These are workshops for writers of children's books that I highly recommend.

Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman, KY:  workshops in all genres, including workshops on Writing Stories for Children conducted by George Ella Lyon and other published authors 

Writers Workshop at Chautauqua from the Highlights Foundation.  And Highlights Foundation: workshops for children’s writers and illustrators, hosted by the people behind Boyds Mills Press and Highlights magazine.

Online and Correspondence Workshops:
Institute of Children's Literature: a correspondence course. The program offers excellent instructors and a monthly newsletter.

Children’s Writer Author Meredith Sue Willis has a terrific “Resources for Writers” site.  She also conducts online writing classes.

I hope you find these children's book writingr workshops helpful.  Please let me know if you do.

The Purple Crayon: A Children's Book Editor's Site from freelance editor Harold Underdown. A very comprehensive children's writers and illustrator’s site: what you need to know starting out as well as articles on a variety of publishing related subject. Includes information about writing, promotion, publishing and more. 

Cynthia Leitich Smith Children's Literature Resources.This site contains nearly 1000 files and nearly 12,000 links to places on the web. It is also one of the most linked-to sites relating to children's and young adult literature on the

Children's Writing Resource Center presented by Children's Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children's Writers. Both site and sponsoring newsletter are recommended, especially to beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions from the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC includes advice for beginning writers and illustrators 

Writers' Resources from the Highlights Foundation at Chautauqua. Articles by faculty on a variety of writing-related subjects. 

Aaron Shepard's Young Authors Page: Writing and Publishing as a Kid from author Aaron Shepard's Web site.

TRIPLE TRACKING METHOD for tracking your manuscripts can be downloaded from the website

There are so many resources for writers of children's books that are easily accessed online.  This is an organization for writers of children's book that I have found very helpful:

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (website SCBWI.ORG). Formed in 1971, there are currently more than 19,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's book writing organization in the world.

The SCBWI sponsors two annual International Conferences on Writing and Illustrating for Children as well as dozens of regional conferences and events throughout the world. It also publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, offers awards and grants for works in progress, and provides many informational publications on the art and business of writing and selling written, illustrated, and electronic material for children. The SCBWI also presents the annual Golden Kite Award for the best fiction and nonfiction children's books and the Sid Fleischman Humor Award for children's books.

Membership in the SCBWI is open to anyone with an active interest in children’s books, literature or media.

For Regional SCBWI Organizations – Click on “Regions” at scbwi.org

There are several "apple" books on the market.  I was pleased that Kirkus Reviews called my book, GOLDEN DELICIOUS:  A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY, a "standout."

Kirkus Reviews 2008 September #1

This lightly fictionalized story of the golden delicious apple truly reads like a fairy tale. In 1905 Missouri, the famous Stark Bro's Nursery is the place farmers send their apples, hopeful that the brothers will want to sell the apples to their customers. But Paul and Lloyd are picky, likening each taste of a new apple to trying a glass slipper on one lady’s foot after another to try to find Cinderella.  Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Anderson Mullins discovers a one-of-a-kind apple tree on his property that produces the most delicious golden apples.

They win fair ribbons, yield year after year and stay sweet even through winter storage. In 1914 he sends three to the Starks and it becomes their Cinderella apple. Paul journeys to West Virginia to buy the apple tree, bringing back twigs to graft onto the trees back home. And from that one tree, every golden delicious apple is descended. The colors of Kemly's charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations neatly evoke the time period and the agricultural theme. A standout amidst the proliferation of apple books found in elementary classrooms. (author's note) (Picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.