writing for children: understanding the needs of young readers

8/14/2019 Writing for Children: Understanding the Needs of Young Readers

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Writing for Child renUnderstand ing the Needs of Young Readers

Writing for Child ren

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Copyright 8 Linda Jackson 2004

First published: 2004Reissued: 2009

Launch Point Blainslie

http://www.writingcourses.eu

ISBN: 978-1-907138-05-8


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Chapter 1: Getting Sta rted

Writing effectively for children and young people places unique demands on theauthor. Good quality childrens writing is simple (but never simplistic), accessible andengaging.

Books and articles for young readers are often much shorter than books for adults,but this does not mean that they are easier to write. Quite the opposite - as theyrequire an even greater focus and clearer sense of direction than when writing foradults.

Many people continue to enjoy their childhood favourites throughout their lives.According to his biographer, Cole Lesley, when Noel Coward died a copy of hislifelong favourite, The Enchanted Castle, was found by his bedside.

A quick poll around the Launch Point office revealed the enduring popularity of thefollowing books:

The Wind in the Willows -Kenneth Grahame;

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -Roald Dahl;


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Think about your favourite book as a child. Do youstill have a copy? Do you still enjoy reading it?


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James and the Giant Peach -Roald Dahl;

Watership Down -Richard Adams;

Swallows and Amazons -Arthur Ransome;

Black Beauty -Anna Sewell.

I still enjoy reading The Enchanted Faraway Treeby Enid Blyton. Itwas my all-time favourite as a kid, and I was over the moon whenI found a copy of it in a secondhand bookshop. When I'm

feeling ill, stressed or tired there's nothing I like better than tocurl up in bed with the Faraway Tree. Probably because it's socomforting and familiar, and because a part of me would still liketo believe that there really is an enchanted word somewhere!

Sophie, teacher and writer.

Child ren as Readers

Children are rewarding readers. They have an amazing ability to lose themselves inan imaginary world and will happily go along with the most extraordinary ideas inthe books they read. They are also much less cynical and judgmental than olderreaders.

It is difficult to imagine either of the following scenes working well for an adultreadership! The first is from Roald Dahls James and the Giant Peach, and thesecond is from J K Rowlings Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

James and the Giant Peach :The centipede, who had begun dancing wildly round the deckduring this song, had suddenly gone too close to the downwardcurving edge of the peach, and for three awful seconds he hadstood teetering on the brink, swinging his legs frantically incircles in an effort to stop himself from falling over backward

into space. But before anyone could reach him - down he went!


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He gave a shriek of terror as he fell, and the others, rushing tothe side and peering over, saw his poor long body tumbling over

and over through the air, getting smaller and smaller until it wasout of sight.

"Silkworm!" yelled James. "Quick! Start spinning!"

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin."Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - Ionce met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. Thisone moved in yesterday afternoon and I asked the Headmaster ifthe staff would leave it to give my third-years some practice.

"So the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is aBoggart?"

Hermione put up her hand.

"It's a shape-shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whateverit thinks will frighten us most."

At the same time, children appreciate fiction that reflects the reality oftheir lives. Even in the most astounding of stories, young readers willfind much that they can identify with on a personal level:

... Everything is so deadly quiet, and the shadows are so long andblack, and they keep turning into strange shapes that seem tomove as you look at them, and the slightest snap of a twig makesyou jump.

James felt exactly like that now. He stared straight ahead with

large frightened eyes, hardly daring to breathe. ...


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true for adolescents. Nothing will date your work as much as getting thelanguage wrong.

What is the modern childs life like?

One of the most common errors made by new childrens authors is to writestories of the sort they enjoyed as children, often an Enid Blyton-type adventure.

Although Blytons work still sells extremely well and can be found in almost everybookshop, this is not the sort of story publishers want from todays authors.

They are looking for work, whether fiction or non-fiction, that reflects the realityof life for todays children, which includes the following facts:

Almost two in three married couples divorce, which means that many childrenhave experience of living in a single parent family or a step-family.

Over eighty percent of children live in an urban area - many of them have nevervisited the countryside and a substantial number have never seen a real cow, pigor chicken.

Children live in a multicultural society and attend school with children from awide range of other cultures and religions.

Similarly, young readers may themselves be drawn from a wide range ofcultures and religions, and stories should reflect this.

Publishers also like to see stories that deal with the issues children might face ineveryday life - including going into hospital, bereavement, starting school or

secondary school, relationships, living in a stepfamily.

In addition, writing successfully for children means writing for them as if writing forequals, not writing down to them.


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Identifying Your Target Readers

Age GroupA key issue for both publisher and author is the target age group. Children ofdifferent ages have very different requirements of their books:

Under 2s

Highly illustrated, board and cloth books, often showing everyday objects and theirnames, rather than telling a story.

