Author: Lauren Trail

Goodnight Moon! Oh the Places You’ll Go! Good Night Gorilla! Moo, Baa, La La La! Where the Wild things Are!

All of these books played a very important part in my childhood, entertaining me, teaching me, and helping me dream of a big future. Children’s books really are the foundation for my love of reading and writing, but how does one go about making an impactful and entertaining children’s book?! Let’s see!

The two most important aspect of any children’s book is to include lots of imagination and to have a specific message or theme. The goal of the story should be to create wild and fantastic worlds that expand kid’s minds, but also to make sure that aspects of children’s natural environments are included. With more imaginative stories (like people who can fly, fairies, monsters, talking animals, etc), kids are encouraged to dream big and create their own stories. That being said, children’s books almost always center the protagonist around a kid character so that the kids reading the books are more likely to see themselves in their shoes.

Once they are able to relate to the character or find them entertaining in some way, they also are more likely to learn from the message of the book. Since kids are learning lots of new things every day, books are a great way to teach them morals like ‘good guy’ vs ‘bad guy’ so that they can (hopefully) emulate the good behaviors. Similarly, children’s books purposely almost always end the story with a positive ending. The idea is that if all their stories end with a “happily ever after,” they will be excited about their future. After all, we don’t want little kids to realize that the prince won’t always carry you off into the sunset and that you probably won’t end up surrounded by a pile of gold. Sorry, but that’s life. But kids don’t have to know that, at least not in these kinds of books.

Children’s books also have LOTS of illustrations! Kids love lots of pictures, bright colors, they catch their attention, and it makes it easier for them to understand. Typically, the illustrations take up most of the page because the importance is on the images, and the words are smaller. That being said, it’s a good idea not to include lots of contemplation and abstract ideas since kids have a harder time understanding those kinds of topics- so one has to try to keep it as simple as possible.

I am excited to try and take a new spin on my topic of plastics for this experiment by trying to reach the people who need to know about it the most: kids. From the books that kids read growing up, they learn what different noises animals make, are transported to the new worlds of Dr. Seuss, and reminds us to say goodnight and be grateful for everything they have. So, why shouldn’t kids learn about how plastics are bad through a fun story in an imaginary world?!

When I first think of satire, my mind automatically rushes towards The Onion newspaper. I think of their snarky articles that, if I didn’t know were fake, would make me concerned for our society. And that’s the whole point- satire is supposed to make you question how much of it is real and how much is made up. For example, my friend told me today that she once was fooled by an article (that she didn’t realize was from The Onion) about how SeaWorld was starting to take elephants and put them in pools until they couldn’t swim anymore. A cruel, cruel thing to trick my animal-loving friend into reading, but it just goes to show how insane some satire topics can be and the big reactions they can create. And even under the layer of darker humor, they still make a point about a relevant situation, like the negative treatment of animals at SeaWorld. During my research I came across some pretty amazing titles of other Onion articles such as “27-Year-Old Lies About Every Aspect of His Life to Keep Parents from Worrying” and “Jesus Christ Sues Catholic Church for Unlicensed Use of His Image” which I found entertaining, and good examples of the humor involved in satire. 

Although The Onion is a well-known example of satire, my research showed me a little bit more of what actually makes it satire, and how the genre expands beyond newspaper articles. 

When it comes down to it, the whole point of satire is to ridicule or criticize something through irony, caricature, parody, or derision. Even though these can seem mean or rude, another important aspect of satire is that the end product is supposed to be funny. Even if it makes you laugh because it’s so obscene or cruel, if it’s not funny, then it’s not really satire. 

The more I researched satire, the more I realized that it is everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Satire lives in the lives of our favorite movie characters, on TV in shows like the Colbert Report or SNL, resides in novels and short stories, and also is present during political debates, just to name a few examples. The Colbert Report (here is an example) is actually a great instance of how Stephen Colbert creates vexations that then attract a bigger, more passionate audience than if he had not included satire within his show. And that’s the thing about satire, it’s supposed to be so brutally honest that it can hurt to take in, but at the same time it’s honest and presented in an entertaining way so that people don’t become too offended. 

Usually, this mockery is supposed to lead to some sort of social reform by calling people to action, or simply just to expose a particular topic. Satire was created thousands of years ago, and even back then it was supposed to attack a specific trait or aspect of a person or place. Tim Keck, the co-founder of The Onion, said that satire “is the thing that everyone is thinking about, but that you would never see in an article” or whatever form it is presented in. This can especially be seen in caricatures, as they try to call people to action while highlighting all the issues going on in society- especially regarding politics.

So, as I see it, when starting to write a satire, only a few things are needed before beginning:

1. A relevant/current topic
2. Mockery masked by humor
3. Understanding that even if your joking, someone might still be offended (hopefully no one gets offended though)

Hopefully I can include these (and many other aspects) in my own piece and work to make it both humorous but also honest. Of all the aspects of this genre, I feel that the idea that one can make fun of a subject while also calling for attention and changes to be made to that topic is something very creative and exciting that I am eager to explore. I guess we will have to see how sassy and honest my experiment becomes…