How to Write a Book

advice from one of the 20th century's great picture book authors

From How to Make an Earthquake, a how-to book for kids, written by Ruth Krauss and illustrated by her husband, Crockett Johnson, and published in 1954.

How to write a book
by Ruth Krauss

You can write books about anything. For instance, fruits. The first page could be a banana and the second page could be an orange and the third could be cherries, and like that. If you can’t write yet, you could just draw. Then the book could be especially for someone who can’t read yet.

Or you could write a book for someone who can read only one word. You could draw a horse on the first page and write HELLO, and the second page could be a bear and write HELLO, and the third page could be a kitten and write HELLO, and the fourth could be a monkey and write HELLO, until as many as you want. At the end maybe you could write GOODBYE, just for fun.

If you can write well enough, you can tell a whole story and you could draw pictures with it too. One good story is about the table that wanted a chair, and then it got the chair and was happy and never lonely ever after. Or if you can’t draw well, you could just write, if you can write.

Science is always good for books. And adventure is good.

Thanks for reading Looking at Picture Books. Our deep-dives on great picture books, including Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, are here.

Some recommended reading is here.

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