Under 5s

Children of this age enjoy listening to stories. They may also be learning to read forthemselves. There are thus two main types of book for this age group:

books for adults to read to children

books for beginner readers.

Both types of book are highly illustrated. Interactive books that allow the child tophysically engage with the book - perhaps by lifting a flat or rotating a disk - arealso popular with this age group. For example, one version ofThe Very HungryCaterpillarby Eric Carle has a long, chunky green string attached. The child canthread this through holes in the thick card pages to represent the caterpillars

journey through various types of food.

Books for this age group often reflect seemingly quite mundane, everyday activities- getting washed, using the potty, visiting the shops. When you write for this agegroup remember that everything about the world is new and fascinating. Thesechildren dont need imaginative fantasy to capture their attention.

Other books for this age group explore the natural world, as in The Very HungryCaterpillarwhere the child learns that a caterpillar eats and eats until it is finally bigenough to transform into a beautiful butterfly.


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6 - 8 years old

These children are developing their own reading skills, and many beginning, and

more advanced, reading books are aimed at this age group. In addition, they stillenjoy listening to stories. They are now able to enjoy more complex story lines thantheir younger brothers and sisters. They may enjoy adventure, fantasy, sciencefiction and other stories.

Central characters tend to be children who are the same age as the target reader orslightly older - an individual with whom the child finds it easy to identify and, often,to admire.

9 - 12 years old

These children usually have good reading skills and enjoy quite complex plots.Stories that reflect real life experiences remain popular, but children of this age alsoenjoy fantasy, science fiction, and adventures.

Stories for this age group are usually much shorter than for older children and adults- typically 20,000 - 30,000 words, compared to an average 75,000 words in an adultnovel.

The plots also tend to be simpler than in adult novels as children of this age groupfind it difficult to follow time shifts and other complex plot manipulations. Examplesof stories ideally suited to this age group include:

the Goosebumps series,

J K Rowlings Harry Potter stories.

These children also enjoy non-fiction, and much of it is chosen and purchased forthem by adults. (A significant point when planning a book - it needs to appeal toparents as well as children!)

12 - 16 years old

These young people are developing rapidly as readers. Their reading skills are oftenas sophisticated of those of adult readers, and many of them enjoy stories writtenfor adults. Unlike younger children, by this age boys and girls show markedly


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different preferences in fiction and many books are geared either to one gender oranother.

Publishers also produce ranges especially for this age group, as a quick trip aroundyour local bookshop will reveal. Popular among this age group are romances, horrorstories, fantasy and science fiction. Many of these novels are slightly shorter thanthe average adult novel, but they vary considerably, so check requirements carefullybefore you submit an idea.

Writing for Educ a tion

Schools purchase a massive number of books each year and represent a significant

market for publishers. Books for schools can be classified broadly into the followingcategories:

Reading Schemes

Most educational publishers have their own reading scheme of books, with booksranging through a series of levels depending on the ability of the reader. Olderstudents will remember Peter and Janebooks and the Ladybirdreading scheme,while younger readers might be more familiar with Ginn. The most popular reading

scheme today is The Oxford Reading Tree.

These books are often developed by a fairly small team, including one main writerand several other contributing authors. Before approaching a publisher with ideasfor a reading scheme you need to have a good awareness of the scheme and thesort of material the books contain. The publisher will be particularly interested tohear from you if you have educational qualifications and experience.

Reading Books

As well as reading scheme books, childrens publishers produce a wide range ofgeneral reading books. Teachers are always keen to encourage children to read aswidely as possible and these books are the ones that will fill the school library.

Teachers are particularly keen to find books that entertain and engage children.They work within tight guidelines which mean that they are always on the lookoutfor books that also:

recognise and celebrate difference - this might be differences in ability,appearance or culture;


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encourage tolerance of other cultures and religions, and the differently-able;

encourage gender equality among children - this does not necessarily alwaysshowing boys and girls as the same, but it does mean recognising that they areequally able and should have equal opportunities as they grow up;

encourage safe behaviour (for example a story in which a child sneaks out of thehouse alone at night and wanders around town is likely to send shivers downevery teacher's spine);

for older children, stories that address inequality directly.

A note on language in educational reading books

Publishers usually have quite firm guidelines about the words writers should andshould not use. They may, for instance, work with a restricted word list which helpsto ensure that books support and reinforce the main reading scheme. Check outpublishers language guidelines on their website or by writing to their editorialoffice.

Textbooks

Workbooks and textbooks are widely used at all educational levels. From thehandwriting workbooks of the reception class to A'level and degree textbooks. All ofthese books need to be written by someone, so if you have some educationalexperience and specialist subject knowledge this may offer you a good market foryour work. You will need a good awareness of the National Curriculum, or any othersyllabus your book is intended to cover.

