A Book By Any Other Name…

Titles: What Grabs Your Attention?
Titles: Crafting One Takes A Village
Titles: Whatever You Call It, It’ll Probably Change

We spend a lot of time talking about a book’s cover, but what about titles? When I’m looking for a book to read or gift, I look for titles that grab my attention. When this is what you see on a bookstore or library shelf, you realize how much heavy lifting a title has to do.

In picture books, every word needs to count and the title is no different. These books — at 32, 40 or 48 pages — have a tiny spine. The title needs to catch a reader’s or buyer’s attention from its spot on a shelf or in a book list or at an online retailer.

When I look at titles, I wear different hats. When my son was little, any title that included the word penguin was pulled from the shelf. PENGUINAUT by Marcie Colleen and Emma Yarlett? Yes, please! As a reader and writer, I look for titles that fit my mood. Recently, I found THE HELPING SWEATER by Rachel Más Davidson. I read the blurb, flipped through pages, and it was carried out of the library in my book bag.

While writers fret over their book’s title, many know the title may change. I asked the KidLit Works members if they had a title origin story to share. You’ll see a common theme — collaboration makes the titles the best they can be to reach readers.

WOODS & WORDS: THE STORY OF POET MARY OLIVER
Sara Holly Ackerman and Naoko Stoop, April 1, 2025
The subtitle of Woods & Words changed from THE POETRY OF MARY OLIVER to THE STORY OF MARY OLIVER since the editor felt it was more about her life than specific poems. Another upcoming book, originally titled KNIGHTLY was changed to GOOD KNIGHT (May 13) because the team felt it was a clearer pun.

SPRINGTIME STORKS: A MIGRATION LOVE STORY
Carol Joy Munro and Chelsea O’Byrne, 2024
Mine was called WHEN MAGNOLIAS BLOOM, and it was originally written as a poem, not intentionally for children. When the book was sold, we came to the consensus that it was a great title for a poem for adults, but not as a picture book for kids. We went back and forth with various versions, wanting to mention the characters, but also to bring in the STEM (migration) aspect of the story.

AND THEN CAME YOU: WHEN FAMILIES GROW, LOVE GROWS TOO
Christina Shawn and Shahrzad Maydani, April 22, 2025
My original title on my submission was ME AND YOU. This was too vague. The editor asked to change it to THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR MORE (before officially acquiring) because it gave a clearer idea of what the book was about — room for more love. However, prior to publication other books published with very similar titles. When we tried to come up with a new title we considered the tone of the story, metadata, length of title, telling readers what it is about … . Because we couldn’t do all of that with a short enough title, we added a subtitle that had a lot of the metadata words.

NOURA’S CRESCENT MOON
Zainab Khan and Nabila Adani, 2024
My title stayed the same after I sold the book. However, I believe I had named it THE EID CRESCENT MOON and at some point changed it myself to NOURA’S CRESCENT MOON.

A SEASON FOR FISHIN’: A FISH FRY TRADITION
Pamela Courtney and Toni D. Chambers, May 20, 2025
My book began as a poem I wrote in Renee LaTulippe’s poetry class. It was titled FISH FRY FRIDAY. Talk about your alliteration, huh? There was no kid protagonist and Renee suggested — well, more like insisted — it become children’s book. My critique group and I wrangled this poem into a lyrical free verse manuscript for the read aloud audience. On the day of my book announcement (not even sure my announcement had been up an hour), I was told that I must change the title. There was a book coming out with that same name. After throwing a hissy fit, I gave my editor a list of new titles. I wanted A BAYOU UPBRINGING / TRADITION, but everyone else chose another title. So, A SEASON FOR FISHIN’, A FISH FRY TRADITION was born. Filled with internal rhyme and yes, alliteration, and a helluva long title.

SPARKLES FOR SUNNY: A LUNAR NEW YEAR STORY
Sylvia Chen and Thai My Phuong, Fall 2025
For SPARKLES FOR SUNNY: A LUNAR NEW YEAR STORY, the title evolved a lot while I was trying to figure out the right story arc. It started out as THE MISSING QÍPÁO, then SPARKLY MIX-UPS: A QÍPÁO SURPRISE, then SUPER SPARKLY: A QÍPÁO STORY, then SPARKLES FOR LUNAR NEW YEAR: A QÍPÁO STORY (I suppose I was really trying to include qípáo in the title!), and then for subbing to editors it became SPARKLES FOR SUNNY: A LUNAR NEW YEAR STORY. So ultimately, it still had a fun lead-in plus the cultural hook. I am pretty particular about my titles, so I definitely prefer to feel sure about them before subbing, but I still brace myself in case others on the publishing team want to change it. In contrast, TRICKY CHOPSTICKS (2024) stayed the same from when it first popped into my head and inspired me to write the story!

OUR JOYFUL NOISE
Gabriele Davis and Craig Stanley, 2024
The biggest title change for OUR JOYFUL NOISE came just before it went out on sub. Initially I had called it WHAT A DAY THIS WILL BE! based on the title of a hymn (a “hidden jewel”) referenced in one of the early verses. However, a few drafts in, I changed words in that verse to reference a different song. While I loved the sound of the original words and the attitude of joyful expectation it expressed, the new hymn it referenced was very low-key. I wanted something more exuberant (both in the words and the song itself). So I chose another hymn, and the words in that verse became “It’s a brand new day!” Once I made that change, the original title no longer made sense, and I eventually came up with JOYFUL NOISE, which reflected the overall intent of the story. After the book sold, my editor pointed out that there was another (still fairly popular) book with the same title, and she wanted to avoid confusion, so we added the word OUR.

AWE-SAMOSAS!
Marzieh Abbas and Ghagya Madanasinghe, 2024
My AWE-SAMOSAS! was initially SAMOSA SURPRISE. As I revised the book, I had the word Awe-samosa in the text. A critique partner suggested to use it as my title, and I did. That’s what we subbed, and it stayed the same.

BEFORE I LIVED HERE
Stacy S. Jensen and Victo Ngai, Aug. 26, 2025
For my own book, originally called BEFORE MY NEIGHBORHOOD, my editor emailed about the title saying, “I think it needs a verb.” The story is about the history of where a boy lives — specifically, a neighborhood we loved in Colorado. But when the editor asked, we were living in a different state, and I realized I could drop the word neighborhood. It’s been BEFORE I LIVED HERE ever since.