Lesson 1: Writing for Children
The following lesson discusses things you should know about writing for children and how children's books differ from fiction for adults. The W.I.P. ("Work In Progress") Section will help you decide on the level and genre for your book.
In this lesson, the following topics will be covered.
What is a Children's Book?
Writing for Today's Young Readers.
Age Groups and Genres 1.
Age Groups and Genres 2.
Supplement - Definitions.
W.I.P. Section. Basic Plot/Genre.
This is what children's books used to look like, fifty years ago.
What is a Children's Book?
Definition of a children's book.
There are two definitions of "a children's book". One is the popular definition, the other is the professional definition used by many people in the book industry, including most of the publishers I've dealt with over the years.
The Popular Definition is this:
A children's book is a book intended for children of primary (or elementary) school age.
The Professional Definition is this:.
A children's book is a book intended specifically for any readers below the age of eighteen.
The differences between the two definitions are far from cosmetic. In the first case, children's books are seen as an extension of what we might call the "golden age of childhood". A children's book of this kind is seen as a happy, innocent and nurturing experience, teaching life lessons, perhaps, within the context of a story.
In the second case, a children's book might be the kind of book described above, but it's just as likely to be a much darker experience. It may deal with characters in their late teens, and may also include such themes as love, despair, sexual identity, death, loss, personal growth, destructions of hope, exploration of maturity, relationships, good and evil, murder, recuperation, acceptance, talent and mediocrity... I could go on, but I won't. I’m sure you get the picture.
I shall add just this. In children’s books you will find every theme you will find in books for adults, with the exception of the overtly erotic. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever published an erotic novel for children. Yet.
It is the Professional definition that we will be using in this course. That doesn’t mean that all the subject matter will be dark and depressing. Far from it! Despite the plethora of depressing children’s books around, there are plenty of life-affirming ones as well. You just hear less about them, because they tend not to be controversial. What it does mean is that some of the things you will be learning might surprise you, especially if you signed up for this course expecting to write only for the so-called “chapter book” audience. If so, don’t worry. Books for this audience will be covered.
With such a broad definition of the term “Children’s Book” to use, it should be obvious that it’s next to impossible to describe “a typical children’s book”.
For this reason, this course will be dealing with the different kinds of children’s books in separate sections and/or separate lessons, and will be referring to them by separate names. These will include “Picture Books”, (PBs) “Junior Chapter Books” (JCBs) “Senior Chapter Books” (SCBs), “Young Adult Novels", (YA Novels) and “Reading Scheme” (RS).
Much of the information given for writing one kind of children’s book will be equally pertinent for other levels or genres, so some of the later lessons will ask you to refer back to material studied at the beginning of the course.
