I’ve written about this in previous blog posts, but it bears repeating: the heroes, or protagonists, of children’s books must be characters that young readers can identify with and relate to.  Jane takes this notion one step further.  She says that children’s books must have “emotional resonance” for young readers, and adds that the way to achieve this is by focusing on “The Three F’s,” or thee key areas of concern for children, which are:

1) Family

2) Friendship

3) Frustration

Most – if not all – children’s books have at their heart one of these elements, giving the book that essential child-centeredness with which the young reader can relate to, and be drawn in by, the story. Some have more than one, others a combination of all three.

Here’s one dictionary definition of child centeredness:

“Designed to promote a child’s personal qualities rather than to provide training or information. Humane - marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering.”

This, I think, ties in well with what Jane is getting at when she talks about writing with emotional resonance.  Writing children’s books well requires more than just writing skill.  It requires compassion for children, and a keen understanding of the frustrations, challenges and concerns they face on a daily basis in the struggle to grow up. Our work needn’t be steeped in pathos – in fact, kids usually prefer humor – but we also shouldn’t get preachy or didactic or try to educate or problem-solve. We need only maintain a compassionate heart and a child-like sensibility, something perhaps best achieved by remembering what it was like to be a child ourselves.

According to “Reading, Writing and Revelation: How the written word helps refresh body, mind and soul” by Ursula Sautter, reading and writing can alleviate any number of symptoms ranging from physical pain to emotional suffering, including depression, phobias and other anxiety disorders.  In one study cited, even “obese adolescent girls who read an age-appropriate novel about a teenager who discovers ‘improved health and self-efficacy’ lost weight more easily than those who didn’t read that novel.”

Among the reasons cited for the power of the written word is the fact that “when we immerse ourselves in a text, the words stimulate the production of mental images… This is in sharp contrast to visual media, in which the imagery is already provided, so requires less creative assembly by the viewer.”  Al Gore describes this phenomenon in his wonderful book The Assault on Reason: “The vividness experienced in the reading of words is automatically modulated by the constant activation of the reasoning centers of the brain. . . . By contrast, the visceral vividness portrayed on television has the capacity to trigger instinctual responses similar to those triggered by reality itself—and without being modulated by logic, reason and reflective thought.”

Researchers have even concluded that reading contributes to our “cognitive reserve,” or the brain’s ability to protect itself and adapt to physical damage.  What’s more, since bibliotherapy is both effective and relatively inexpensive, some health systems are setting up “reading pharmacies.” In the U.K., for instance, the National Health Service endorses a “books on prescription” program, which allows doctors to prescribe self-help manuals to those seeking medical attention for mood disorders.

As one might suspect, writing is an equally powerful prescription for health.  In a sidebar article to the one on reading, entitled “Words That Heal,” David Servan Schreiber describes a clinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which showed that writing can have a large impact on physical symptoms. Apparently, “patients who spent just 20 minutes a day for three days in a row writing about their problems felt better, took fewer drugs to relieve their symptoms and saw their doctors less often than those who relied on medication alone.”  In addition, recent brain research confirms that deliberately turning stressful images or memories into words can alter the way the experience is actually encoded in the brain.

So stock up on those gift books and journals this holiday season… You’ll be giving a more thoughtful and valuable gift than anyone on your list may realize!

* Books are evergreen – they keep on giving, well beyond the day they are received. They give with each read, and if they are subsequently shared or passed down, they keep on giving. They are like presents that can be opened over and over again.

* Books send a message to the recipient beyond that of the book itself. They tell the reader, “I care about you. I think of you as this sort of person, and therefore I think you would enjoy this book.”

* Books educate, inform and inspire. They broaden consciousness and perspective. They also cultivate curiosity, nurture the imagination, and promote a sense of wonder.

* Books provide outstanding long-term value for a relatively low cost.

* Giving young people books as gifts subliminally underscores the connection between reading and the joy of receiving, thus strengthening the association between books and pleasure.

* There are countless types, genres, styles, subjects and authors to choose from, maximizing your opportunity to find something uniquely suited to each recipient.

* If you are overwhelmed by options, or not sure where to begin to find the right book for a loved one, there are myriad resources to help. Your local bookseller is trained to help match the right book to the right person. You can also explore Amazon.com’s “listmania” lists and “Customers who bought this book also explored…” feature. You can pick up a copy of the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, American Libraries magazine or any number of other publications dedicated to reviewing books. There are even websites geared to helping people find books they love – one to explore is www.goodreads.com.

