Children’s books might seem simple on the surface, but there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Whether you’re looking to buy a new children’s book as a gift, borrow one from the library or write one yourself, it’s helpful to understand what makes a good children’s book.

Are there some things that all good kids’ books have in common? What about picture books?

Some things about what makes a good children’s book we knew when we started to write The Adventures of Jack and Rugby, but there was also a lot that we learned along the way!

Children’s book characters should have personality

Children’s books are best when the characters have strong personalities.

This is true whether the characters are real or imaginary, humans, animals or even make-believe creatures like dragons and unicorns. Nonetheless, we recommend looking to real life for examples of interesting, dynamic personalities.

For example, the origin of The Adventures of Jack and Rugby is much earlier than the idea for a book at all. We took our real-life dogs to play together in places around California like Carmel Beach and the Sierra Mountains.

We were not even thinking about writing a book. We would just take the dogs on adventures together because they were such great friends. And part of why they were such great friends is that they had strong personalities that complimented each other.

 

We were not even thinking about writing a book. We would just take the dogs on adventures together because they were such great friends.

Jack and Rugby had incredibly huge personalities. Jack was a strong black lab who loved to swim. Rugby was a big, fluffy poodle who loved to play. Jack had endless energy and always wanted to play.

Rugby was happy-go-lucky and bothered by nothing, but he really loved his naps. They were so different from each other but they were still best friends. 

A lot of classic children’s books about friendship feature animals with different personalities. A good example is The Fox and the Hound, one of the best children’s books about friendship. It was even made into an animated film by Disney. Not only do the fox and the hound have strong, unique personalities, but they’re from different species!

A good children’s book teaches an important lesson

The best children’s books teach important lessons, and no lesson is as important for young kids as the value of friendship. This is a theme in many popular books for kids, including another one of our favorite classic children’s series, the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. 

It’s important that kids can identify with the characters, and that the characters are vulnerable. Children’s book characters should not be “perfect”. Instead they should learn important lessons together.

When we were writing The Adventures of Jack and Rugby and starting to read the initial stories out loud to kids, we realized that kids could easily identify with both dogs.

They could identify with how the dogs were vulnerable in different ways but went on adventures together and came out better for it.

Jack and Rugby: Best Friends is a good example of this. In Best Friends kids learn:

• The joy of having a best friend
• The hardships of having a best friend
• How to work on things together, as friends

Those are important lessons for kids of every age.

A good children’s book should be funny

What's important in a children's book is kindness of heart, and humor. It needs to have both things: heart and humor. If a book isn’t funny, kids will easily lose interest.

The best children’s books have moments of LOL (laugh-out-loud) humor but also more gentle humor that kids can relate to.

 

If a book isn’t funny, kids will easily lose interest.

In The Adventures of Jack and Rugby we tried to capture the natural humor of the dogs. Kindness of heart leads to the emotional connection kids can make with a book. It can be gentle, it doesn't have to be harsh in any way. Kids love to laugh out loud and the funniest books to them are silly and sincere at the same time.

Kids find it really funny that Lily, the pot belly pig in The Sleepover, makes Jack ask Rugby if they can go inside and get away from the pig ASAP. A big strong dog scared of a grumpy little pig!

They also laugh when they hear that the skunk toy is named Stinky. They repeat it out loud and ask to hear it again in the story.

Lessons in children’s book humor from Jack and Rugby:

• In a children’s book, humor can be gentle, it doesn't have to be harsh
• Kids like words and phrases that are funny to say out loud, like “Stinky the skunk”
• Show confidence that can inspire kids, like when Rugby appears to give himself a bath and not mind one bit
• Show vulnerability, like when Jack the lab is afraid of Lily the pig

In The Adventures of Jack and Rugby we were trying to capture the silliness and good nature of the dogs, how they hide things from each other and get into mischief. Kids laugh out loud when they're reading the books. And when they laugh, they’re more likely to remember the story.