An excerpt from Writing for Children by Pat Alexander and Larry Brook Books for Different Age Groups

We dont generally grade books for adults by age. But in childrens books the age group really matters. Writing for a 5-year-old is not the same as writing for a 12-year-old. Childrens experience and understanding grow and develop all the time. Everything is changing: their vocabulary: the words they know the ideas they can grasp the level of complexity they can cope with their interests and preoccupations their feelings and emotions their experience of life their likes and dislikes, the things that amuse and entertain them A writer needs to know this, to study the particular age group he or she has chosen. Be prepared to eavesdrop! How do they speak? What topics concern them most? How do they look at the world? (It wont be the way you view it.) Many books have been written about child development. Dip into one of them. Many studies have been made of vocabularythe words (and concepts) it is best to use for different age groups. Take note of these things if you want your readers to understand and enjoy what you are writing. They wont read what is way beyond their grasp, but you dont have to stick to word lists with a strictly limited vocabulary. A little bit of stretching can be good.

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A word from Beatrix Potter This is how Beatrix Potter begins her Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific. Thats not a word little children know, but they often love big words and this one has a lovely sound. The next sentence actually clues us in to the meaning: I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuce; but then I am not a rabbit! She repeats the big word in the sentence that follows. And pictured on the opposite page are four little rabbits, all fast asleep in a rabbit patch. We can divide children and youth roughly into four age groups: preschool, first years at school, older children who are confident readers, and young adult readers who are 12 and up. Each will need a different approach. Preschool (0-5 years) These are years of huge development, from the total dependence of the new baby to walking, talking, and being ready for school. From a 5-year-old to a 50-year-old is only a step, but from a newborn infant to a 5-year-old is a terrifying distance. Leo Tolstoy Ordinary things are new, exciting, magical for little children. Children this young cant read. They will be read to by adults. They dont have a long attention span. The books the youngest ones enjoy will have only a few words on each page and many pictures. They are learning to turn pages and how a book works. They are learning words and love the sounds. I began a retelling of the Noah story for this age group like this: Bang! Bang! Bang! went the hammer. Noah was building a boat. I let them hear the animals as they went aboard: Quack! Quack! said the ducks. Moo! Moo! said the cows. If you are writing for young children, the rhythm of the words is very important: the story must read well aloud; sentences must be short and rhythmic. They like rhyme and repetition. In my retelling of the escape from Egypt, for example, I used the words The king said no as a constant refrain. In Western culture, this is the age of the nursery rhyme. They love humor. Books intended for them will have only 16, 24, or 32 pages. They will be very clear and simple (definitely no subplots, deep ideas, or complex characters!), and children will want to hear them again and again. Those who write for young children should never bore or shock or make readers unhappy by their writing. Give them something of value, and write plainly. Books for the preschool age group include: Board books. These may picture objects or animals or parents and siblings, making one simple point about caring, sharing, thanking, loving. They may then move into such areas as friends, colors, numbers, and the alphabet. Rhyme and rhythm make the text more fun. A

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surprise when you turn the page is fun too. Everything should be concrete-no abstract concepts. But we are never too young to learn about the God who made and loves us. Simple stories. When children can talk in sentences, they will begin to enjoy having short, simple stories read to them. Once they have learned to turn pages without tearing them, little books they can hold in their hands are good. This is the age for bedtime prayers and very first and simplest Bible stories: the world God made, or Noah (chosen for the animals!). Early learning. Little children are full of curiosity and questionsespecially why? They will enjoy fun books which pick up on wondering about the world around them, other people, themselves, feelings (happy or sad). Its a good time to tell them how special they are. Many Bible stories can be told, bringing out a theme to which they can relate. For example: the Noah story will focus on rescue, not judgment (although they will know about naughtiness and correction!); the Joseph story will bring out his showing off and the jealousy of his brothers. Sound and rhythm and repetition make stories enjoyable and memorable. Simple picture storybooks. There is a special section on these later. They include fairy tales, folktales and fables, stories from the Bible, stories relating to Christmas and Easter. First years at school (5-8): Learning to read Children in this age group need a lot of encouragement. Learning to read is slow and hard. It can take a long time to turn a page that has a lot of text. They may well give up! Sonot too much text, mostly using words they already know and can recognize; set in large type, with good space between words and lines; not too many words in each line; not too many lines on each page. A good ratio of pictures to text is a big help. These books will have 24, 32, or 48 pages (up to 64 pages for stories). Books for this age group largely overlap with the ones we have mentioned already. Its the content and concepts that are different reflecting their wider experience and range of understanding. Picture storybooks. 5-8 is the prime age for the picture story. Again, Christmas and Easter stories, folktales, and fables that will enrich a childs imagination and understanding are all good subject areas. Activity books, coloring books. Children this age love making things, being busy, and having things to doespecially when bad weather keeps them indoors. And parents are glad to have them happily occupied! The Christian author will want to choose a theme which gives some real point to the activities: Christmas and Easter, exploring the wonder of Gods creation, a caring and sharing theme, and so on.

