One of the biggest mistakes an adult can make when writing a chapter book for kids is to assume that children care about lesser things than adults do. They don’t. Kids simply care about different things.
To a child, losing a best friend can feel as devastating as a 60-year-old loving couple losing a spouse. A difficult day at school can feel as overwhelming as an adult losing a career. Adults with adult problems often assume children have smaller ones. They don’t. Their problems are huge. Being left out at recess, moving to a new town, disappointing a favorite teacher, or sitting alone at lunch can be the biggest, most devastating problems in the world. As adult writers writing for children, we dismiss these traumas at our writing peril.
Our job as adult writers composing for kids is never to judge whether problems are big enough. That’s the wrong question and can lead to unrealistic or unnatural overinflation beyond what really matters. Our job is to understand how big simple problems feel to younger readers and build our stories from that truth. This is where meaningful chapter books begin.
The best chapter books don’t simply feature young characters. The best chapter books see the world through young characters’ eyes. As adults, we all understand what young people understand if we remember what it was like at that age, find something comparable in our adult lives, and then transfer those feelings and emotions from a two-liter-size experience for us to a pint-size experience for them, all the while preserving that, to the young person, the pint size feels like a gallon jug.
As adults, we understand that friendships change. Regardless of our ages, we all wonder, “Did I do something wrong?” or “Will I always be alone?” These questions deserve to be taken seriously at any age. To find the truthful nugget, start with experiences children already understand: friendship, family, school, pets, teams, plays, neighborhoods, bullies. These familiar parts of childhood provide the foundation for all stories because readers of any age recognize them, though in different circumstances. Once you spot those, though, the next step is simply to ask yourself, as the writer, what lies beneath the surface of these young souls’ concerns. That’s where the real story begins.
Stories for adults and children are remembered because of what the events mean. A story about making the school play may really be about belonging. A story about siblings may explore fairness. A story about a missing pet may become a story about responsibility, love, or courage. When you write chapter books, recognize the story you are really telling. The event begins the story; the meaning gives it lasting power. That’s what readers remember.
As an adult writing for children, resist the temptation to teach, even through the plot. No one likes being lectured. Readers don’t need characters explaining the lesson at the end. If you’re a good writer, the reader will get it, regardless of their age.
Children don’t always feel they have choices. Children often live in a world where the biggest decisions are made for them. You may not understand it, but children know it. Through stories, they want to watch characters make meaningful choices. Give your characters choices, let the theme of the story grow from there, and then let your young characters make difficult choices, and show the consequences not only in action but also in feelings.
As in real life, choices reveal character, and it is the characters who invite readers to wrestle with the same questions as they move through the story. Watching the ebb and flow of cause and effect is far more powerful for a young reader than being told what to think by the author.
Lessons sometimes appear in life’s and fiction’s simplest moments. There is no need to make childhood seem larger than it is. The shadow under the bed is enough. Childhood is already enormous. Treat a child’s world with that respect. Write stories that acknowledge the importance of friendship, family, courage, kindness, and belonging, not because we adults think these subjects are valuable, but because children already know they are.
When young chapter book readers recognize their own lives in your stories, they discover something even more important than a great story or a great ending. They discover a writer who knows that what matters to them matters to you. And those are readers you have for a lifetime.