Plus, I’ll be posting next on great books to buy (or give) about reading and writing.

So give the best gift of all this year. Give books!

The question I was asked was: What are the particular challenges you think we (meaning children’s book authors, editors, educators, advocates, lovers of children’s literature) face?

This was my response:

“I think one of the challenges is keeping young people’s skill and interest in reading high enough to take advantage of the opportunities that will be waiting for them.

In my book Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment (Beech Tree Books, 2008), I talk about how much reading skills correspond to our ability to be confident, engaged, informed citizens. They affect how well we communicate, succeed in school and in our chosen careers, and ultimately our level of personal fulfillment. In fact, order to participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020 and beyond, we will all need powerful literacy abilities. But with all that competes for our attention these days, from television to the internet to electronic games and social networking, we face the possibility of a serious decline in the reading and writing skills of the next generation.

Our strength as readers and writers is profoundly influenced by how much of it we do – the more we read, the easier it gets. The easier it gets, the more we enjoy it, so the more we read. But we have to start by actually reading – and the key lies in making that activity as attractive as all the other temptations out there. We achieve that by focusing on activities that support the joy in reading (as opposed to reading as chore, or duty)…and by ensuring that what is being read is so good that the reader gets hooked and comes back for more.

That’s why I’m dedicated to supporting children’s book authors in the continued development of their craft. We have a huge responsibility on our hands. It only takes one great book to turn someone on to reading… but those great books need to keep being written and gotten into the hands of children!”

This is why you must write that book. If you have ever felt that nudge… that gentle (or perhaps, at this point, nagging) whisper in your ear to get that idea down on paper, I am here to hold you accountable. We can only keep the next generation (and those after that) reading, and writing – and using creative expression to solve problems and promote awareness, and cultivate compassion, and address the issues before them with artfulness and thought – if we continue to provide them with the tools to do so.  And the first (and best, in my view) is a good book.

So, get writing. Who knows? You may be the next Madeleine L’Engle… but even if your story touches just one child, one heart, that’s reason enough for it to exist.  One might even say you have a responsibility to put it out there.

Over the years, we have designed and/or made our own bookmarks, postcards, posters, flyers, brochures, bookplates, downloadable activities, games and teachers guides. We’ve even made mp3’s, t-shirts, mugs, note pads, umbrellas and mouse pads. These giveaway items are invaluable at book signings, school presentations, book fairs and any other promotional or marketing opportunity. They help attract people to your table and speak for you long after you have moved on to the next gig. One of the best resources in this regard is Modern Postcard.com. This terrific company makes not just postcards but bookmarks, flyers, brochures and posters of all different shapes and sizes. Their printing is high quality, their costs are reasonable, and you can do it all digitally. The more you print, the less expensive it gets. And once you’ve placed your initial order, reprints/re-orders are a piece of cake.

Of course, with children’s books we want to think primarily about items that have kid appeal. How creative can you get? What can you come up with that relates to your book that you can print on and/or give away inexpensively? Think about balloons, pens, pencils, rulers, bubbles, stickers, craft items, toys, coloring books… the possibilities are endless. For these kinds of items you can use a source such as cafepress.com or zazzle.com. They will print your graphic, logo or message on any number of items that you can either buy at cost and give away at your events, or you can create your own virtual “store” that you can link to from your own website, sell the items and actually make some cash and get promotion at the same time.

Oh, we haven’t talked about creating your own website yet, have we? Stay tuned…

Having a niche means being known as “The Person Who Writes X,” as in “Oh, that’s the person who writes those talking truck books” or “That’s the person who writes those steamy vampire novels.”  When you have a niche, you can still do other things – you don’t have to limit yourself  – but having a particular area of strength and reaching out to that specific community can be hugely valuable when it comes to building a marketing platform. It’s otherwise known as “target marketing.”  And once they’ve bought one of your books, chances are they’ll buy another.

For instance, if you know a lot about cats and you write a series about cats, then you have a built-in audience of cat lovers out there that you can reach out to. You can market your book not just to families who love cats, but to cat rescue centers and pet stores, anything that specializes in cat.  Maybe a cat food company would be interested in using your book as a giveaway item, or maybe you could do a signing at your local SPCA or veterinarian’s office or pet store.

