Writing For Children

Happy Belated Halloween!
I'm baaaack!

Actually, I never went away.  I've been writing consistently and for the past year or so, I started a Teaching Google Site for my students and others.  It consists of links to videos that expand on the literature they are reading in class.  My students have been having fun watching the videos and connecting them to their reading and writing.

Many people today will complain that kids today don't want to learn, but I don't think that's true.  I feel that kids always want to learn, they just want to learn about what's interesting to THEM.  This brings me to the point of my long-awaited blog for today:  Writing for Children.
There are people in the industry who mock Children's Book Authors for ridiculous reasons.  They are being foolish.  Authors like Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, and Dr. Seuss have been laughing all the way to the bank for years.

It's not as easy to write for children as you think.  The first thing you need to know about writing for children is that you cannot write the same way that you do for adults.  That may seem simple, but it's not.  In writing on a child's level, you have to keep many things in persepective.  You cannot write like it's your literary thesis; children will close the book after the first sentence.  However, you cannot write DOWN to children.  This ticks them off.  I've taught literature to children for over a decade and I can tell you that they know when a writer is "Talking to us like we're stupid."  The key is to write as if you are speaking to a friend and are being conversational.  A perfect example of this is George Orwell's Animal Farm.  While Orwell can write on a highly academic level (read any of his literary theory), he writes simply and eloquently in this children's novel.  [Animal Farm is much more than a children's novel and is a powerful allegory about Totaltarianism for adults, but that's another topic for another day.]

Second, a children's book should teach something without looking like it's teaching.  If you read the Harry Potter stories, J.K. Rowling teaches many life lessons without children ever knowing it.  The most important theme in the Potter series is the power of LOVE.  Love conquers all, transcends all, forgives, and lives eternally.  Kids get that from reading these books, without being TOLD that's the lesson.

Third, you need to know the age level you are writing for and use the appropriate vocabulary.
Children's Books is a broad topic that covers Picture Books (Pre-K), Children's (lower grades), Middle Grades/Tween (10-13), and Young Adult (14-17).  It might help you to remember the Five-finger Rule that we teach elementary and middle school children to use.  Students are taught to open a new book to a random page and begin reading.  For each word they don't know, they are to put up a finger.  At the end of the page, they determine their JUST RIGHT books as follows:
One to two fingers = the book is too easy for them.  Choose another one to read.
Three to four fingers= Just Right.  Start reading.
Five or more fingers=  Not yet.  This book will be too challenging.  Save it for later.
So, the object is to use challenging words for the grade level, but not too many.  A twelve year old who does not have learning disabilities will be past reading Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl, but books like Night by Eli Weisel and stories by Mark Twain may be too difficult for him.  However, books like Harry Potter and The Maze Runner may be just right.

In short, I'd go by the words of J.K. Rowling who said in an interview that in writing the Harry Potter series, she wrote what she wanted to read and what made her laugh.  She wasn't trying to impress anyone, she just was inspired to write a story about a little boy with a lightening bolt scar on his forehead.
Please check out my new novel  Luke Aloysius:  Bloodline on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD9X8BE