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 Bible stories and prayers. These will include collections as well as individual stories. There is a place for more imaginative retellings. For example, Old Testament heroes, with an adventure-story feel and plenty of fast-paced dialogue. Stories. Children of this age still need to be read to as well as, increasingly, reading for themselves. Storybooks may be full-length stories, in short chapters, or ten or so short stories linked in some way. For example: a number of stories all about the same (often animal) character. Stories read at this stage will build an appetite for longer fiction. Storybooks should include some black and white, line pictures. Children will not put up with boredom: that means real, rounded characters; describing scenes and places vividly and swiftly, in few words; continuous action; necessary information must come in bite-sized pieces. Learning about. Children read to learn. With the start of school the emphasis is on learning, and they begin to acquire a real appetite for facts and figures: not just the why?, but the what? and especially the how? They are ready for books about how things work; how things are made; simple science; and learning about God, the Bible, Jesus, prayer, the church, and the festivals. Older children (8-13): Confident readers This is the age group for the childrens novel, a full-length story of 96-192 pages. A book for this age group may take six months to plan and six months to write, doing some work on the story every day. The writer still needs to choose words with care. But children of this age can handle tough subjects within the story context. They will have personal experience of both the good and the bad in the world. They have learned concentration and read well enough to be thoroughly absorbed and carry on through a lot of text. They want a good story, plenty happening, not much description, a lot of conversation, characters they can identify with and care about, and a satisfying outcome. Books for this age group include the following: Fiction. This is the big one for this age group. It is given special treatment later in section 7. Anthologies: Collections of stories and/or poems. Children acquire favorite stories and favorite authors, the more they read. Its good to introduce them to the very best. So collections can be important as tasters or samplers to encourage further reading. They may be general, or have a theme: a Christmas or Easter collection; stories from around the world; stories about our (Gods) world. Poems are important at every age and stage in life. Poetry collections (anthologies) can do welleither a wide range of the best poems by the best poets, or poems collected around themes. For example, around the yearthe seasons; poems about animals; childrens poems; poems for a better world. It is very difficult to find a big enough market to make poetry by a single author viable

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unless the author is already well- known. So this is not a place for the would-be author to start. Nonfiction information books. These will be real fact-find- ers. Subjects are wideranging. For example, the human body, growing up, planet Earth, history, geography; and also reli- gious subjects such as how the Bible came to us, the life of Jesus, the story of the Christian church. Biography: Real-life personality stories. This is the age when children adopt personal heroes and heroines. We enjoy reading amazing stories about real people who have done great things, survived against all odds and can be our role models. Every country and culture has its own hero stories, and there have been Christian heroes in every age, around the world. Their stories need telling in a way that captures the imagination and leads children towards Christ. They should also be shown as complex and very human: not supermen and superwomen, but people who have overcome fears and done extraordinary things out of obedience to God and with Gods help. They are a stretch above us, but its still possible we could become like them. Young adult readers (12 plus) From 12 years old and up, the reader is no longer a child, but an adolescentself-absorbed, a natural pessimist, interested in emotion and changing relationships. Those who have good reading skills will already be reading some stories written for adults. But they also need books written specially for themfiction and true- life stories for the growing up years. Sadly, these days, many children in this age group are facing big problems: teenage pregnancy, broken homes, abuse. Many writers focus on helping children work through these problems. To write well for this age group, to win their confidence, is no easy task. They are tough critics, able to tell the phony, simplistic or sentimental from what truly reflects the realities of life in the world today. With all these choices, what will you write? You have to write whatever book it is that wants to be written, says Madeleine LEngleand in the way it demands to be written. Excerpted from MAIs booklet, Writing for Children: Ideas and techniques to produce stories that children will love, by Pat Alexander and Larry Brook. The booklet offers several practical tips for mastering the important craft of childrens writing.

Since our foundation in 1985, MAI has conducted 300 training programs in 63 countries on five continents. We have seen budding writers developed, publishing houses grown, periodicals launched and books produced. We celebrate as God strengthens the Church and draws hungry readers to Christ with the written word.

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Media Associates International (MAI) www.littworld.org