Welcome!

Welcome to The Kidlitter!

This blog is partnered with my Writing for Children workshop, but it's available to anyone who wants to check the posts. Hope you find some nuggets you can use here!

Our young readers deserve the very best of our efforts. Writing for kids is not preparation for writing for adults. It’s a special skill with special needs. Many of the same techniques apply, but there are important differences.

For one thing, you never have to ask, “How old is my reader?” when writing for adults. But reader age level is very important when writing for kids. Reader age will determine your subject matter, your word choice, your sentence length and overall word count. If you market your work to a book or magazine publisher, you’ll need to know who your target reader will be. The writer needs to meet the reader at the right level and not ‘talk down’ from an adult perspective.

So, let’s look at the different kinds of children’s books which target various age and reading levels.

Board books: These are the heavy cardboard small books designed for toddlers. They are usually developed in-house at a publisher. They can be simple picture + word format or a short story. They may also be called ‘concept books.’

Picture books: These are aimed at kids aged 4 to 8, though some nonfiction picture books are designed for readers 8 to 12. They are usually 32 pages in length and feature lots of illustrations or photos. They can be wordless or up to 2000 words in length. But the trend is for fewer words, about 300 to 800.

Early readers: These are aimed at kids just beginning to read on their own, 1^st and 2^nd graders. They are also called ‘leveled readers.’ The sentences get longer and the text is wordier as the levels increase. The "I Can Read" series is a good example.

Chapter books: Kids aged 7-10 and 8 – 12 love chapter books. They are usually complete stories divided into short chapters. Word length varies from 3,000 words to 35,000 words. Some early chapter books also have black and white illustrations in the chapters.

Novels: Teens (young adults) are the novel readers. Genres mirror what adults read: mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, romance or adventure. Length can run from 40,000 to 100,000 words.

Nonfiction books can be found at all levels.

Poetry collections are also at all levels. Here again, the age of your target reader is important to keep in mind. A poetry book for elementary kids will not include poems aimed at teens or adults.

Magazines are also a good reading choice for kids and there are hundreds (yes, hundreds!) for them to choose from. I will talk more later on writing for magazines, but keep them in mind for your work.

Now….here’s your assignment!

If you haven’t been reading recent children’s literature lately, now’s the time. READ, READ, READ about 50 – 100 books like the kind you want to write! You can’t rely on the remembered books from your childhood or even the ones you read to your kids as they were growing up. You need to read what’s been published in the past 5 – 10 years.

Hang out in the children’s or young adult section of the library or a bookstore and find books to read. You cannot write what you don’t read.

Trust me, this is the best homework assignment you’ll ever have. There are tons of great stories out there in the land of Kid Lit.

Until next time, Happy Reading!