GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT WRITING A PICTURE BOOK SERIES OR SEQUEL

Guest Post by Carrie Tillotson

It had been about a year since my debut picture book, Counting to Bananas (Flamingo Books, April 2022, illustrated by Estrela Lourenço) had been acquired. My editor, Cheryl Eissing, emailed to say her team was exploring the idea of Banana possibly carrying a picture book series. Was I interested? I had never thought about writing a sequel and, as a debut author, never imagined I would be asked to. But was I interested? Seriously? Of course I was bananas about it!

I started brainstorming, researching, and analyzing mentor texts. A perpetual list-maker and spreadsheet fanatic, I started a list of picture book series and sequels to study.

Soon, Cheryl and I met on the phone to discuss ideas and options. I came prepared with questions, focused around one thing—what should I keep the same, and what should I differ between book one and book two?

After an insightful conversation, we settled on seeing what kind of next adventure I could send Banana on, that, like Counting to Bananas, combined a concept book with a story arc. Cheryl even suggested that it might be an alphabet book, perhaps called B Is for Bananas (Flamingo Books, April 2023, illustrated by Estrela Lourenço). I had already toyed with several concept themes, and an alphabet book seemed like the perfect match to a counting book.

A couple of years earlier, I had watched a webinar with Stacy McAnulty called “Engineering a Picture Book: Engineering principles and creativity working together.” The talk focused on Stacy’s background as an engineer, and how she used product design methods to write picture books. I felt like writing a picture book sequel was the closest I had come so far to designing a product, so I decided to give her methods a go.

First, I identified the problem: I wanted to create an alphabet concept picture book about Banana that would be funny.
I researched by analyzing mentor texts. As a former biostatistician in health services research, my research and pattern-finding nature runs strong. I chose two series to examine in detail: Mo Willem’s Pigeon, for the silly, character-driven situations, and Keith Baker’s LMNO Peas, for the underlaying concepts within each book, and for its rhyme.
I specified my story’s requirements, focusing on what I wanted to keep the same and what I would do differently.

Same:

Main characters (Banana and narrator)
32 pages
Rhyming if at all possible
Concept Book
Metafiction aspect
Quip/Set-up at title page
Puns
Laugh at least every other page
The line: “If you do xxxx, I’m going to go completely BANANAS!”

Different:

Different concept mash-up
Alphabet book (vs. counting book)
Possibly introduce new secondary character
Probably “about” animals

As I started drafting the story, I was convinced it was going to be an animal alphabet book. But, idea after idea just didn’t fit. When I came up with animals getting ready for bed, a new idea suddenly smashed into my brain—B is for Bedtime, but Banana doesn’t want to go to bed, so B Is for Bananas instead! This idea was one I could run with!

My early drafts of B Is for Bananas were in rhyme, just like Counting to Bananas. It started out OK, but it didn’t really sing. Because I was working within the constraints of a bedtime theme and the alphabet, it was tricky to come up with rhymes that worked. Around this time, I got to see the endpapers for Counting to Bananas for the first time.

I immediately fell in love with Estrela’s depictions of Banana playing dress-up. Most especially, I fell in love with Pirate Banana. I had to put that one in the new book. Seeing Banana dressed up in roleplay also reminded me how much my son loved costumes when he was younger. Everything suddenly fell into place in the new story.

I let go of the rhyme scheme, and did everything I could to make each scene focus more on the various characters that Banana could play. From “Captain Banana,” to a superhero who can “fly”, to a jumping gymnast doing “Banana splits”, Banana was suddenly playing their way through bedtime.

Being asked to write a picture book sequel was seriously surprising and seriously fun! Thanks to my more systematic methods of analyzing picture book series as mentor texts and making lists and spreadsheets, combined with the engineering design process and a little bit of art-inspiration, B Is for Bananas came together like magic! I hope it’s as fun a sequel to read as it was to write.

About the Book:

A is for Awake . . . but B is for Bedtime. When the narrator of this alphabet book tries to make it a bedtime book, Banana objects. Bedtime is BORING! And Banana is the star of this book, so it should really be called B Is for Bananas instead. It shouldn’t be about bedtime at all.

Journey through all the letters of the alphabet in this laugh-out-loud story from Carrie Tillotson and Estrela Lourenço about a banana who is NOT ready to go to bed. The perfect next read for those who loved the Bad Seed series and Hey Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins!

About the Author:

Carrie Tillotson is the author of Counting to Bananas (Flamingo Books, 2022), a 2023 Oregon Book Award finalist; B Is for Bananas (Flamingo Books, 2023), which received a starred review from School Library Journal; and the forthcoming Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (Beach Lane Books, Spring 2025). After getting a master’s degree in public health, Carrie worked as a biostatistician. Her job involved counting lots of numbers (but not many bananas). Carrie now sculpts her interests in science and fun into playful picture books. When not reading and writing, you can find her running, playing games, and eating ice cream (though usually not at the same time). She lives in Oregon with her husband and son, two dogs, and two chickens. Visit Carrie online at carrietillotson.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @carrietillotson.