Picture book fiction origins: your own told tale

by J.G. Annino

ALLIGATOR BABY is one of the silliest picture books

I know to feature the swamp survivor as a character.

A new baby in a human family is the author’s invention.

And that baby brought home from the hospital is

an alligator.

I work and live in Florida, so I’m a magnet for snappy

& Snapsy alligator picture books, to read as a volunteer

in schools with BookPALS.

What is new to me about this title, learned from visiting
the website for this book for the first time, is that it began
as an oral story. How cool is that? It was made up to entertain
the author's family & then told over and over long before it ever

was written down or later, became a picture book.

As I moved to other titles at the site of American-turned-

Canadian author Robert Munsch, I began to understand

that originating a told story in my family or with children

I spend time with & perfecting it, is a path to writing that

I should return to more often. 

Perhaps it intrigues you, as a way to try a story. Make it

up as you go along, first. At naptime/bedtime, at

family events, at made-up storytime.

Other picture book titles that Munsch transferred

from originating as a made-up oral story,

to an actual book, include MAKEUP MESS

& SMELLY SOCKS.

My family story that became a manuscript was told

by my father, about my grandfather. It involves

a farm boy, a model T-Ford, the Pine Barrens &

a trip to the Atlantic Ocean.

I added an ox and a bear to it. And it’s also so close to my
heart because it’s my first picture

book manuscript that ever received a compliment

(although not a contract) from an editor.

I looked up ALLIGATOR BABY this week because I’m

scouring resources for alligator crafts, poems & stories

to present at a storytime  next month during an open-air

regional arts festival.  

I’m  pretty sure I’m going to share ALLIGATOR BABY.