Diving into the kidlit community for the first time was daunting. There is a lingo and lexicon to learn, along with just understanding the ins and outs of this new world and the community within it. One term that jumped out at me everywhere I turned was critique groups . Authors I followed talked about theirs with awe and thanks. Everyone gushed about how amazing and helpful they were. It became a refrain I saw all over social media and all I could think was - what are they a

When many people think of picture books, they automatically imagine a beautiful, lyrical rhyming story. Or maybe a rollicking, funny rhyme. Classics like Goodnight Moon or Dr. Seuss or more modern stories like The Gruffalo all have such a spot in our hearts and just FEEL like quintessential picture books. So when many people start writing picture books, it is natural to start in rhyme. It's lyrical, it rolls off the tongue, it's fun and can be fast-paced. It's incredibly easy