geniuses at Red Comet Press! And I absolutely thought of the baby shower/gift market when pitching it! I remember one editor, who rejected the project despite loving the poetry, who said: “This should be submitted to a company that creates gift books.” My thought was: why can’t it be a poetry book for the young…AND a gift book for adults?!” The publisher and creative director at Red Comet understood that.

Me: Any advice for other new picture book writers or poets?

Lee: Liz Bicknell, who was the Executive Editorial Director at Candlewick, once said:

“Some of the worst manuscripts I’ve ever read have been in rhyme. Anyone who thinks they can dash off a great rhyming picture book text in a couple of afternoons is either a genius – or deluded.”

This is SO true. Writing bad poetry is easy. Writing good poetry, especially good rhyming poetry, is harder than hard. So if you’re writing a picture book in rhyme, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is my story rhyme-appropriate? Or, rather, rhyme-WORTHY? You should use rhyme only if it is The Best way, the ONLY way, to tell your story.
2. Is my rhyming picture book an actual story? Or is it simply a series of incidents strung together?Remember: the poetry should never be more important than the story.
3. Do my rhymes actually RHYME? Your verse is cursed when words rhyme only when mispronounced. Editors frown on near/slant rhymes – unless they come very close to the real thing.
4. Do all my rhymes/meter scan? The meter (number of syllables in each line and emphasis on those syllables) must be perfect. Avoid contorting phrases and sentence structure; they always sound unnatural. Author Josh Funk warns against Yoda Rhymes: “It’s raining and wet, in the ship you must get!” Good poetry should flow.
5. Are my rhymes and rhyme schemes fresh and surprising – or stale or predictable? Good verse boasts more than end words that sound the same. Poems that merely rhyme nouns (cat, mat, hat), or rarely feature varying sentence lengths or enjambment can be tedious for the reader.

6. Is my language stale and predictable? Or am I using active, sensorial, lyrical words that create images in the reader’s mind and evoke emotion in their hearts?
7. Is the use of rhyme making my story too long? Avoid the ‘Whirlpool Effect’ – when the writer circles the same ground over and over again to keep the rhyme pattern alive. The story gets sucked into a boring vortex with no hope of moving forward.
8. When I read my work aloud, am I stumbling over certain words and rhymes? Do I hear anything heavy, clumsy, repetitive, jarring, or cringe-worthy?  Or does my poetry flow, sounding like music?            

That is great advice. Thanks for stopping by my blog today Lee.

Dear readers, this book was just published on April 1st. If you haven’t had a chance to track it down yet, you really must. The poems are both sweet and funny, and the illustrations are soft and endearing. This is a book that you won’t want to miss.

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!  Thank you for stopping by!