One of our niches is the arts, which my mother and I both have a background in and which is a recurring topic in a number of our books.  So when we wrote The Great American Mousical, which is about a troupe of mice who live and perform below the boards of a venerable Broadway theater, we marketed the book to “show-folk” in every way we could think of. We stuffed the book in give-away bags at the Tony Awards, we became Amabassadors for Kids Night on Broadway, we reached out to theater memorabilia stores in Times Square to see if they would carry the book and to Playbill magazine to see if they would do a feature on it.  We created trivia games for theater fans and a mouse dress-up-and-put-on-a-show game online. We wrote articles on theater etiquette and offered links to theater camps for kids on our website. We’re even developing a musical theater adaptation of the book for family audiences.

In the publishing industry, they call this “special sales,” and most publishers have special sales divisions whose job it is to reach out to non-bookstore type places. But our experience is, you’ll have a lot better chance of success if you come up with ideas of where to pitch to yourself.  It’s your area of strength – even the best special sales departments won’t know the places to go in your niche the way you do. Every niche-marketing approach we did for Mousical we came up with ourselves. So think outside the box… Whose your audience? Where do they hang out, what do they buy, what do they like to do? Then come up with ways to sell or promote your work there.

Step one, particularly if you are just starting out or are new to writing for children, is to make sure you know the market you are writing for, and its specific styles and requirements.

I continue to be amazed by how many aspiring children’s book authors are ignorant about or just plain out of touch with today’s marketplace.  Many of us take inspiration from the books we loved as kids, but it’s also important to realize that times and trends have changed considerably since “Goodnight, Moon” and “Make Way for Ducklings” were published.  Familiarize yourself with what’s selling, and what the current as well as the classic styles, trends, and approaches are. See how your book fits in. Pay attention to the balance of text versus illustrations, the number of pages and/or words, the subject matter being dealt with. Be especially aware of what’s on bestseller lists and winning awards. Research the competition in your particular genre or subject matter, and include that information, along with why your book is different and fresh, when you make your submission.

There are literally dozens of resources to help you in this regard. Here are just a few with which to get started:

• Annual Publications, such as Literary Marketplace (it’s expensive and updated every year, so check it out from your local library) and Children’s Writers and Illustrators Guide (published by Writers Digest). These are essential tools to know what’s happening not only in the marketplace, but also at the publishing houses – who’s moved where, who’s soliciting what, what the latest submission guidelines are etc.
• Weekly Trade Publications, like Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal. Both also have daily digests (PW Children’s Book Digest is essential reading) and blogs that are invaluable.
• Membership Organizations, such as The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators  (www.scbwi.org) – a must. For a nominal membership fee, you get access to all kinds of resources, support and opportunities, both on their website and in the welcome kit you will receive.
• Web resources such as jacketflap.com – a social networking sites specifically for childrens book authors. Mediabistro.com is good too, in that there are online classes, job listings and other opportunities for writers.
• KidLit Blogs and MomBlogs– A veritable powerhouse in the industry. More on these later!
• Conferences, festivals and trade shows, such as BEA, ALA etc. We’ll get into those in more detail later, too.
• Bestseller lists, especially the New York Times (childrens books are mostly only available on the online version of the Times bestseller list), IndieBound and Publishers Weekly.
• Awards – especially all those sponsored by the American Library Association (www.ala.org) such as the Caldecott and Newbery.

Perhaps most important of all:

• Spend time in the kids sections of libraries and bookstores and be a sponge… and,
• Hang out with – and read to – kids. Nothing will better teach you what works, what doesn’t, what makes them laugh, when you’ve got them, and how quickly you can lose them!

This series is part of a new e-course and group coaching program I am developing, as well as being fodder for a new book, so your comments here are most welcome and will help me shape the direction of all these offerings.  If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe to my mailing list (I promise, no green eggs and spam) so that I can let you know when the programs are launched.

And now to the first topic…

Q: Who’s Your Hero? (A: Your Reader!)

When my mother and I first started working on the Dumpy the Dump Truck series, we needed to come up with a driver for Dumpy. Since the character had to be of driving age, we thought a teenager might be the most interesting for young readers (never mind that our target audience was between the ages of 3 and 5). We presented the first draft to our editor, and she said, “Very nice – but where are the kids?”

