An Animated Conversation

Panelists (from 1.) Diana Manson, Jim Jinkins, Liz Nealon, Linda Simensky, and Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Photo: Jeanne Lamb.

For the inexperienced, the prospect of taking a picture book and turning it into a children’s television show may seem like a relatively simple one. But a panel presentation this past Saturday—which explored the process of transforming an (often beloved) children’s picture book into a fully imagined and successful television series—proved that to be anything but the case. The panel, entitled “From the Page to the Screen... The Television Screen, That Is,” was presented by the Children’s Literary Café at the New York Public Library’s Children’s Center. It featured Linda Simensky, v-p of Children’s Programming at PBS; producer Diana Manson; children’s book authors Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Jim Jinkins, and was moderated by Liz Nealon, former general manager of Kidz Bop LLC.

“People start to think, if it’s been drawn, it should work fine as an animated series,” said Simensky, who has contributed to shows such as PBS’s Curious George and the upcoming The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. However, story and character, she believes, are the most important aspects in selecting the right project. “You have to start wondering what [the characters] would do in other situations.”

Unlike Simensky, Manson says she tends to put less emphasis on the story elements of a book when deciding to take on new projects. “For me,” she said, “it always starts visually. I’m looking for something that is going to look different.” Manson, cofounder of Silver Lining Productions, has produced such children’s book—based television shows as Max and Ruby and Olivia. In a field where projects can take two years or more in development, it’s important to focus on projects that will work. While Manson feels that a strong central character is important, she says, “I try to read something like a kid does, without too much emphasis on the words. I’m looking for that visual hit.”

The panels spoke from personal experience about the process of turning children's books into TV shows. Photo: Jeanne Lamb.

One of the challenges discussed by the panel was how to take a story that may have been written purely for entertainment purposes, and insert an educational curriculum, which is practically a requirement in the world of children’s television today. Jinkins, creator of the ’90s Nickelodeon hit Doug, ran into that issue with his latest show, Pinky Dinky Doo. Pinky, a girl who loves to tell stories, was created as a bedtime story for Jinkins’s daughter. When making the move to TV, however, he discovered there needed to be more of an educational emphasis. “The idea of putting in a curriculum is terrifying,” Jinkins said.

However, Pinky’s role as a storyteller was already present in the stories, and from there, Jinkins and the production team discovered an inherent and untapped curriculum focused on vocabulary acquisition, which they further emphasized with the “Great Big Fancy Word” featured in each episode. Similarly, a natural curriculum was present in the Curious George books, Simensky explained. “George is curious,” she said. “The idea for the television series was basically pitched as physics for a three-year-old.” The heart of the original stories is still there, Simensky contends. “We just made George get into less trouble. The trick is to make the curriculum and the book match up.”

Laura Vaccaro Seeger, author of the 2008 Caldecott Honor Book First the Egg, said that she never begins a book project with the intention of teaching something. “The intention is always just to have fun,” she said. “The teaching will happen in a non-didactic way.” As a former television animator herself, Seeger was familiar with the process when it came time to turn First the Egg into an animated project, but had never been on the other side, in the author’s position. “I wasn’t sure how much I could be involved,” she said. First the Egg, she explained, had actually started in her mind as an animation, which she then transformed into a picture book using diecuts. “I think of a picture book as an animation with fewer frames,” she said.

And while the field of animation technology is constantly changing, and issues such as 2D versus 3D animation, budget, and licensing are ever-present, moderator Liz Nealon believes that all of that is less important than the basic stories within children’s books. “Great characters and story will prevail,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what the medium is. We’ll figure out the medium.”