In the most recent edition of Writers’ Forum there was a feature which basically consisted of someone who thought it was easy to write a picture book for children being proven wrong. I’ve yet to write a picture book (although it is on my To-Do List for the end of this year), but the piece got me thinking it might be fun to brainstorm some titles. Yes, coming up with new book titles is my idea of fun – because what do you do that’s so much better? Nothing, that’s what. So.
- The Blobfish At The Bottom Of The Pool – a small girl refuses to learn how to swim because her local pool is full of blobfish. They could be literal blobfish, or some kind of metaphor for her insecurities.
- The Repressed British Picture Book – this would basically consist of taking the British Problems twitter feed and adding pictures. Possibly in the style of Edward Gorey.
- Percy the Piglet Squid Has A Picnic – I was recently introduced to the WTF, Evolution? Tumblr and was really taken with the piglet squid. I imagine his picnic would involve lots of other weird but cheery looking sea creatures and they would have a jolly time. The blobfish probably wouldn’t get invited though.
- Who Puked In My Boots? – a sequel to the much loved Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it was None of His Business. It does exactly what it says on the tin.
Leave a comment if you’ve got any ideas to add…
12 Books in 12 Months 
March 11, 2013 at 12:46 pm
The Spaghetti Yeti Makes Confetti – light-hearted, scissor-based japes… with a tragic ending.
iOS App Development for the Under-Fives – It’s never too early to start writing for the App Store®! Iggy the certified iOS Expert/Iguana can show you to get started in C!
An Astronaut does Admin – former Apollo astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin must perform office-based administration – in his spacesuit! Can he complete the monthly spend spreadsheet whilst wearing his special spacegloves? (He can’t.)
March 11, 2013 at 7:03 pm
I like how educational these are, well played. And in all seriousness, a spaghetti yeti is a great idea. As for the astronaut one, what you have there is the potential for something very tactile and interactive – I’m thinking the game ‘Operation’ in book format. Get thee to a publisher!
March 11, 2013 at 1:41 pm
I’d love to read The Blobfish at the Bottom of the Pool and I’m sure it’d be appreciated by hydrophobic children around the world.
Last year I set myself a challenge of writing a picture book manuscript every day for a month (http://jamesclaytonpicturebookproject.blogspot.co.uk/) and that threw up a fair few, erm, interesting tales. My own personal favourites from the bunch are “The Boy Who Woke Up and Found He Was Made of Rats”, “Casanova Croissant: Perfidious Pastry Rapscallion” and “We’re Going to Perform a Satanic Ritual”.
And hey kids! There’s more where they came from!
March 11, 2013 at 7:06 pm
The Boy Who Woke Up and Found He Was Made of Rats sounds like the sort of story you’d see in The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton. Although I see from your blog you were thinking more of Kafka – which is also fine. Well done to you!