She reminded us that a rule of thumb, the central characters in childrens books should be of the same age and spirit as the child reading them. She suggested we convert the teenage character into a little boy the same age as our reader, and add a grandfather who could do the driving. Light bulb! Now we had a central character our readers could relate to, and a bonus extension of our theme of finding value in older things (or people), even after they seem to have outlived their usefulness.

You’d think we’d have learned our lesson, but we made the same mistake again several years later when writing our first middle grade novel, Dragon: Hound of Honor. Because this was for middle grade readers, and because it was based on a medieval French legend, we thought it was enough to have the knights and ladies (and dog) as our central characters. Once again, our editor said, “Where’s the kid?” We came up with a young page, an apprentice in the castle from whose point of view the story is told, and who happens to be the same age as the target audience for the book.

What we’ve (hopefully) by now learned is that the heroes, or protagonists, of childrens books must be characters that young readers can identify with and relate to. The best way to achieve this when developing an idea is to imagine the specific child or children you are telling this story to.  How old are they? What are their interests, concerns, hopes, fears?  That’s your target audience… and that’s the age, physical and/or emotional, that your principal character should be.

“How can I get my child to turn off the Gameboy (TV, computer etc.) and pick up a book?!”

This is the question that Emma Walton Hamilton, the best-selling children’s book author, educator, and Editorial Director of the Julie Andrews Collection publishing imprint, hears the most often.

Whether on a book tour with her mother and co-author, the legendary actress Julie Andrews, at speaking engagements in schools, libraries and other public arenas, or in casual conversation, this question surfaces again and again, with increasing urgency, from parents, grandparents, educators, librarians and caregivers across the country.

In fact, eighty-two percent of parents wish their kids read more, according to Scholastic’s annual “Kids and Family Reading” report. Parents overwhelmingly view reading as the most important skill a child needs to develop, which should come as nor surprise, since it is a well-documented fact that children who read well do better in all aspects of school and beyond.

Reading skills correspond directly to one’s ability to:

• Be a confident, informed citizen
• Communicate effectively
• Succeed in one’s chosen career, and
• Achieve personal fulfillment.

But… a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts based on two decades of census reports states that, for the first time in modern history, less than half the adult population now reads literature for pleasure.

The disturbing facts are that one third of high school graduates and forty-two percent of college graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. This decline in reading literature occurs across all ages, sexes and races. It is most pronounced among the young.

Building on the premise that an appreciation for reading stems from an kinesthetic connection between books and pleasure, Raising Bookworms offers over 150 powerfully effective yet simple strategies to engage even the most reluctant reader, and to build, maintain or restore a love of reading for every age range.

“Raising Bookworms” does something rare—it recognizes that to get a kid reading means lighting an internal fire, not just applying an external push. This book shows you how to make reading a habit they’ll want to form all on their own.” – James Patterson, Bestselling author

Readers will discover…

• Why reading is so essential for success in school and in life
• How to build – or restore – the critical connection between reading and pleasure
• The value of, and techniques for, reading aloud to children of all ages
• How to find the best books for young readers
• Answers to frequently asked questions about developmental issues, the impact of television and the internet, and engaging older children and reluctant readers
• Hundreds of activities, resources, recommendations and tools for building the foundation for a life-long love of reading

“The message of this lovingly written book – packed with recommended reading and activities for parents and children – is simple: children can learn to love reading books. Caring attentive adults can make the difference, and that difference changes lives.” – Leonard Kniffel, Editor in Chief, American Libraries

For BULK ORDERS: Phone: 1-800-BookLog Fax: 1-419-281-6883
E-mail: orders@AtlasBooks.com or visit www.atlasbooksdistribution.com

Click here to download a pdf order form.

Notes:

• 12/08/08 in the category of “Books > Reference > Words & Language > Literacy
• Category: Parenting Activities. See the “News & Events” page for details and press release

Dumpy At School

Dumpy at School (Hardcover)
by Julie Andrews Edwards (Author), Emma Walton Hamilton (Author), Tony Watson (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Charlie, who is nervous about his first day of school, and Dumpy the Dumptruck, who is nervous about his first construction job, gradually adjust to their new settings after making new friends.