DRAW AND WRITE YOUR OWN PICTURE BOOK Hearn, Emily Illustrated by Mark Thurman Markham (Ont.), Pembroke Publishers, 1990. 32pp, paper, $4.95, ISBN 0-921217-46-3. CIP Grades 3 and up/Ages 8 to 12 Reviewed by Catherine Mclnerney Volume 18 Number 5 1990 September In Draw and Write Your Own Picture Book, Hearn and Thurman take the reader step by step through the process of making a simple picture-book. The book's prose is straightforward and easy to read, and each page has large comic-strip-style illustrations. Although the book does not discuss in any detail the difficulty of writing good text for a picture-book, it docs stress the importance of originality in plot. The book gives excellent hints for beginning illustrators, such as use of different points of view throughout a book, and mentions techniques used for special effects (double-page spreads). The book gives a detailed description of how to construct a storyboard for a book and how to turn the storyboard into a book mock-up. The authors also make suggestions for illustration technique and materials {collage and marker are two of the recommended media). The book also contains a glossary of terms used in the book so that the reader may improve his/her understanding of formal publishing terms. This book would be of most use to those who are already comfortable with writing stories suitable for a picture-book but who lack ideas on how best to put the story into picture-book format. It would be a valuable aid in a process writing classroom environment, especially one in which the students were interested in making their own books more like commercially published books. The book would also be an excellent reference book for public librarians, who often get requests from aspiring authors for information on how to write children's books. Highly recommended. Catherine Mclnerney, London, Ont.