If you are writing a children's book, you have to know who you are writing for. You may remember your favorite titles from your childhood. Some of them may still be popular. But without taking time to learn what children are reading today, you will be writing a children's book that will simply collect dust.
It may surprise you how much variety there is in children's literature. It would be a mistake to assume that the success of the Harry Potter books, for instance, means that the children's bookshelves are full of witchcraft and wizardry. In exploring the children's literature section of the bookstore, you will see there is no 'right' way to write for children. You have the opportunity to find self-expression and write a children's book that is uniquely yours.
You must get to know your audience. You would write differently for a five-year-old than you would for a fourth grader. You may want to cater to a specific reading level. Choose your audience before you begin, and be true to that audience.
Toddlers
Children of this age are in their explore stage. They are concrete learners and accept information at face value. They appreciate seeing colors, shapes and textures in the books they are reading. Illustrations should be big and bold, since most of the toddlers are still not able to read, they will just look at the pictures. Cloth books and pop-ups are very effective if you want to get the attention of your toddler audience. The famous book of Bill Martin, Jr., Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, made use of big illustrations of animals and simple, repeating words that children can understand easily.
Preschoolers and Primary Graders
Like the toddlers, preschoolers and primary graders enjoy picture books and early readers. This age group can identify colors, shapes, letters, and numbers, but they still prefer to read books with more illustrations. They can still appreciate books made for toddlers. In fact, you can write a book targeting both toddlers and this age group. Preschoolers and primary grade readers both like books of fiction as well as non-fiction. They like to read about animals, sports, family and school. Using repetitive verse will help these children learn to read.
Upper Primary Grade
Books for the upper primary grade children are more complex and usually have more than 100 pages. Children at this stage like to read books with chapters and will still appreciate illustrations, but not as much as toddlers and preschoolers. They will appreciate books like Judy Moody or Ivy & Bean. These kinds of books have stories that upper primary graders can relate to. The characters in these stories are regular grade school children who have lots of adventures.
Middle Grade
Middle grade children understand the world better at this point in their lives. They already know what conflicts are and will want to find out about the resolution. They can identify closely to the characters in a book and can relate the stories to real life situations. Their interests are expanding and they can read books about history, sports, crafts, science and the like. Books for this stage have fewer pictures compared to the first three age groups.
Young Adult
Young adults are the teenage group. Teenagers already have issues with love, family, friends and school. The kinds of books teenagers want to read will be about love, sex, family problems and drugs. The teen world is in between the children and the adult world, so they are usually confused and are often attracted to danger. Young adults are inclined to read more complex books like thrillers, science fiction, fantasies, romance and other exciting stuff.
To write a children's book, you should know what your audience is reading. Your best resource, of course, is the children themselves. If you want to write a children's book, you should find out firsthand what interests them. Talk to them about what books they choose to read, and what their favorites are. Read to children if you have an opportunity, and observe what gets the most animated reactions from them. It won't take long for you to get a feel for your audience!
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Terence Tam is the founder of Bookpal, he previously spent 6 years as an academic and was a contributing author for several academic books. Frustrated with the level of service he was getting with traditional publishers, he set up his own self publishing company to help other authors publish and market books with cost effective yet efficient solutions
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