Yesterday I attended our local writer’s guild meeting to hear about writing for kids. Ryan Nusbickel had the most delightful young children’s books – fun and funny in text and his own illustrations – and the stories were set in our city! All the special things in St. Louis, from toasted raviolis and gooey butter cake, to our jokes to get a Halloween treat and more! I learned there are people in our country who do not know we have a Gateway Arch – or even know what that is! Anyway, dad Ryan wrote these stories for his kids, and based on his own family experiences. What treats for his kids and everyone else’s around here!

Maybe you can write fun stories about your family life. I see my Facebook friends posting the darndest things their kids or grandkids say and do. Things that should be remembered and immortalized as they are so funny or so clever. You don’t have to be a great artist to draw some pictures to go along. Kid books can have kid-like art. Have a go at it! Maybe you even have art by your kids that relates to stories. The stories can be short, just a funny sentence or a few lines. I should make a page of my kid as a tot singing “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Barbie tells me so.” Or startling me as she sat in the bathtub bubbles and sang “Achy Breaky Heart” learned at her Alabama day care.

Plenty of meeting attendees bought Ryan’s books. Having no kids left in my house, or any grandkids expected, I bought his more parental-unit oriented book that made me laugh out loud. How could I resist his collection of dad haiku! (Not really haiku but one sentence broken into 3 lines of the 5-7-5 syllable style, but I didn’t want to tell him that and spoil any fun.)

Check out Ryan’s website at http://www.nusbickelbooks.com/ to get some ideas—and even buy a book, especially if you have St. Louis area roots.