Writing Children’s Books: Adventure To Get Published
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- December 12th, 2009 |
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In an editorial various years ago, I described a shoetree house in the backyard of a local restaurant. I wrote, “The entire artifact has been pieced unitedly from recycled lumber, much of which allay bears the paint, logos or posters of the original walls from whence it came. The generous platform is ringed by a rugged fence that includes branches of the shoetree itself, random two-by-fours, wooden signs, and even a pair of moose antlers. The ‘house’ is more of a lean-to, tall enough for kids (but not adults) to stand inside, with a screened door and cardinal screened windows positioned so occupants can easily operative on the diners below or out over the adjacent parking lot. A green padded bench that looks like it had once belonged in a diner adequately furnishes the area. Underneath the shoetree house hangs a rope cut, from which kids can fling themselves into a clogged layer of hay on the grass.”
Fast forward to this season. The restaurant revamped their backyard, including the shoetree house. The railing now consists of homogeneous boards about III inches apart. The house is reached not by a ladder and trapdoor, but via a bona fide stairs. The screen is gone, the windows are covered in glass, and various of the shoetree’s branches have been pruned back to discourage climbing. But the bottom part, according to my 10-year-old, is that the rope cut has disappeared. Matthew declared the entire artifact “boring.” In today’s class, kids have far less freedom than in previous generations. Their lives are more controlled&ndashsometimes because of parents’ fears of an increasingly dangerous elite, but often because we’ve someway come to believe that to grow into booming adults, children’s activities must be channeled, regular and programmed from infancy.
Danger comes in many forms, from a alien encountered on the artifact to school (who may be a neighbor out walking his dog, but you never know), to free time not filled with “enriching” activities. But, in my opinion, kids need a little danger in their lives. They need to attempt their boundaries, to learn how to climb a ladder and attempt finished a trapdoor. They need to hurl themselves into a pile of hay and learn it’s best not to land on your face. If grown-ups clean up their class overmuch, kids will never learn how to push themselves. They’ll never have the spirit of trying things that are a little chilling, a little off their parents’ radar, and accomplishing something that belongs just to them.
One of the few places kids can allay push their limits is with books. It’s possible to block outside your safe life with a account, or attempt new ideas on for filler. But many adults deprivation to clean up their kids’ reading choices as advantageously. I know parents who abhor Barbara Park’s perennially popular Junie B. Jones chapter books because the animated Junie isn’t a good role model, or won’t read Winnie the Pooh because Christopher Robin can’t charm alright. I also know a lot of authors who are afraid to compose books that are somewhat revolutionary because they anxiety editors won’t publish them. But for every parent who insists on only “safe” reading for their child (and it’s every parent’s right to do so), thither are at least cardinal parents who believe it’s okay for kids to wade into the danger regulate finished fiction. I’m not advocating murder mysteries for preschoolers here, just books that might be considered somewhat barbarian, or more entertaining than educational. Let’s look at any popular examples:
When I first saw Walter, the Farting Dog by William Kozwinkle and Glenn Murray, illustrated by Audrey Colman (a picture book whose plot needs no explanation), I was apprehensive that children’s publishing might be sinking a little also low. But as it started success awards and spawning sequels, I changed my opinion. Let’s face it: farting makes kids laugh. And if your child finds this book hysterical, you should be glad. In order to get the joke, kids need to know that noisy bodily functions are considered impolite. Laughing about them is one of the perks of childhood. Don’t anxiety, they’ll outgrow it.
A picture book coming out this December that’s already creating a buzz is 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. The heroine utters much statements as “I had an idea to commodity my brother’s hair to his pillow. I am not allowed to consume the machine anymore.” She also glues her brother’s bunny slippers to the floor, and shows Joey Whipple her underpants. Both big No’s. This ingenious account should fill cardinal camps of parents; those who deprivation kids to accompany consequences for inappropriate behavior, and those who don’t mind letting their kids live vicariously finished a curious, mischievous character. A pop-up book due out later this month from III publishing powerhouses&ndashMaurice Sendak, Arthur Yorinks and Matthew Reinhart&ndashlets adolescent children face the monsters hiding in their closets and come out on apical. In Mommy?, a adolescent boy wanders into a haunted house looking for his mother and encounters creatures like a goblin, a mummy, and Frankenstein. Instead of running afraid, the boy pulls pranks on each monster, deflating their power and showing how humor conquers fear every time.
Address of chilling, if you haven’t read any of the enormously popular Broadcast of Abject Events middle grade novels by Lemony Snicket, do so. With titles like The Bad Beginning, The Miserable Mill, and The Penultimate Peril, and cautions from the author much as, “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading another book,” these are clearly stories where adults dare not trample. But children brave enough to adventure between the covers will find hilarious plots full of nail-biting twists. The intelligent Baudelaire orphans have different skills (Purple for inventing, Klaus for reading and researching, and baby Cheery for biting) that make them admirable heroes.
Lauren Myracle enters the private class of teenage girl talk in her adolescent adult novels TTYL and TTFN. The titles alone might raise any parents’ suspicions because unless they’re well-versed at IM (instant messaging), they won’t know what the abbreviations represent. In fact, the entire novels consist of conversations between III high school girls written in emails, text-messaging and IM’s, exploitation the acceptable computer handwriting that includes abbreviated spelling and quirky structure. If you’re not an IMer yourself, you’ll find the books fairly difficult to read. But you and I aren’t the aim audience here. And tho’ the format might keep adults from examining the books also closely, the plots are acceptable berth adolescent adult fare&ndashrelationships, family harm, peer pressure, even drugs and alcohol&ndashhandled in a believable manner that conveys growth of character by the end of each account.
As an author, if you’re inspired to delve into the somewhat dangerous, dark or revolutionary corners of childhood with your books, feel free to do so. Don’t limit yourself to all that’s bright, safe and capable code. Allow kids places where they can swan away from their parents’ alert eyes and have an adventure. If the adventure’s in a book, they’ll always come home safe and channel. And if you’re allay not convinced, consider this: In the backyard of the restaurant, the shoetree house now sits empty. But the books I’ve described above are flying off the shelves.
This article excerpted from Children’s Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children’s Writers. More information at compose4kids.com