PSSST…Did You Get the Memo About Writing Nonfiction PB Bios?

By Vivian Kirkfield

The word on the street is that editors don’t want nonfiction PB bios. They say the market is saturated.

 

But then I see book deal announcements about Nonfiction PB Bios. And I receive requests from authors for space on my blog to celebrate their upcoming Nonfiction PB bios. 

 

So what’s going on?

 

I’m not sure. But, I think if you want to write a nonfiction PB bio, you should do it! 

 

One of the most important elements will be your topic. Editors are looking for something fresh and relatable. Even if the main character is someone we all know or the event is something we all learned about, we need to  give the story a new focus that hasn’t been explored before. That’s what Lisa Rogers did in Woody's Words: Woodrow Wilson Rawls and Where the Red Fern Grows. I’d heard of Where the Red Fern Grows but didn’t remember reading it – and after reading Lisa’s picture book, I immediately read Where the Red Fern Grows. And isn’t that what we want our books to do? We want them to encourage kids to be curious and seek to learn more.

 

In addition to choosing a topic that captures the editor’s attention, here are the 3 L’s that might lift your submission to the top of the pile and tilt the acquisition scales in your favor.

1.  LANGUAGE: Pay attention to each word because in picture books, as in the #50PreciousWords contest I host, every word counts.

How you structure your sentences and the language of the narrator impacts the emotional connection the reader makes with your story.

Level up the strength of your verbs…and you’ll be able to eliminate some of those adjectives that add to the word count but not to the power of the scene.

You can also use poetic and literary devices such as  simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, and wordplay.

And, speaking about play…lighten your spirits as you write and have fun with your words. Once you get the rough draft done, you can always go back and edit. Even when your manuscript is acquired by an editor, there will probably still be revisions. Of all my published books, only one manuscript was accepted without making any tweaks.

2.  LAYERS: What does an editor or agent mean when they say they are looking for more layers in your story? I always thought it meant creating a story that contained many hooks. For example, Pedal, Balance, Steer: Annie Londonderry, the First Woman to Cycle Around the World is a story that would appeal to readers who are interested in bikes, travel/world geography, and women’s rights.

According to author Irene Lantham, “The reality is that if your story is going to be printed as a picture book, it needs to have enough to it to bring readers back to experience it multiple times.” Lantham wrote a great post to help folks understand how her book, Nine, included layers added, not only by herself, but by the illustrator, Amy Huntington, and the Charlesbridge editor as well. It’s a sibling story and a story about turning nine…with nine nonet poems, each with nine lines…and even the book size is a 9x9 inch square. Here’s link to Irene’s post: https://suebe.wordpress.com/2020/04/29/how-to-add-layers-to-your-picture-book-story/

3.  LOVE: Are you passionate about the person, place, or event you are writing about? I truly feel that a writer needs to have an emotional connection with their manuscript. Are you honoring someone whose accomplishments went unnoticed? Have you uncovered an event that you feel a strong connection to? Is there a place that evokes powerful feelings when you visit it or even think about it? I believe we need to be passionate about our topic in order to accurately research it and then, authentically portray it with our words. During research for my book about Annie Londonderry back in 2018, I came across the name of Lucy Stone--it was unfamiliar even though the information said she had inspired Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to become women’s rights advocates and activists. How had I not heard of her? I had to find out more and had to write the story so that she’d receive the recognition she deserved. I was thrilled when One Girl's Voice became a book.

And that’s the thing. These wonderful narrative nonfictions that we write serve a great purpose. They provide engaging stories about real people, places, or events that may spark curiosity and inspire young readers to imagine a better world…and hopefully, work together to create it.

 

Writer for children—reader forever…that’s Vivian Kirkfield in five words. A former educator, Vivian inspires budding writers during classroom visits and on her blog where she hosts the #50PreciousWords writing contests for adults and children. Her nonfiction narratives like Making Their Voices Heard, Pedal, Balance, Steer, and One Girl's Voice bring history alive for young readers and have received accolades including the New Hampshire PBS Literary Award of Excellence, CRA Silver Eureka, Social Studies Notable Trade Book, Best STEM Book K-12, Bank Street College of Education Best Book, and Junior Library Guild Selection.

Crafting a True Story When Information is Scarce

By Vivian Kirkfield

In June of 2014, I took a picture book writing class called Nonfiction Archaeology…and it was love at first sight. The instructor suggested we Google first woman to do this and first man to do that. One of the names I came up with was Sarah E. Goode, who, according to the one line of information on a Black History website, invented a cabinet bed in 1885 and was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. Wow, I thought! That was pretty awesome for an African American woman to do that, just twenty years after the end of the Civil War. I wanted to find out more about her. 

But there wasn’t anything more. I searched websites, library catalog but there was nothing. Just the same few lines of information (which I came to find out were incorrect anyway). I even reached out to the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy in Chicago, Illinois. That was a dead end also – they didn’t know anything about her. I was flabbergasted. And so sad for Sarah. She’d accomplished something astonishing, yet was completely unrecognized except for the patent she’d received. 

