Picture Book Author Jaz Hoy — 3 Heartwarming Writing Habits Behind the Veronica Books

May 28, 2026

Picture book author Jaz Hoy did not set out to write a series. The Veronica the Clever Cow books began as a single quiet story about a cow with an itch she could not reach — and grew, book by book, into a six-book farmyard world that families now read on three continents.

Behind every Veronica book is a writing process that is, in some ways, gloriously old-fashioned. Here are three heartwarming writing habits that shape the way picture book author Jaz Hoy works — habits worth knowing if you have ever wondered how a picture book actually comes together from blank page to bedtime favourite.

Why the Habits of Picture Book Author Jaz Hoy Are Worth Knowing

Writing for very young children is one of the hardest forms of storytelling. Every word earns its place on the page. There is no room for filler, no room for clever flourishes that do not serve the child listening. Every sentence has to work twice — once for the child being read to, and once for the adult reading it aloud for the fifteenth bedtime in a row.

British/Australian author Jaz Hoy writes in a tradition that runs from Beatrix Potter through to Alison Lester and Pamela Allen — gentle, character-led, deeply considered, and rooted in respect for the young listener. The habits behind that kind of writing are not glamorous, not dramatic, and not the sort of thing usually shown on social media. They are quiet, repetitive, and quite a lot slower than people imagine when they pick up a thirty-two-page picture book and assume it took an afternoon.

What follows are three of the habits picture book author Jaz Hoy keeps to, every book, without fail.

1. Every Book Starts by Hand in a Notebook

Picture book author Jaz Hoy writes every first draft by hand. There is no laptop on the desk for the opening pages of a new Veronica story — just a paper notebook, a pen, and a cup of strong tea.

There is a reason for the notebook. Writing by hand is slower, and that is the point. A picture book has perhaps four hundred words in the finished published version. When you are choosing them one at a time, on the page, in your own handwriting, you notice every word. You feel its weight. The ones that do not earn their place tend to get crossed out before they are ever typed up.

It is a habit that takes longer than the laptop alternative — and reliably produces better picture books. Children reading Veronica’s stories aloud at bedtime are reading words that were first written down with a pen on real paper, sometimes years before the final book reached print.

2. Every Page Is Read Aloud at Least Ten Times

Picture books are written for the ear, not the eye. They are read aloud, usually by a tired parent or grandparent, often at the end of a long day, sometimes for the fifteenth time that week. If a sentence does not work aloud, it does not work in a picture book — full stop.

Picture book author Jaz Hoy reads every page of every Veronica book aloud during drafting — and not just once. Each page is read aloud at least ten times. Some pages get read aloud closer to fifty. The rhythm of a picture book has to be right. The pauses have to land. The words children love to say themselves — the ones they shout along to from memory — have to be there in the right places.

This is why Veronica’s books read as well on the tenth bedtime as they do on the first. The cadence has been tested. The rhythm has been tested. The places children want to chime in have all been quietly planned out long before the book reached the printer.

You can read more about the science of reading aloud to children and how it shapes early language development on the Read Aloud research overview.

3. Eleven Drafts Is the Average

Picture books look short. People sometimes assume they must be quick to write. They are not.

Picture book author Jaz Hoy averages around eleven drafts per Veronica book before it is right. Sometimes more. Book 3, Veronica’s Busy Day, went through eleven full drafts before draft twelve finally became the published version. The first draft and the final draft of any picture book are usually unrecognisable from each other.

This is normal for the form. Beatrix Potter rewrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit repeatedly before settling on the version readers know today. The writers who do picture books well tend to be the ones who are willing to keep rewriting until the words actually click into place — and willing to throw away pages that nearly worked but not quite.

Eleven drafts also means eleven rounds of reading aloud, eleven rounds of crossings-out, eleven rounds of waking up at three in the morning realising a single word on page seven needs to change. Picture book writing is, in that sense, very romantic and very unromantic at exactly the same time.

Where to Read the Work of Picture Book Author Jaz Hoy

The Veronica the Clever Cow series is the result of all six of these books going through that quiet, patient, notebook-pen-tea process. All six are now live and available worldwide:

Book 1: Veronica’s Very Important Scratch — veronicacow.com/go/scratch
Book 2: Veronica and The Noisy Bell — veronicacow.com/go/bell
Book 3: Veronica’s Busy Day — the famous eleven-draft book. veronicacow.com/go/busy
Book 4: Veronica and the Wishing Well — veronicacow.com/go/well
Book 5: Veronica and the Storm — veronicacow.com/go/storm
Book 6: Veronica Goes to the Beach — veronicacow.com/go/beach

Each book is available as paperback and Kindle on Amazon, and through Apple Books, Kobo, and library platforms via Draft2Digital.

Free Resources for Readers of Picture Book Author Jaz Hoy

The free library at veronicacow.com/join includes colouring pages, character fact cards, cow facts, mazes, dot-to-dot puzzles, spot-the-difference sheets, and downloadable activity packs for every book in the Veronica the Clever Cow series.

Premium Teacher members can unlock the full lesson plans and comprehension question packs designed for early years classrooms — built specifically around the rhythm, repetition, and structure of how picture book author Jaz Hoy writes for children aged 3 to 7.

Browse the cast on the Meet the Characters page — every character on that page has been through the same notebook-pen-tea-eleven-draft journey before reaching readers.