How do I write a board book?
- Board books run 12 to 24 pages and usually under 100 words total.
- The audience is birth to three; the buyer and reader is an adult.
- Rhythm, repetition, and sound carry more than plot at this age.
- Page turns are the primary structural device.
- Board books are almost always acquired with illustration in mind, not text alone.
A board book runs 12 to 24 pages and under 100 words. Write for sound and rhythm rather than plot, use repetition a toddler can anticipate, and build every page turn as a small surprise. Remember the adult reading it for the fortieth time, because they decide whether it stays in rotation.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Board books look easy and are not. With under a hundred words, every syllable is load-bearing, and the format's real test is repeat readings. A book that delights once and grates on the tenth reading gets quietly shelved, while one with genuine rhythm becomes the one a family keeps for the next child.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A word count under 100, ideally well under.
- Repetition with variation, so the child can predict and then be surprised.
- Page turns used as beats, with the text broken across them deliberately.
- Concrete nouns and strong sounds; abstraction does not land at this age.
- A read-aloud test at speed, ten times in a row.
- Space left for the illustrator rather than describing every image.
Chapter iii·Example
A writer's 140 word board book cut to 74 by removing every adjective and keeping the refrain. The rhythm that had been buried under description became the reason a publisher took it.
Chapter iv·Related questions
In WriteLoom
Somewhere to actually put the words
WriteLoom's Plan studio holds page-turn maps and word counts so a picture book's structure is visible at a glance.
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