The Carolina Kidlit Review https://scbwicarolinas.org/ An independent magazine on writing and illustrating childrens books in the Carolinas: craft, revision, portfolios, queries, agents and critique groups. en-us Writing a Baptist Church Scene That Reads Truehttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/a-baptist-service-on-the-page/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/a-baptist-service-on-the-page/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000What actually happens in a Baptist baptism by immersion and in a Sunday service, so a middle grade scene does not borrow the wrong detail. Faith on the Page for Middle Grade Readershttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/faith-in-middle-grade/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/faith-in-middle-grade/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How a middle grade novel carries church, youth group and belief without preaching, and what a volunteer youth leader notices when a scene rings false. Halloween folklore in a picture bookhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/halloween-folklore-picture-book/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/halloween-folklore-picture-book/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How to choose Halloween folklore for a picture book: what a young reader can carry, what to leave out, and where turnip lanterns and pumpkins come from. Researching a Real Person for a Children's Biographyhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/reading-a-life-in-records/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/reading-a-life-in-records/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How to read photographs, letters and local records for a children's biography, and how to keep what is documented separate from what is inferred. Where Music Belongs in a Children's Bookhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/music-in-a-childrens-book/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/music-in-a-childrens-book/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How a scene carries a song, how a text keeps time, and what changes when the same lines are read aloud in a room. Staging a family ceremony scene for childrenhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/writing-a-family-ceremony-scene/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/writing-a-family-ceremony-scene/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Who stands where, what a child notices, and why a written order of events makes a family ceremony scene easier to stage on the page. A Garden as a Setting: Spring and Autumn Spreadshttps://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/a-garden-as-a-setting/https://scbwicarolinas.org/craft/a-garden-as-a-setting/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How a garden setting changes between a spring spread and an autumn one, and how a growing project with children becomes a story a child can follow. Drawing a wild plant true in a field journalhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/drawing-wild-plants-true/https://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/drawing-wild-plants-true/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How to keep a field journal habit for picture book spreads: flowers, leaves, and the involucre that makes a hillside plant read as a species. Transit posters as a picture book sequencehttps://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/poster-campaigns-as-sequences/https://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/poster-campaigns-as-sequences/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000What a nonfiction picture book illustrator can learn from reading a transit poster campaign as a sequence, and how a counter campaign answered it. Satellite imagery for landscape illustrationhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/satellite-reference-landscape/https://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/satellite-reference-landscape/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How to read resolution and revisit before trusting a satellite image, where free archives of Asian imagery live, and which countries fly their own sensors. Hand Lettering in Picture Books: What Young Readers Seehttps://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/hand-lettering-picture-book/https://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/hand-lettering-picture-book/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Display lettering in picture books can help or hinder a child still learning letterforms. A practical look at when a decorative face costs the reader more than Drawing a working dog on a picture book spreadhttps://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/drawing-working-dogs/https://scbwicarolinas.org/illustration/drawing-working-dogs/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000How to draw a border collie crouch, the distance it keeps from three sheep, and the eye a herder reads at a glance on one picture book spread.