Mary Ann Hoberman has spent the better part of 45 years writing poems and books for children, almost exclusively in verse.
“At this point, I’m probably a rhyming dictionary,” says Hoberman, poet and author of such beloved books as The Seven Silly Eaters, One of Each, and A House Is A House for Me.
“For me, writing in verse comes naturally. It’s just automatic to me now.”
Every rhyme needs a reason; a story
needs a story. Of course, if a penchant for rhyme were the only ingredient necessary for a successful picture book, slush piles still might tower to the moon. Rhyme for rhyme’s sake—even when the verse is perfect in meter—almost always inspires an editor to push the rejection button.
And, says Hoberman, “it has to feel like the rhyme was inevitable.”
Not an easy task.
“Many of us blame Dr. Seuss for making it look too effortless,” says editor Cecile Goyette of Dial. “Most of us realize how important, useful and wonderfully intoxicating beautifully crafted rhyme can be.”
Not to mention fun. You have to be a bit of a fuddy-duddy to shrug off books by Hoberman, Sandra Boynton and other prime rhymers. Nancy Paulsen agrees.
“I’ve loved rhyming books ever since I was a kid,” says Paulsen, president and publisher of Dial and G.P Putnam's Son. “I think they can be very, very playful. Rhyme is a great way to bring out humor. And the bottom line is these books are for kids.”
Like most new writers, Lisa Wheeler heard that writing in verse was a mistake. “I even stopped writing in rhyme for a year because I figured it was hopeless,” she says. Today, Wheeler has eleven books due out, including eight in rhyme.
Here’s a sample from her Sailor Moo: Cow at Sea, set for a Fall 2002 release from Richard Jackson Books:
Moo loved the way the ocean sang.
“Like moo-sic,” she would utter,
as rocking, rolling ocean waves
would churn her milk to butter.
“When I sold my first book--a rhymer--a light bulb went off in my head,” Wheeler says. “I realized that what editors were saying was just no bad rhyme.”
Ah, bad rhyme. Scalawag of the slush pile! The undoing of many, including…
Jane Yolen?
Well, not exactly. Yolen, the award-winning author of more than 230 books, including the New York Times bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? could write circles around most in rhyme, prose, probably even shorthand. But even Yolen admits to hitting a pothole every now and then.
Such was the case with her writing Child of Faerie, Child of Earth, a rhyming fairy tale of lilting, silken verse constructed from a complex, original rhyme scheme. Yolen says it was nearly her undoing.
“It was madness. Utter madness,” Yolen says.
If one is to speak of Mt. Everest-like challenges, Diane Siebert’s Cave makes a fine study. Ever try to find a rhyme for “troglophiles?”
Siebert did, with gusto. Her 150-line ode to all things cave-y took a year to write, required a pronunciation guide…and garnered great reviews.
“It was more a mental exercise, really,” Siebert, an award-winning author, says of writing Cave. “Most of the time, I was just fiddling with it.”
Siebert adds with a laugh: “I didn’t even think it would sell!”
Perhaps that's the lesson: if you love rhyme, as Siebert does, follow that passion.
Just be patient enough to get it right.