General Non-fiction

As well as textbooks designed to meet the needs of a particular syllabus, schoolsalso purchase many general non-fiction books. Again, books are needed to suit alllevels of reading ability. Most non-fiction books below Alevel are highly illustrated.

Again, a good understanding of the national curriculum, which is reflected directly inthe book's contents, will make it even more appealing for teachers and thereforealso to publishers.

Subjects include:


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Geography- for instance, how people live in other countries, the weather, the

climate, map-reading, investigating local geography.

History- for instance, how people lived long ago, key events in history, how weinvestigate history.

Science- for instance, the natural world, electricity, physics, chemistry, humanbiology.

English- handwriting, using words, grammar, for older children - key examinationtexts.

Mathematics.

Religious Education- different religious beliefs, key festivals.

Personal and Social Education- sex education, interpersonal skills, bullying, drugs,

alcohol, accepting individual differences.

Picture Books

Many books for children are highly illustrated. When you plan such a book you needto think carefully about how the illustrations and text will work to make a completepackage.

Just as when writing a book for adults, the most effective way to approach apublisher is often to put together a sales package which explains the targetreadership for the book and also tries to give the publisher a complete picture ofhow the finished book will look. If you are working on an illustrated book, thismeans in part showing how the text and pictures will work together.

You should not attempt to produce your own illustrations, or ask a friend to do it foryou, unless your work is of the highest professional standard. Editors do like to see

complete packages but not at the expense of quality. However, as well as sending

in the complete written text, you can also send in a mock-up of the book showing


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how each page could be presented. This is only an initial idea and it will almostcertainly be amended during the development process - its purpose is simply to givethe editor a clear picture of how the idea might work as a finished book. The

illustrations only need to be shown in rough outline, perhaps just as a rough sketch,so don't worry if your artistic skills are not up to much!

Ifyou do decide to produce your own illustrations, you can also send in one or twooriginal illustrations to give the publisher a better idea of the quality of your artisticwork.

In summary, when sending a publisher your picture book idea, you should includethe following:

a sales page, outlining the target market (age group - place in book shop, etc.),why your book is different from any of the other titles currently on offer, howyou see the final book (Hardback or softback? Thick pages?) and the sort ofillustrations you envision in the final piece;

a complete copy of the book's text;

a mock-up of the complete book, showing how illustrations and text will worktogether on each page (usually 16 or 24 pages for a picture book, but check theprecise requirements of your target publisher). See overleaf for a sample page.

The Mind of a Young Reader


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Lie down on the floor. Imagine what it would be like ifyou were dependent on another person in order tomove around (just as a small baby is). How do youfeel? What kind of control do you have over whereyou are and what you can see?

Now stand up and walk around the room. Have your feelingschanged?

Is there a difference in the kind of control you have over whatyou can see and where you are?


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As freezing drops of rain began to fall from the skyHerbie sheltered beneath a giant toadstool. How wouldhe ever find his way back to the pond now? And whatwould his brothers say? He felt sure that toads weresupposed to like the rain.

A sample mock-uppage


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Some of the best childrens writers seem always to have retained the ability to reachthe child within. Michael Woods, a psychologist who analysed Enid Blyton throughher books, wrote:

She was a child, she thought like a child and she wrote as achild....

While Paul Hodder-Williams, a publishing executive who had worked with Enid,noted:

She really loved children and understood instinctively whatwould interest them. It was with children that her gift ofsympathy had its greatest flowering... That is why they haveloved and will continue to love the best of the books which shewrote for them and them alone...

Writing effectively for children means not only writing about what a child is doingand thinking, but also seeingthe world through the childs eyes. There is an

important difference here. In the first case, you are writing about the childs worldthrough adult eyes. This sometimes works but often it is too sentimental andappears unrealistic to the child reader. In the second case you are actually sharingthe childs world view and allowing the reader to share it too.

In the following example we share the childs experiences directly:

Suddenly a hand reached out from the blackness and grabbed hisarm!

Aaaaah!

The scream scared him badly. Who was it?

Then he realised the scream had been his own.

Shh! A voice whispered. Its Heidi!


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Josh spun around, breaking the hands grip on his arm. He could

barely see the dim form standing next to him. But he recognisedthe voice. Hed always despised Heidis high, irritating twang,but he was glad to hear it now.

Guess Whos Coming for Dinner?M D Spenser.


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Spend time with children, really listening to what theyhave to say. Try to remember how you felt and thoughtas a child. Reading old diaries, stories and school workcan be a good trigger here, if you still have them.

Jot down any points that you feel may be useful in yourwriting.


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Co pyright: Linda Jac kson

This is a short extrac t from our self-study c ourse: Writing for

Child ren: Understand ing the Need s of Young Rea ders

For mo re informa tion o n our writing c ourses p lease v isit our

website a t:

http:/ / www.writingcourses.eu


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writing for children: understanding the needs of young readers

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