Smarty Books: The Rhyme Doctors
Meet three authors of rhyming picture books with an amazing newsletter
Welcome back to Smarty Books, a monthly newsletter featuring smart and sweet picture books to inspire young readers. (3 minute read)
Trees are flecked with red and yellow here in Wisconsin, and we’re back into the school year somehow. My oldest daughter just started kindergarten, and it’s strange having her gone all day.
Earlier this year, I discovered a delightful book by Patricia Toht and was Twitter stalking her when I learned that she was a member of a group called the Rhyme Doctors—three picture book authors who have teamed up to provide critiquing services for rhyming and lyrical picture books.
Their newsletter, House Calls, has become my new favorite. It’s a blend of mentor text referrals and in-depth analysis of literary devices used in popular picture books. With permission, I’m sharing one of their House Calls posts because I think many of you, especially the writer folk, will love their content. The following post introduces guessing game picture books, a subset I was unfamiliar with. The concept is brilliant.
GUESSING GAME PICTURE BOOKS by Rhyme Doctor Michelle Schaub
What gives a picture book more allure? / A guessing game; your format cure!
Guessing game picture books are a big hit with young readers. These interactive books allow kids to make a guess, then turn the page to discover if they are correct. Guessing game books also lend themselves perfectly to rhyme. When the last word of the question and the subsequent answer are a rhyming pair, readers get a clue to the solution.
I first learned about this picture book format at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference. Miranda Paul was speaking about her upcoming book, Whose Hands are These? A Community Helper’s Guessing Book (Illustrated by Luciana Navarro Powell, Millbrook Press, 2016). Each spread of this book shows different hands in action and asked readers to guess which community helper the hands belong to.
The key to a successful guessing game picture book? Fresh and clever end rhymes. Readers enjoy rhyming answers that are guessable but not too predictable or cliché. Miranda does this well in Whose Hands are These? Here's an example from the book where Miranda rhymes two words that have rarely, if ever, been paired in a picture book, panic and mechanic:
Recently, I discovered another charming guessing game book, Look and Listen: Who’s in the Garden, Meadow or Brook, by Dianne White, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2022).
Look and Listen takes readers on a nature journey, from a back yard garden and to increasingly wild places. Along the way, readers are given sensory clues to different critters. Look and Listen also engages readers with fresh and clever end rhymes, as in the pairing of follow with swallow on these pages:
Notice that Dianne also uses alliteration (cheer song calls) and assonance (a bright, WHITE-bellied diving) to enhance the lyrical, read-aloud nature of the text. (For more information on the power of these literary devices see the HOUSE CALLS post on alliteration (upcoming) and assonance.)
If you’re a picture book writer looking for a way to make your manuscript more engaging, a guessing game format might be the answer you’ve been seeking.
More about the Rhyme Doctors
Eileen Meyer, Michelle Schaub, and Patricia Toht are the Rhyme Doctors. Each one has authored several rhyming picture books as well as poems featured in different anthologies and periodicals. Click here to view their complete bios on the Rhyme Doctors website. AND, to sign up for their amazing newsletter, House Calls, scroll to the bottom of the Rhyme Doctors homepage.
September News
Part of being a member of the Redbud Writers Guild (Christian women who create) is having the opportunity to write for the Redbud Post. Creative nonfiction is not what I usually write, so this was a fun challenge. My piece in the September Redbud Post is called “Less Perfect Work,” and it’s about moving away from perfectionism in parenting. I also tell some funny (I hope) stories on myself. Here’s a link to “Less Perfect Work.” And, true to the theme, I already wish I had given it a different title. Hah.
Happy reading until we meet again!
—Sarah White
Enjoying Smarty Books? Share this post with someone who loves rhyming picture books.
Thank you for sharing our House Calls newsletter, Sarah! We love diving into rhyming mentor texts and sharing tips for writing in rhyme. We appreciate you spreading the news!