Today's teaching review looks at Marsha Diane Arnold's rhyming picture book Roar of A Snore, which could also be called Roar of a Story (bad joke), In it we look at the super smart ways that Marsha works with rhyme and repetition among other things. I also talk a little about Pierre Pratt's art and what makes it effective.

If you want to see a short video of Marsha speaking for the Picture Book Academy, click here http://www.picturebookacademy.com/writing-childrens-picture-books.html I also had the honor of interviewing Marsha in an depth video interview about finding universal themes and underlying meanings in the upcoming Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books starting this week with enrollment open until! November 2nd!! To enroll, just click on the bear to the right or for more information, click just underneath it : )

PS More exciting news about Marsha and the Picture Book Academy will be coming soon, so do check back and please share with your picture book friends.

In this video of a recent webinar presentation, I speak a little about picture word lengths, point of view and voice, character-driven picture books and share a little about the Academy. I hope you enjoy. And just a quick heads up that there are still a few spaces left for the craft and business of writing children's picture books e-Course starting on Monday : )

One of the smartest books out there. Learn about voice, point of view, character driven picture books and more in this beautifully illustrated book.

Today's video is a super sweet character-driven bedtime story about 2 friends, each with a very distinct personality and how they do different things and then come together again. The soft evocative illustrations are lovely and won a Caldecott honor for the author/illustrator Peter McCarty.

Both sad that the contest is over and excited that I get to do my teaching picture book video reviews again. For some reason, I felt like Sister Wendy the nerdy but passionate art historian nun who used to have a PBS show when I made this video. Go figure.

One of the many reasons I like Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon, apart from the kicky language and art, is that it shows an asset view of urban African American culture showing a slice of life not often seen in children's picture books. Written by Ruth Forman and illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc - this book is sure to appeal to all kinds of kids. Oh and I just discovered that the part where I say "non-rhyming picture book" near the beginning had the non- accidentally cut off. This book is an example of non-rhyming poetry.

FYI the winners of the contest were Michelle Wiley because of her combination of talent and perseverance - sign of future success, and runner up was Kathy Ellen Davis for similar reasons. However, there were tons of great responses and I want to thank all of those who participated for their wonderful creativity.