A Pathway for Pollinators and A Place for Rain: Creating Companion Picture Books

​My newest lyrical nonfiction picture book, A Pathway for Pollinators, illustrated by Blanca Goméz and published by Norton Young Readers, releases today!  Just in time for planting season!

​​A Pathway for Pollinators is a companion to my 2024 release, A Place for Rain. Both books feature a classroom of nature-loving children set on tackling an environmental challenge. In A Place for Rain, the challenge is how to “lessen all the mess” of dirty storm water flowing into waterways. In A Pathway for Pollinators, it’s how to provide pollinators with the food and shelter they need in urban settings.

​A Pathway for Pollinators is the first book that I set out to write as a companion text. In the past, I approached each new manuscript as a blank slate, not influenced by topics, structures, or approaches I had used in previous books. But with this project, I knew even before A Place for Rain went to print that my editor at Norton, Simon Boughton, was interested in a book on pollinator corridors as a follow-up title.

So, how did I approach this task of creating a “matched pair?”

To begin, I revisited the essential elements of A Place for Rain. At its heart, A Place for Rain is meant to inspire kids to enact environmental change at a local level. It uses a steps-in-a-process structure to show actionable ways to solve a problem. Finally, it relies on onomatopoeia to create an engaging, read-aloud voice. I wrote these three “elements” at the top of my first draft of A Pathway for Pollinators to serve as guideposts as a began the new story.

After that, I created a two-column draft. In the first column, I pasted the text from A Place for Rain, dividing the spreads into rows. In the second column, I wrote the text A Pathway for Pollinators.

​This is what my draft looked like:

Placing the two stories side-by-side helped me zoom in on the structures and techniques I used in A Place for Rain so I could imitate them in A Pathway for Pollinators. In most places, I didn’t attempt to exactly mirror line and stanza lengths. Instead, I aimed for each scene to follow a similar “path” to move the story forward.

Both texts open with onomatopoetic scene-setting:

“Plink. Plip. Plop.” to describe the beginning of a rain shower.

 “Flitter. Flutter. Buzz. Hum.” to describe a meadow thrumming with pollinators.

From there, the second spread provides more setting details and hints at the problem. The third spread reveals the problem. The remaining spreads follow a similar one-to-one plot pattern.
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In a few key places, I did mirror the exact wording of A Place for Rain. In both books, when the kids asks their teacher if it’s possible to do something to address the environmental challenge, the teacher answers with a simple, but confident “YES!”

​Both books also end with the same final words, “and EVERYONE.” In A Place for Rain, the last line is “a place for rain and everyone.” In A Pathway for Pollinators, it’s “to welcome pollinators and everyone.” I did this to emphasize that caring for nature benefits the entire community.

The fact that Blanca Goméz illustrated both books was a lucky occurrence that happened after A Pathway for Pollinators was purchased and edited. Blanca’s use of distinct geometric patterns and primary colors definitely helps the two books hold together as a matched pair. (I love the bright yellow school bus and six eager children featured in both books!)

Do you have an idea for two (or more!) books that would work as companion texts? If so, my biggest advice is to make sure that your first book can stand on its own. Polish it until it’s as perfect as possible to catch an editor’s eye. From there, try the two-column approach I outline here.  And don’t’ forget to study other companion book mentor texts, such as Rhyme Doctor Patricia Toht’s Pick A books: Pick A Pumpkin, Pick a Pine Tree, and Pick the Perfect Egg.
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The ultimate goal? Creating companion picture books that “hum and thrum” as a set!