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One of the best things about writing picture books is getting to imagine strange, irrepressible characters that represent our shadow sides. They remind us we’re animals, and much of what we struggle with (at any age) feels less frightening when we admit we’re all a little wild. These books let writers address subjects that might feel too sticky or pedantic if the characters and the worlds they live in weren’t so novel and free. It’s kind of like looking in a funhouse mirror. It distorts the reflection, so while readers will recognize themselves in the stories, it doesn’t feel too pointed or uncomfortable. Below are a few wild things that aren’t afraid to break some rules and make some mischief. Let’s see what makes them so fun!

This book follows two little aliens named Yelfred and Omek. They’ve “been best frints since they were little blobbies.” Immediately readers are drawn to the word play and bright colors. There are also serious Three Stoodges vibes with sharp teeth, eye poking, and short tempers.  Readers get to indulge their darker urges as the aliens slurp noodles, bite tails, and yell “Go jump in the peedle pit!” but they resolve their problems by working together, just like we do. Antoinette Portis is an expert at keeping things weird but not so weird that readers will struggle to make sense of the story, and she adds the refrain “Not like here on planet Earth,” in case readers think the characters sound suspiciously like human children.

Esmé Shapiro’s mind must be its own kind of wild thing, because any one of her books could be on this list. Unexplained details add layers that invite readers to believe this is just a small slice of a very large world. Ooko is a fox who wants to find a friend, which sounds normal enough, but the story twists and turns as he finds that humans like dogs. He tries his best to be spotted like a Dalmation, fluffy like a poodle, and grow big ears like a beagle. But it doesn’t take long after he’s adopted to realize he doesn’t want to be a dog, he wants to be a fox. When he meets a raccoon who also likes to play stick games, he’s happy. Would a book about a boy finding a friend who also likes to play with sticks be as fun? Probably not. It’s Ooko’s wild energy and misunderstanding of human rules that makes the story an adventure kids want to go on.

The wild things in this book are grown men, bandits who steal everything from cakes to crowns. They celebrate their despicable behavior singing, “We yell till we’re red, then bellow instead, we kick and we throw cutlery, at being grown men we’d score one out of ten…” They’re proud of making mischief and embrace every wild idea with abandon. When they adopt a young girl as their queen, they try to give her everything a girl could ask for. But what she really wants is for the bandits to stop acting like children. The misfit family works out their differences, and the end, the Queen says “It feels scary to grow, but less when you know, that someone you love, can show you the way!” The O’Hara sisters know the answer isn’t to grow up into a proper young lady (read: boring rule follower). The real secret to happiness is to grow up while staying a bit wild, and the bandits can keep her safe, care for her, while showing her how to make mischief.

All is right with the world when our feral heroine tussles with the foxes, caws with the birds, and hunts with the bears, but when she encounters ordinary bourgeois humans, everything feels terribly wrong, wrong, wrong. Finally she escapes back to her natural habitat, “because you cannot tame something so happily wild.” Much of the charm of this book is found in the loose, lively illustrations and the concept of a wild girl finding our world of silly human rules, not just tame, but unnatural.  

Llama, known simply as Llama, of course, is an instrument of chaos, casually creating a black hole when he eats too much cake. He gleefully does all the things he knows he shouldn’t do, and he shrugs off the consequences. He doesn’t learn any lessons or conclude anything more profound than Mr. Bean might, and the whole series is lots of fun. Doesn’t it sound good to be Llama? That’s the secret to being a wild thing. It’s way more fun than following the rules.

Try This

You can put a fresh twist on this concept by creating a weird character who lives in our own normal world or a normal character who enters a world that lets them break the rules. Try the exercises below to create your own wild thing.

• Make a list of all the things you (or your kids) would like to but are totally off limits. Which ones feel the most exciting? Then decide what rules you want your character to break.

• Try creating an evocative lexicon for your wild things. What words will help readers understand who they are and where they come from?

• Add unexplained details that add to the weirdness of the character or the world you’re building. This is where you get to let your imagination go wild! Not every detail will work, but give yourself permission to spend hours brainstorming and weaving those elements into the story. They’ll feel most meaningful and intriguing if they’re personal and interconnected, not totally random.

• Wild things are contradictory. Relatable and extreme. Surprising and true. Free and limited. Wild and childish. As you develop your own wild thing, play around with opposing traits to create the tension we all feel in our daily lives.

• Experiment! Honor your wild creature with a surprise ending or an ending that invites more questions than answers. Resist the urge to pretty things up. The ending needs to be thematically relevant, but it must be honest to the nature of your creation. When you’re writing about breaking rules and embracing shadows, your story needs to feel wild.

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