I’ve come up with one nifty reading list for my Southampton students — one playful picture book and one seriously researched one from each of 16 authors or author-illustrators. I’ll eventually post the entire reading list here, but for now I’m leaking the list author by author on Twitter.

As I’ve gotten familiar with — or reacquainted myself with — these titles, and as I’ve discussed picture book fiction and nonfiction in general with many of these books’ creators, to my delight I’ve begun zeroing in on the specifics of what we’ll cover in our nine hours of classroom time. The most striking thing, though, is just how much playful picture book fiction and terrific picture book nonfiction have in common, from the need for conflict to consideration of how the book will function as a readaloud.

This week, I’ll work on finalizing the syllabus, and then I’ll move on to plotting out the workshop hour by hour. I see a lot of index cards in my near future…