MO Day #17 Katie Frawley Goes Beyond

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Going Beyond Letters: How Different Text Forms Can Enhance an Epistolary Picture Book

By Katie Frawley

I have always been a fan of epistolary stories. When I was in high school, I read a very clever epistolary novel called ELLA MINNOW PEA. It really got me hooked on this letter-writing format. So it came as no surprise to me when my brain started churning out ideas for epistolary stories.

But epistolary picture books don’t have to be limited to ONLY letter writing. Sprinkling in other forms of text can add some much-needed spice to a manuscript written in letters. Here are three examples of epistolary picture books that do just that.

MY SCHOOL STINKS, written by Becky Scharnhorst, illustrated by Julia Patton. In this adorable story, the main character, a little boy named Stuart, ends up in a school filled with literal animals. All sorts of hilarity and hijinks ensue. Stuart keeps a diary and that is how the bulk of the story is communicated. But Scharnhorst and Patton included other text as well.

On this page, you can see Stuart has pasted a note from his friend Charlie (an alligator - yikes!) into his diary entry. Not only does this provide an interesting visual contrast, it gives us another voice in the story outside of Stuart’s. The inclusion of notes, maps, and drawings happens regularly throughout the story, peppering in a nice variety to the diary entries.

DEAR MRS. LARUE: LETTERS FROM OBEDIENCE SCHOOL, written and illustrated by Mark Teague. This was one of the picture books that really inspired me to write my debut. Ike, the dog, is sent to obedience school by his owner, Mrs. LaRue. She has a long list of grievances, but it’s nothing compared to the over-the-top letters that Ike writes about his experience at the school. Ike’s overblown descriptions of his horrible treatment are juxtaposed against the reality of his experience.

In this spread, Teague uses several different forms of text to build up the humor in the scene. 1) Ike’s embellished letter, detailing the horrible conditions of the obedience school cafeteria. 2) The actual cafeteria menu, describing the upscale cuisine. 3) The cover of a book, giving the reader a clue as to Ike’s future plans. 4) An imaginary sign in the imaginary cafeteria Ike describes in his letter. These four elements combine to form a truly hilarious and engaging scene. Your eye has so much to explore on the page. Layering in these other texts makes the overall scene so much richer than if Teague had only included Ike’s letter.

TABITHA AND FRITZ TRADE PLACES, written by Katie Frawley (Hey, that’s me!), illustrated by Laurie Stansfield. In my picture book debut, a bored house cat (Tabitha) swaps lives with an adventure-seeking elephant (Fritz). Fritz has been hoping that this trip will be a great way to celebrate his birthday, but when the big day finally arrives, nothing goes as planned. The birthday banner at the top of the page lets the reader in on the joke.

This isn’t Fritz’s party at all! This party is for Claudia, the little girl who owns Tabitha. The text of the banner is basically the punchline of the joke which is set up in Fritz’s email to Tabitha. Other forms of text can act as a counterpoint to the letters which do the bulk of the storytelling.

If you are working on your own epistolary picture book manuscript, see what other forms of text you can incorporate. Signs, calendars, newspaper headlines, t-shirt slogans, billboards…you have so many choices to spice up your story! Epistolary picture books don’t have to stop at letter-writing. Get creative, get crazy, and get cooking!

Bio: Katie Frawley is the author of TABITHA AND FRITZ TRADE PLACES (Two Lions) and the upcoming LIGHTHOUSE AND THE LITTLE BOAT (Quill Tree/HarperCollins). She lives in South Florida with her husband, five kids, and a scruffy rescue pup named Gus. http://www.katiefrawley.com

PRIZE: Katie will be giving away a 15-minute Zoom Chat to one lucky winner!