# How to make a children's book from your child's own story

Children are natural storytellers. The job is to catch the story before they forget it, keep their words, and give it the shape a picture book needs.

## Catch the story

Ask one question at bedtime and record the answer: "Make up a story where you are the hero and something goes wrong halfway through." Or ask for the real one: the bravest thing, the best day, the time they helped someone. Their exact words at six are the whole point.

## Give it a shape

A picture book is roughly: a hero who wants something; a problem in the middle; three tries; a turn; home. Twelve to sixteen spreads. Keep their invention; add only the structure.

## Keep their voice

If they said "and then the dragon was quite tired", print "and then the dragon was quite tired". Do not translate into grown-up.

## Pictures

Their own drawings beat anything. Photograph them well. A book where the child wrote the story and drew the pictures and is the hero is a book they will keep for life.