Always Let the Child Drive the Bus

Character in Picture Books

In case you aren’t familiar with it, the title of this post is a nod to Mo Willems’ DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS, a Caldecott honoree published in 2003. It’s a subversive little book that breaks the fourth wall (the bus driver asks the reader to prevent the pigeon from driving the bus, and the pigeon begs, entreats, demands that the reader let him). It’s also a wall-breaker of another kind as it has no true visible story line or antagonist (more on that in a later post).

The book is wildly popular for good reason. The pigeon is a stand-in for every child who wants to do something they shouldn’t. Children who read it see themselves, see the pigeon’s naughty behavior, tiny temper-tantrums, and deep desires, and they get it even while they laugh and tell the pigeon, “No!”.

I’ve been in the bookstore when a kiddo – probably between 5 and 7 years – begged her dad to “buy me the pigeon books” since there are now several.

Character Agency

So, yes, we can talk about the book’s subversive nature, but what I would like to talk about today is the agency of the main character in a picture book.

First, the main character in any book for children, including picture books, must be a child or child stand-in.

The pigeon is a child stand-in. So is Spot in the SPOT ( Eric Hill) books. Child stand-ins have been used forever, and can be anything from a cat (SKIPPYJON JONES) to a crayon (THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT).

Max, a child, is the main character in WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (Maurice Sendak), as is the girl in WATERCRESS (Andrea Wang, ill. Jason Chin).

Second, whether you are writing a concept picture book like the SPOT books or a true story picture book like WATERCRESS or WILD THINGS or something in between like the PIGEON books, your main character must have agency.

This means they must drive the action, making things happen internally and externally. And the important part is this: there are no adults driving that bus. No grownups of any kind, no teacher, grandparents or parents.

The story centers on the child.

The pigeon literally drives the story even when he isn’t driving the bus. He cajoles and entreats the reader and his longing to get behind the wheel and do who knows what, is the underlying story thread. The theme, of course, is that we don’t always get to do what we want, but hey, it’s fun to want something, and the ending twist of the book is priceless.

Always Give the Character an Arc of Change

And when I say that the ending of PIGEON is priceless, I mean that Pigeon does indeed have a character arc of change over the course of these very few words. Pigeon doesn’t get what he wants initially, but he evolves to want something else in the end. A small change with big impact.

In my own book, WINTERGARDEN (ill. Jasu Hu), the character grows and changes and her desire to makes plants grow on a winter windowsill drives the book’s action and her small but mighty arc of change.

When you’re writing your picture book it’s not enough to have a concept. You also need your main child character to act – driving the action of the story – and to change – go from one state of being to another, however small that change may be.

Let your child character or stand-in character make things happen and change over the course of your books and maybe they’ll be so popular that one day kids will beg their parents for your books, too.

Get Started With…

Perfect Picture Books is my introductory course for picture book writers who want to dig into the nuances of picture book writing, from language to character to plot and pacing. This course is an affordable five-lesson introduction on writing picture books, with craft instruction on aspects of picture book creation including:

• Picture book narrative arc and structure

• Audience, genre, and theme

• Word use and sentence structure, including whether/when to rhyme

• Page turns and pacing

• The marriage of story and illustration

• Marketplace for picture books and publishing industry

Perfect Picture Books includes video lessons, with handouts and exercises for each lesson. You can read more about it here, and here’s a link to a short free and informative video with craft take-aways that will also get you to a hefty discount on the regular price, but only for a limited time so please don’t wait:

That MFA of mine was really pricey. I can promise you a fantastic ROI for a fraction of the cost.

Please keep writing and do keep in touch!