Through this class students will gain insight into what makes a successful children’s book. The focus is on production, but students will also have opportunities to delve further into methodology, classifications, and history. Discussions will include the exploration of modern trends along with miscellaneous techniques and digital platforms. Students will apply material from lectures and discussions as they share ideas and help to develop a children’s book of their own. In addition, students will become acquainted with publishing houses, agents, and the publishing process as they work towards submitting their own work(s) to a publishing house and/or agent of their choice at the end of the semester.

Each class will be divided into two parts. One part will be dedicated to facilitator lectures and/or guest speaker presentations, many of which you can find listed later in this document. The second part will be devoted to time in workshopping groups. Each workshopping group will be led by a course facilitator who will be available for any questions and/or guidance throughout the writing, illustrating, or editing process.

We will try to enroll as many students as possible in the course. However, based on the number of responses, we ask all applicants to complete the application below. Be thoughtful of your responses as we will be using your answers to assess enrollment if required. Our first class will be held Thursday September 5th, where we will give an overview of the course and answer any questions.