The Child Conundrum

I have another two drafts I’m working on. I don’t want to talk too much about it publicly, but let me know if you’d like to give me any behind-the-scene advice on it. It’s another children’s book, theological in nature, but right now I’m facing what I call the Child Conundrum.

I firmly believe that God’s Word is for all of us, including children. Including infants! But, since I approach writing children’s books from an educational angle, I tend to get absorbed by the awesomeness of the topic and suddenly want to see a board book, a young children’s book, an older children’s book, and a VBS and Sunday school curriculum on the topic. 🙂

I have two drafts: one more for a board book and one for a larger age span of kiddos. How do I chose which to pursue? It’s not like some church topics are unimportant, even for infants.

I’m also torn because, well, I think my kids read above their grade levels and probably have a lot more exposure to theological concepts than many. So, trying the books out for the appropriate ages and seeing which goes over better . . . I’m just not sure I have all my necessary indicators within my immediate family.

Maybe I’ll pester some pastor-friends and see what they think. Well, maybe I’ll putter around with the two drafts a little more before I do that. (So DON’T feel left out if you don’t receive a random email from me.)

Children’s books are a big genre. And, I know some of you are very interested in that audience. What do you think? Is there a litmus test we could come up with? Like, if you have to have a certain sentence, figure out the age-level of the sentence? How can we address, in particular, the audience aspect of the Child Conundrum?

1 Comment

Filed under Audiences, Question Asked, Writer Troubles

One Response to The Child Conundrum

  1. Alison Andreasen

    I did this with my most recent work and the publisher ended up taking both on. The publisher’s advice for board books was to feature one or more of the following: repeated texts, rhythmic meter, no more than 4 sentences. It was also encouraged to think of each spread rather than each page. I thought this was helpful information. Any other treatment of the subject matter would be better for another audience. With that said, board books are HARD! Limited word count, big concepts, limited vocabulary and limited pages!

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