Guest Post: Charlotte Watson Sherman
January 18, 2022
Write Bedtime Stories with Mentor Texts
- by Myrna Foster
- August 13, 2021
Do you want to write bedtime stories as picture books?
Storyteller Academy student Nadia Salomon studied bedtime stories when she was writing Goodnight Ganesha, and she has some insights to share with you in the following video.
Mentor Texts Nadia Used
When writing Goodnight Ganesha, Nadia used several mentor texts.
Have you found any mentor texts for your bedtime story? Notice that Nadia looked for similar story elements to study how a variety of authors had executed the same kind of story.
How Are Bedtime Stories Used?
Looking at the different ways bedtime stories are used can help you figure out your own story. Nadia shared numerous examples in her video.
Master Studies
I love how Nadia broke down three more successful bedtime stories to show you why they worked so well, and I encourage you to do this with your own mentor texts. If you need more information on how to do a Master Study, I outlined the process in another blog post.
We hope this video and post were helpful for all of you writing your own stories!
Book Giveaway
Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, will publish Nadia’s and Poonam Mistry‘s Goodnight Ganesha on August 31st. Share something you learned from Nadia in the comments to enter. This giveaway will close on August 31st at midnight, PDT. You can share this post on social media for extra entries. Just post a link (or let me know) in a comment below.
Thanks for reading!
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Myrna Foster
Myrna Foster writes and edits content for Storyteller Academy and the WriteRiders Newsletter for SCBWI Nevada. She has spent a lot of time teaching and coaching children, including five years as a preschool teacher. She's also worked as a journalist, and Highlights High Five has published six of her poems.
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FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES
Find them HERE
Learn how to write your children's book from professional, award-winning authors and illustrators
in your own time, at your own pace.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
Your creative village is waiting for you HERE.
And it’s free!
FEATURED
How to Write Children's Books in 7 Steps
EXPLORE
RECENT POSTS
Guest Post: Charlotte Watson Sherman
January 18, 2022
Instructor Stories: Darcy Pattison
January 11, 2022
Instructor Stories: Baptiste Paul
December 31, 2021
Instructor Stories: Isabella Kung
October 30, 2021
Challenges & Twitter Events for Kidlit Creators
October 2, 2021
Use Mentor Texts to Write Chapter Books
September 18, 2021
10 thoughts on “Write Bedtime Stories with Mentor Texts”
I learned that Nadia had to learn “audacity” and develop a “just do it” attitude. I am inspired to be brave and just put my creativity out of my head and into reality.
Thanks for the video! I like how Nadia broke down the different elements in the story. Reminds me that I should do this more often!
I learned that sometimes you just have to find your determination, and push through to make things happen. Thank you to Ms. Salomon for taking the time today to share her experience with us during the workshop 🙂
Something I learned from Nadia is that picture books can have parallel stories going on at the same time. Also, her voice is so soothing and goes so well with a bedtime story reading. This is probably a coincidence but I wanted to mention that.
I love how she broke down and made a list of how bedtime stories are used. I never really considered that before. I’m making a copy of this list to remind me of what I should be doing. I’m really looking forward to reading her book. Thanks, Nadia and Myrna
Endless possibilities and opportunities through great writers to get published and “you’re the man/woman” who bring them all to us. Thanks Myrna. This is one of them. Bedtime stories are inspiring to write. Let’s all get inspired…
This was great. I loved listening to her master study breakdowns of the books. I could really see her point that musicality and repetition set the stage for sleepiness and are excellent elements to include in a bedtime book!
I’m new to the master study concept, so not only did I learn about several awesome new bedtime books, I also got a quick primer on evaluating mentor texts! Thank you!
Loved this presentation! I learned so much in such a short time. Presentor has a lovely voice and made her key points clearly.
Thanks!
Nadia is very effective in showing that studying a book, investigating its strutucture and strategies, doesn’t mean missing all the fun! I love the way she interacts with the stories and communicates their strong points. I think studying books is a trick we use to spend more time with them. =D