What the 10 Greatest

Children’s Authors Teach You About Remarkable Content

Consider this…

The following authors all wrote for the same audience, yet still found ways to stand out and be remarkable.

Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss crafted a world and characters so unique, that Jim Carrey even found it challenging to fully capture The Grinch. Not only did the Doc write some of the most revered children’s tales of our time, but he did so in rhyme. He even made up words! He created a style all his own. Poet transfused with children’s writer.

Roald Dahl From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Matilda, Dahl’s tales often took a similar path from bookshelves to the silver screen, bringing worlds we only imagined to life. He was a master of seeing darker subject matter through the eyes and imagination of a child. His wit and unique characters transported children everywhere to the landscape of his choosing.

J.K. Rowling From Hogwarts, to Quidditch, to “expecto patronum,” Rowling crafted a unique world full of characters and conflicts to the likes that children had never seen. The response was immediate and expansive, resulting in theme park-like lines at bookstores and movie theaters across the world. She brought imaginative fiction to a completely new level, and her work will continue to reach children for generations to come.

Shel Silverstein For children of all ages, reading Where the Sidewalk Ends during spare time at recess is almost a rite of passage. Silverstein’s witty, sometimes strange and often brief poems coupled with his unique illustrations form an experience children remember forever.

R.L. Stine Stine not only pioneered children’s horror with Goosebumps, but he also introduced context into his stories by allowing readers to choose their own plot twists in his You Choose the Scare series. Unprecedented at the time, readers decided their own ending.

E.B. White White was another children’s author who didn’t shy away from heavy subject matter. The difference? He often told his stories through an animals perspective. From Stuart Little to Charlotte’s Web, his stories are woven into the fabric of American culture.

Judy Blume Blume’s novels acted as a narrative for the experience children and young adults faced during their formative years. From bullying to religion, Blume was a master of relating her subject matter to exactly the right audience. She wrote with both clarity and empathy, detailing each coming-of-age tale as if it were non-fiction.

Lewis Carroll Most known for writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll was way ahead of his time in that he created fantasy worlds completely void of anything considered to be “normal” or “standard” in regards to the industry at the time. The result? A story so rich in imagination that it was still a box office draw…145 years later.

C.S. Lewis Lewis created a fictional fantasy realm known as Narnia, and using tales of magic and and mythical beasts, created a seven part series that’s sold over 100 million copies while also becoming a box office hit. His stories tell the tale of children from the real world magically transported to the fictional Narnia to protect it from evil. The lesson? If there doesn’t exist a world that suits your creativity, then make one.

Eric Carle Carle needed very few words to tell his story and effectively exercise the imagination of his young audience. He didn’t limit himself to relying on words to create an experience. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, there’s actually holes eaten out of some of the pages. The beautiful illustrations and experience is what pushes the story along.

How will you create more unique and remarkable content?

By John Bonini

@Bonini84