My Research

Research: Comparing Young Reader Books

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no-fraidy-catfishy-field-tripCatKid by Brian James is a series for young readers – I’d say 7 to 9 year olds. I borrowed a couple of them from the library in a batch of books I wanted to read for research. I picked “I’m No Fraidy Cat” because the title reminded me specifically of one of our cats (who acts tough but is a scaredy cat through to the core). “The Fishy Field Trip” was randomly picked.

These books, of course, are way too young for me, but I wanted to find out what was being published for the age group. The books I read, there were also two others I haven’t mentioned here, were good research material. They were published by two major publishers – Scholastic and Simon & Schuster – and I found that they all gave the same results, which were:

1. They stayed within a single storyline, which were not too complex.
2. They spoke to the target audience, using words I suspect the age group would find amusing and would trigger copy cat usage (kids love to mimic things they love).
3. Most centred on two main characters. The other characters were only used to help the main characters and the plot advance. There was little information provided regarding these other characters.
4. They were quick and concise. No flowery descriptions in any of these books.

I had a few more books to read, but I don’t think I’ll bother with them. I don’t actually write for this age group – or I haven’t to date. Instead, I’m going to move on to the next age group, which is 9 to 12 years olds. This is the age group I write for and it will be interesting to see the difference between the two age groups.

Child Development

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As a writer of children’s stories, I think it’s important to understand how a child develops. Yes, we’ve all been through it but can you remember how you thought when you were five? I can’t.

A writing friend, Scarborough, gave me these two links:

General Developmental Sequence – This site shows the typical activities and achievements for a child aged between two and five.

Erik Erikson’s Personality Theories – This is an in-depth look at personalities of children and culture. About a third of the way down the page is a table that was interesting.

I don’t intend to look into this side of my writing in any great length, but to achieve realism I believe we have to have a five year old doing what a five year old would do. Yes, there are exceptions but we need to know what we are doing in order to be accepted.

If you lose credibility, you lose the reader forever.

Chapter Book Fantasy Stories

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A writer must always be prepared to do research. No matter what the genre. Because if your reader discovers errors in your facts, you will lose their respect and their readership. An author cannot afford to have this happen.

If you’ve followed my progress over the years, you would have seen that I’ve researched all sorts of things – martial arts, poisonous plants, medieval times, weaponry, medical terms, feudal system, scientific facts and heaps more. All these things had some level of importance in a story I was writing at the time and I doubt my research will ever be over.

At the moment I’ve turned my attention to writing children’s chapter books. This has sparked an interest in me that had previously disappeared completely. Yes, this is a good thing. 🙂

I found myself thinking about how popular Chapter Book Fantasy Stories are. As you can see from the list, it seems quite popular. Children want to believe in magic (hey, I want to believe in magic) so why wouldn’t they be drawn to stories filled with wonderous things. The prospect of lighting up a child’s eyes with a story that fills their imagination inspires me. I love the thought of that.

Right now, at this very moment, the decision to write a chapter book feels right. Maybe the writing I’ve done up till now has all been in preparation for the journey I’m about to embark on.

Writing for Middle Grade Children

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Well, this has to be a good start. I’m actually interested enough to do some research on writing for middle grade children (that’s the 8 to 12 age group).

The following information was taken from Ask Laura at Write4Kids and was written by Laura Backes:

1. Middle grade novels contain about 12-15 chapters, with about six to eight book pages per chapter. This translates to up to 10 manuscript pages. This is just a general guideline; your story might require more chapters, but will probably fall within this range.

2. The traditional middle grade audience is ages 8-12. There is also now an upper middle grade age bracket of 10-14. The main thing that differentiates a middle grade novel from a young adult book is that the protagonist is 10-14 years old (most are around 12) and so are dealing with problems and concerns of a preteen, as opposed to a high school student. Middle grade characters are wrapped up in themselves, their friends and family. Young adult characters also think about these things, but in the context of how they fit into the larger world. Young adult characters are stepping across the threshold to adulthood, whereas middle grade characters are learning how to be adolescents.

3. Subplots are a hallmark of middle grade novels, and are what set them apart from simpler chapter books for ages 7-10.

4. Most publishers accept a query letter along with one or two chapters. Send for publishers’ guidelines to be sure.

And this was a comment made about talking animals, which I’m not sure if I’ll have or not but it’s worth knowing:

Talking animals aren’t completely taboo, it’s just that most writers don’t do them very well. What’s important is that your animals have completely developed, unique personalities and characteristics. You need to develop these characters just as carefully as if you were creating human characters. Too many writers use their animal characters as stereotypes, thinking kids will be immediately drawn to them just because they’re animals.

Everything your animals say and do should be a logical extension of their individual personalities. And give your readers some surprises. For example, a rabbit might not be cute and cuddly; he may be absentminded, selfish, or cunning. I suggest you read some previously published “talking animal” books to get a sense of what I’m talking about. William Steig and Kevin Henkes are two good picture book writers. Also, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (a middle grade novel) is an excellent course on how to create unique animals characters.