Last week, when I
wrote about circle stories, I included my own book, No Monkeys, No Chocolate, in my list of sample titles. Believe it
or not, the idea that the book featured a circular structure was a revelation.
Honestly, it never occurred to me until a Kirkus
reviewer called it a “clever circle story” in his/her starred review.
The whole time I was working
on the book I classified it as a cumulative story, a la The House that Jack
Built, in my mind. I worked hard to make each step in the process as clear and
engaging as possible.
Basically, I thought
of the whole book in terms of text scaffolding—carefully assembling a
series of building blocks, one spread at a time, with the overall goal of
convincing readers that the title was, indeed, true—if there were no monkeys in
the world, our favorite dessert would disappear, too. Poof!
I worked so hard to
carry readers along on a voyage of discovery from the provocative title to
(what I hoped was) a satisfying pay off at the end that I never realized the
book starts and ends in the same place—with cocoa beans.
There are lots of
other great nonfiction books that make good use of a cumulative structure. Here
are some of my favorites.
Tom Leonard)
Madeleine Dunphy (illus Tom Leonard)
(illus Tom Leonard)
Madeleine Dunphy (illus Michael Rothman)
Wayne McLoughlin)
Madeleine Dunphy (illus Ann Coe)
(illus Alan James Robinson)
Nancy Davis)
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