Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 6: Writing the Middle.

Specific level - Reading Scheme.

Reading Scheme is a very broad category, covering books for emergent readers (children of five or so) right up to the SCB level. There are even a few reading scheme titles for teenagers.

Reading Scheme isn’t always known by that name. In various times and places it has been called “Educational Readers”, “Class Sets”, ‘Reading Books”, “Graded Readers” and “Literature Based Reading”. It all comes to the same thing.

What is Reading Scheme?

Reading scheme is split into fiction and non-fiction. This lesson will refer to the fiction side of things. A reading scheme novel is aimed at a particular reading age. Some series actually have notations such as “Year 4/2” on the backs of the novels. This would refer to children in Term 2/ Second Semester, Year 4 / Fourth Grade in Primary School/Elementary School. Others are graded by colour or some kind of logo.

The early stage stories are very short and very simple.

The books at this level might have 8, 12, 16 or 24 pages, with one or two lines of text per page. There will be large pictures. These stories are not picture books, though, because they are designed for children to read themselves. Text might begin with something like this:

Lucy had a red hat.

So did Dad.

Lucy had a blue coat.

So did Tom.

Lucy had a yellow shirt.

So did Liz.

The reinforcement/repetition is important, but it is also important to have a “cap” ending to make the text, no matter how brief, into a story. The ending in this case might say that:

Lucy has a pink shoe.

So does the dog!

As the levels get older, the books get longer and more complex, but about half of all the RS series I’ve seen reach their top length at about 7,000 words. These are for readers of eleven or twelve years old, so many of these top-level readers are, in effect, SCBs that are between a quarter and a tenth of the length of their trade cousins. I call them “bonsai novels”, which isn’t an official term, but which aptly describes them.

A bonsai novel might be just 5,000 words, but it will have protagonists of 11-13, and will have a vocabulary and subject matter and theme to suit older children. There will be no sub plots (there isn’t room) and the storyline will be direct and the pace, brisk.

Series that allow longer texts will be similar to trade novels at the same level, with a few important distinctions.

If you would like to write reading scheme novels you need to understand the points on which they differ from trade.

1. Length. Even if the series doesn’t call for bonsai novels, there will probably be a set word count.

2. Genre. Some forms of fantasy are not welcome in most reading scheme series. These include paranormal subjects such as witches, ghosts, werewolves etc.

3. Social Responsibility of characters. In most reading scheme series, protagonists and their parents are not allowed to act in a criminal, dishonest, irresponsible or stupid manner. Thus a 12-year-old protagonist might get stranded on the wrong side of the river because the bridge was washed away, but must not be stranded in the city because she has gone out without permission.

4. Authority figures such as teachers, doctors, police and parents should be portrayed in a positive light.

5. There will be no bad language.

6. There will be no violence.

7. There will be no risky behaviour with water, fire, knives etc.

8. There will be no use of alcohol, no smoking, no illegal substances, and food consumed should be reasonably healthy.

9. There will be positive discrimination.

10. There will be no sexism, ageism, racism, or elitism.

11. Religion and politics will not be mentioned, and inclusiveness will be practised; i.e. there will never be a mention of Christmas, Easter or any other non-inclusive festival.

12. There will be no serious illness, death, or horror.

13. Books will rarely be set in an identifiable place and will be universal in theme and subject.

These rules sound narrow to some writers, but many of them apply to some publishers' trade books as well. It is quite possible to write interesting, exciting and entertaining books within these parameters.

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