My friend self-published these illustrated books. What do you think?

I'm a children's librarian, and there is a need for picture books that promote movement. That "Animal's Book of Dance" looks adorable! I could see working that into a cute toddler story-time!

These books are so charming and I love how they have different styles of artwork. I’m a sucker for magical beasts and such. Kudos to this wonderful person for creating and taking the complex initiative of publishing her own books!

Side note: One thing I’ve come across is the difficulty of children’s stories written rhyme and why editors/publishers have a hard time with them. It’s pretty interesting.

Check out this link for more info:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/taralazar.com/2012/03/13/why-do-editors-say-not-to-write-in-rhyme/amp/

I remember this blog being very vocal about the huge amount of rhyming books she got in her inbox:http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com

Can't find the relevant post now on mobile, bit it is very interesting to read what the process is lile on the other side of a submission mail.

Also, at a glance, looks decent. Doesn't immediately look self-published. Which is good :)

I work in a kids bookshop and look at and take in self published books to sell on consignment. I also have friends in publishing.

My advice would be for your friend to really look hard at already published picture books. For example almost all picture books are 32 pages long (for a reason!). Most publishers won’t even look at anything longer, especially from an unknown name.

The other thing I would say if you’re writing rhyming books is look at Julia Donaldson, Sandra Boynton and Aaron Blabey. Look at the words they use (they rarely use an uncommon word or flip words Yoda style to force a rhyme) and the rhythm (notice how consistent it is). I flipping LOVE rhyming picture books because I am terrible at reading out loud and having good rhythm really helps.

Having said that I really like your friends book, I love the artwork in the Gogol book and I LOVE the Animal dance one - I could easily see that selling in my shop.

The colours and illustrations for your books are very striking. I particularly like the Animal's Book of Dance as it generates a feeling of happiness and excitement that I would enjoy sharing with my kids

The illustrations are lovely, but the text not so much. If the stories are good (and I can't tell from the snippets available) I would recommend rewriting in prose. The rhyme and meter are, frankly, intolerable to me - I can't imagine reading these aloud to my children. A shame, because the pictures are very pretty!

The Animal's Book of Dance is very well done for a self-published work. I can easily see ordering that for my library, based on the preview.

However, Gogol the Golden Golem is not so great. I second the comment re: length. 72 pages is way too long for a picture book. Also, the text looks pretty dense on and needs some heavy editing. You could easily break up that preview page into four different pages...and that's a lot of text to say "Gogol was gold and lonely." The picture doesn't seem to work with the text in concert like a picture book should.

I really think Animal's Book Of Dance looks like fun. I would love to read this durring my toddler storytime. I wonder if they would follow along?

They both look fine to me. I like the second more since its font and colors reminds me of other kid books I know. I dunno if kids would like them but if I were buying a kid book, I'd go with one I had seen and read in stores/libraries already honestly.

I am a father of a 1 year old. Not exactly target audience. But I like these books. Please ask if a german translation would be of interest. I would do it myself. In Exchange i would Like to get in contact about my own childrens book.