So, what do you think I did? I wrote a story called The Disappearing Bed (which became Sweet Dreams, Sarah). If any of my long-time critique buddies are participating in NF Fest, they will probably remember receiving that manuscript. I started the story with a young girl during the Civil War (I had Sarah’s approximate date of birth and knew she was about ten years old when the war ended). I told a story about how she had a dream of a different life. And how, after the Civil War, she had moved north to Chicago – with freedom in her pocket, hope in her heart, and ideas swirling in her head.

Slowly but surely, I continued researching to try to find more evidence to help me craft an authentic and accurate story that would engage readers while honoring Sarah.

I checked census records for Chicago’s Cook Country. Sure enough, in the 1870 census, I found Harriet and Oliver Jacobs, parents of Oliver Jr, 14-year old Sarah, and two younger siblings. The next census, in 1880, showed a 24-year Sarah E. Goode, married to Archibald Goode, with a little girl named Inez. And when I checked old city directories of 1884, I found two listings for Sarah E. Goode, a residential one that showed she and her husband owned a house that took in lodgers, and a business listing showing she was the proprietor of a furniture establishment on State Street.

Here’s a tip: use those little tidbits of info as you craft your story. Here’s how I used the information that she took in lodgers:

Sarah rented out rooms in their house to people who needed a place to live. She saved every penny she could to pay for her third dream, her own furniture store.

My next move was to reach out to my local research librarian. She reached out to other librarians at some of the university libraries. They responded with an old image of State Street in Chicago circa 1885 – and they circled the furniture store they thought was probably Sarah’s. But they, too, had no other information. What to do?

I was able to see her patent on the Internet. She originally applied in 1883 and it took a year for the government to get back to her with a denial. I was also able to see she reapplied in 1884 and received her patent in 1885. Those became very important moments in the book.

I googled Find a Grave and discovered Sarah was buried at the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago…I called the cemetery office and for $10, they sent me a list of the people who were buried alongside her in the Goode family plot, the age they died and what they died from. 

And then, using my local library’s online database, I found two old newspaper advertisements – the first from 1884 for Sarah’s furniture store. The second, from 1887 from another vendor who claimed he was the exclusive seller of Sarah’s cabinet bed. Sure enough, when I checked the city directory for 1890, Sarah E. Goode’s business was no longer listed. Referring back to the grave information, I discovered that Sarah’s child and mother died in 1886, the year after she received the patent. Perhaps she fell into a depression. Possibly she became ill and was unable to continue her business. She died in Chicago in 1905 at the age of forty-nine. 

That information is not part of the narrative, but it did give me more insight into the person Sarah was, and I do include it in the back matter. I am crafting stories for young children and my goal is to inspire them to dream and build their dreams into reality just like Sarah built her cabinet bed. I took the few facts that I was able to verify and I used them as the frame for the narrative. I never put words into Sarah’s mouth. But I did assume that she had moments of doubt and difficulty, as any inventor might. 

As I crafted Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, I faced similar problems. Although I was able to watch YouTube videos of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and movie star Marilyn Monroe, I wanted their friendship to be the focus of the book. And none of the resources I read told me anything about that. In one of those taped interviews, I heard Marilyn say that Ella was her favorite person in the world and that she loved her. I watched an interview where Ella mentioned that she owed Marilyn a great debt and that Marilyn was a special person, ahead of her time. Was that enough to conclude they were friends? I didn’t think so. 

Luckily, after some detective work, I was able to have a telephone conversation with the woman who was Ella’s promoter for thirty-seven years and she confirmed that they were friends. Although I read many books about Ella and Marilyn, the story I wrote wasn’t based on those. It was based on the photo that I saw on the Internet of Ella and Marilyn sitting side by side in a nightclub. That photo sparked my interest and when I discovered how they had both battled different types of discrimination and forged a life-long friendship, I became passionate to tell the story.

My advice for crafting a true story when information is scarce? Gather the facts you can verify. From those facts, find the focus of the story and create a well-paced, accurate, and action-packed narrative that will keep kids turning the pages!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Writer for children—reader forever…that’s Vivian Kirkfield in five words. Her bucket list contains many more than five words – but she’s already checked off skydiving, parasailing, banana-boat riding, and visiting critique buddies all around the world. When she isn’t looking for ways to fall from the sky or sink under the water, she can be found writing picture books in the quaint village of Amherst, NH where the old stone library is her favorite hangout and her young grandson is her favorite board game partner. Vivian blogs at Picture Books Help Kids Soar where she hosts the #50PreciousWords International Writing Contest.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Vivian Kirkfield will be awarding a picture book manuscript critique to one lucky winner.

Leave one comment below about what struck you in the post.

You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered NF Fest participant and you have contributed one comment below.  

Introducing NF Blogger Vivian Kirkfield!

Vivian Kirkfield is an excitement junkie. She has jumped from an airplane, cruised down a river on a banana-boat, and soared above the water on a parasail. Most exciting was her career as a kindergarten teacher. Now retired, Vivian gets her adrenaline fix by creating fiction and nonfiction for children. Her most recent are Sweet Dreams, Sarah and Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe.