All about Picture Book Club

Picture Book Club is an online book club to explore children’s books together. We look closely at illustration, storytelling, publishing and everything in-between; conversations often meander wonderfully, and it’s always the highlight of my month! It’s part book discussion, part creative conversation, and always shaped by the group. One of my favourite things on the MA was when we looked at Picture Books together and analysed them, so I am thrilled to run this on my Substack.

• Picture Book Club is usually on the last Thursday of every month. I previously ran it at 8-9pm (UK time), but I’m experimenting with moving to 5pm (here is a handy time-zone converter). Times and dates do vary - I post these every month in a monthly dates for your diary post, and I also update the calendar links post, which is always pinned at the top of my homepage.

• I announce the book at the beginning of the month along with some questions for you to consider. If you want, you can buy the book in advance, read for yourself, and see what insights you get from reading it with a more analytical eye.

• To join, click on the live link at the time specified.

• I begin by doing a reading of the book, showing photos of my copy to read along with me if you haven’t managed to get hold of a copy.

• We then move into a chatty, informal discussion about the book. Depending on the book, we might focus on composition, how colour informs the story or mood, the pacing and rhythm, flow, word/image interplay; we usually meander over all of these and more.

• Each session lasts around an hour, and I post replays afterwards.

I think you can learn so much by analysing a Picture Book; it can be all too easy to dismiss a children’s book as easy, cute, a passion project (read hobby), something that you can dash off in a few months. But the reality is years in the making, and something I personally take as seriously as any painting I see hanging in the National Gallery or the latest adult bestseller, and I love this chance to analyse all the granular detail of a Picture Book. Why did the illustrator use a double-page spread here? How does that affect the overall story? Why does it work so well when the words and images don’t mimic each other? Or when does it serve the story if they do?

It’s this and so much more that I love about Picture Book Club, and I hope you will too!

I hope you find what you’re looking for here! This newsletter has brought so much fun, beautiful connections and joy to me, and if you join, I hope it will bring the same to you!

Love,