How To End A Story – The Perfect Ending For Your Children’s Book

“How to end a story?” – that’s a question many aspiring children’s authors ponder. Finding a story idea is the easy (and fun) part when it comes to writing a children’s book, especially when following my Lead With The Hearth method in my free Find Your Story Idea video series.

And so is starting your story.

But finding a memorable and unique ending that does justice to your beautiful story might be a bit harder.

So, how do you ensure your ending lets your little readers go like “Again, again!” and their parents reading it to them saying “This is beautiful!”?

In this article, I’m going to show you 5 elements I believe are an absolute must for a perfect ending of your children’s book. I’m mainly focusing on books for smaller children, with less or around 1,000 words.

I’m also showing you a formula I created, so you can apply all that you’re learning today to your very own ending of your story. And I’m going to conclude with a number of examples from actual children’s books, so you can get your creative juices flowing.

Let’s look at the 5 elements first, that I believe are must-haves for a unique and memorable ending.

1. How To End A Story – Have A Plan For Your Ending

This is a big one. We will already want to have an ending in mind during the entire writing process. Simply hoping to just come up with a perfect ending won’t work. Or at least not as well as if it were planned.

The way you’re planning to end your story may change or evolve over time, and that’s perfectly okay. But always try to keep an end in mind as you’re writing your story. It will give you something to work toward. A beacon that will help you let your story end on a high and touching note.

Sometimes, it takes me days, weeks even, to come up with just the right ending. The key is not to rush it. Unless it feels just right, it isn’t the perfect ending.

Never settle! You will want that punch, that feeling that your ending does your story justice. I usually know and feel it when I’ve found the right ending, and the right wording.

If it moves you when you write it, it will most definitely move and touch your readers. 

2. The Right Wording Matters

Remember that we’re talking about picture books here. We generally only have about 1 to 2 sentences to ‘deliver’ our perfect ending. And that means that every word counts. So again, don’t rush it.

When asking yourself how to end a story, be sure to dedicate some time to this. I like taking my general idea, jot it down onto a piece of paper or on a new page on my computer, and then come up with different ways of saying the exact same thing. Sometimes, all it takes is the shifting or reordering of words, or replacing one word with another will do the trick.

If your story is a rhyming one, don’t be shy to use online tools such as Rhymezone.com. And if you simply want to find a synonym, make use of sites such as Thesaurus.com.

It isn’t uncommon that I end up with about 50 different versions of my ending. So don’t get discouraged if you haven’t found your ending after only a couple of tries. Your little readers want to be moved. Their parents or other caregivers that are reading the book to their little ones want to be moved. So go for the heart. Don’t settle.

3. A Real Ending Of The Story

Your story ending for your children’s book should have a real ending. Don’t leave your little readers hanging. Kids like solutions and resolutions.

• Did Teddy make it?
• Did Panda get his cookie?
• Did the boy find his dad?

Little kids don’t yet know how to handle cliffhangers or how to draw their own conclusions. There should be no teaser, but rather a definite and satisfying ending.

This doesn’t mean that your story needs to have a happy ending. We just want to make sure that our little readers know exactly what happened, and that all questions have been answered and resolved.

4. Center Stage And Spotlights

No matter how long or short our children’s book story ends up being, for our ending, we will want to make sure that our main character takes center stage. It’s the main character the little readers have come to know and love, so it should be this character that brings the story to a close. That’s what will ultimately help you make your story feel complete to the reader.

5. Your Message & Purpose

Weaving our book’s message or purpose into the ending will make our story feel complete, like it has come full circle. Not only will it satisfy our little readers, but also the grownups that are reading this book with or to their children. Always try to incorporate the method I share with you in my Lead With The Heart Method from my Find Your Story Idea video series, and you’ll have a perfect foundation to base the ending of your story on.

Combining these 5 elements will help you make your ending memorable and unforgettable. And if your ending is memorable and unforgettable, so will be your story. And that’s exactly what we’re going for.

One of the main elements I help my clients with is the ending of their beautiful children’s book. It’s the ending that will stick in people’s mind and make them decide whether or not they want to read the book again. 

Drafting A Meaningful Ending Of The Story

Equipped with the 5 main components of an unforgettable and meaningful ending of our story, how can we go about drafting our own? With the ending, it might be helpful to think of our end goal here. What is it that we’re trying to achieve with it?

What we essentially want to achieve with the ending is to tie it all together. 

That, of course, may be easier said then done. But looking at some of the children’s books my own two boys love, they all have a beautiful ending. When asking ourselves how to end a story, all these books seem to follow this formula right here:

To illustrate the implementation of our outlined elements and our formula, I have looked at a number of children’s books, and have included their purpose and endings (last sentence) below. I hope this will help you get your creative juices flowing, so you too can apply this the next time you’re asking yourself how to end a story!

1 Too Many Carrots by Katy Hudson (Objective: sharing & being considerate): “… And sharing made everything better.”

2 Ready, Set, Rescue by Smriti Prasadam-Halls (Objective: for rescue vehicles enthusiasts): “… Sturdy, steady, ever ready, rescue team, we saved the day… Rescue team, hip hip hooray!”

3 Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes The Trash by Barbara Odanaka (Objective: for garbage truck enthusiasts): “Wave good-bye. Now we’ll try. Smash! Mash! Crash! Come on, let’s play!”

4 Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney (Objective: overcoming first-day worries): “Llama finds out something new – He loves Mama… and School, too!”

5 Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle (Objective: helping others & working together): “Oink! Quack! Baaa! Moo! Cluck! Peep! Neigh” Croak! Maaa! Beep! Beep! Beep” (Sounds of everyone involved)

6 Isabella: Star Of The Story by Jennifer Fosberry (Objective: the power of reading): “That’s okay,” Isabella said. “We’ll pick one for tonight and we can curl up and read the rest of them … tomorrow.”

7 If You Give A Moose A Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff (Objective: cause and effect): “… And chances are … if you give him the jam, he’ll want a muffin to go with it.”

And I’m using the same technique in my books as well:

8 The Garbage Trucks Are Here (Objective: for garbage truck enthusiasts; team work): “Five mighty garbage trucks, hungry no more. Filled to the brim out of town they roar.”

9 My Robot Bot (Objective: for robot enthusiasts; friendship & accepting yourself the way you are): “Oh robot! I love you! You’re my best friend. I don’t ever, ever want this day to end!”

10 Lil Foot The Monster Truck (Objective: for monster truck enthusiasts; being proud of who you are): “Lil Foot smiled, standing proud and tall. Looking up at his dad – Bigfoot, the mightiest monster truck of all.”

All of these are short one or two sentence conclusions, or mini repetitions of the lessons learned. Each word has been carefully chosen. And most reveal, or at least hint toward, the purpose or lesson of the book. There are no cliffhangers or teasers. Each represents a definite and satisfying ending. And each puts the main character in the spot light.

Remember, when it comes to writing the perfect ending for your children’s book, don’t rush or force it.

And unless it feels like the perfect ending, it probably isn’t.

I can’t wait to hear all about your perfect ending!

Happy creating, my friend!

~ Eevi

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