Welcome to Day 4 of 40 craft lessons from 40 picture books.
For a long time, animal characters have dominated children’s books. In recent years, human main characters have become more common. So, when is it still better to use animal characters?
It’s tempting to choose animals simply because they’re cute. But cuteness alone isn’t enough to make a story work better with them than with humans.
Let’s take a look at \textit{Nervous Nigel}. Nigel, a young crocodile, loves swimming but hates competition. Worse, every member of his family is a champion. Nigel is expected to bring pride to the family. Bad news: at the race, he can’t even swim, let alone win.
No child directly identifies as a crocodile, but every child understands the fear of not being good enough. Nigel’s feelings are familiar not only to children but also to adults because everyone knows what it is like to be paralyzed by fear
Nigel’s anxiety about competition gives the young reader a safe space to consider fear without confronting it directly in their own life.
This is storytelling at its core. We may never know the first tales our ancestors shared around the fire. Perhaps some stories of their hunting or survival, stories that give them a window to relive the frightening moments and let others experience those moments, especially the young hunters in the tribe.
Animal characters create a subtle distance between the reader and the main character. That distance allows readers to explore difficult emotions safely.
Imagine telling Nigel’s story with a human character instead. What would the central fear look like then?
The answer isn’t always obvious, and maybe that’s exactly why, in some cases, an animal ends up being the right choice.
I hope reading this blog post has given you new ideas. See you tomorrow for Day 5. If you would like to read these 40 craft lessons on WhatsApp, please join the channel.
More blog posts on picture book craft are available on PictureBookPedia.