Storystorm 2025 Day 9: Lisa Gerin Recommends Refrains

by Lisa Gerin

As a former elementary school teacher-librarian, I must have done 1000s of story times. And kids always loved the books that had repetition, rhymed phrases or refrains we would repeat together. So why did it take me almost ten years to use this technique in my own writing?

Now I’m primarily a writer of nonfiction picture books. I first go down the research rabbit hole looking for facts and quotes to use as inspiration for the rest of my text. Then after jotting down my first drafts, I go back and try to insert more lyrical language. It wasn’t until I sold my first biography in 2020, that I realized that a repeated refrain was going to be my book’s hook and subsequently its title. I had written two prior picture book bios and a slew of fiction before I honed my craft and sold my first title, a biography about British scientist Rosalind Franklin for kids.

ROSALIND LOOKED CLOSER: AN UNSUNG HERO OF MOLECULAR SCIENCE (Beaming Books 2022) was not the original title of my manuscript. It was originally entitled THE GIRL WHO LOVED SCIENCE. After my editor thought the book needed something to spice up the writing, I came up with the refrain “Rosalind always took a closer look.” With the rule of the power of three for picture book writing, I put the refrain in the text 3 times. It also ended up becoming the last line in the story and inspired the new title.

Here’s a look at two of the pages in the story with the refrain:

In looking at your own writing and when revising, think about using a refrain. It’s like the chorus in a song that children always remember. Refrains work in fiction and nonfiction picture books. Try a refrain in your next writing project; it may just change your direction and give you a new hook you didn’t know you needed!

Here’s one of my favorite fiction books that uses refrain, PETE THE CAT AND HIS FOUR GROOVY BUTTONS, from the Pete the Cat series by Eric Litwin and James Dean. Happy writing!

Lisa Gerin is a former school librarian and high school teacher with a master’s degree in education. She writes creative nonfiction and biography for children. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, but was raised in New York City.

She is the author of the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection: ROSALIND LOOKED CLOSER: AN UNSUNG HERO OF MOLECULAR SCIENCE (Beaming Books) 2022. In September 2022, she spoke to NPR radio, ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT, about her book. In 2023, she appeared on a children’s panel at the Tucson Festival of Books, talking about research methods in writing nonfiction for children. She loves doing school visits. Her newest picture book biography publishes in 2026 with Beaming Books. Find out more about her at LisaGerin.com and follow her on Instagram @_.lisagerinwriter.