Author: Sowmya Rajendran
Well, the answer to that question depends on who you are. If you are an adult, you are likely to look for the following in a good children’s story:
- A value or moral that can be uprooted and planted in the child’s mind
- Educational learning
- Low price
As adults, we assume that children’s stories, ought to be instructive because this is, after all, the ripe time for a child to learn.
If you are a child, however, a good children’s story is simply one that holds you captive. How the story achieves this you may never know (an unimportant detail when you are ravenously reading it), but it never quite loses its charm even as you grow up. It takes root in your mind as a tiny seed and grows with you, bringing a smile to your face every time you see the dog-eared pages.
The child as the audience
A cursory glance at the children’s section in any bookshop in India will affirm the predominant view towards children’s literature is that it ought to teach and educate.
Racks and racks of mythological tales and lazily produced, didactic stories of ‘morality’, each eager to impart wisdom, make the average fodder. The language tends to be pedantic and the story riddled with ‘lofty’ statements that may make no sense to its intended reader.
This isn’t surprising because the world of children’s literature is controlled by adults. Children’s literature is written, published, and bought by adults and so, the ultimate end-user, the child, is in the curious situation of having no voice in a market that is apparently alive for his benefit.
And then, we complain that children don’t read enough!
Giving the audience what it wants
Writing a children’s story that can engage a child is not an easy job. Children are not mini versions of adults. They can recognize a fraud a mile away and will be turned off by an uninspiring story, no matter how formidable the reputation of its writer. Simply said, children have an aversion towards anything that will bore them, and a writer’s job is to stay away from that sin.
Writing Tips:
Here are some pointers that you can use as a writer to ensure that you have your audience:
- Keep the language simple but engaging
- Avoid clichés and use imagery that is fresh
- Children love to laugh: even if your tale is serious, try to infuse humor in the way you present it
- Let the learning or value emerge naturally from the story- something that the child discovers. Avoid spelling it out.
- Give scope for the illustrations to suggest ideas: don’t let the text do all the talking
- Read your story out aloud and listen- does it ring genuine? Be honest!
Books are easy to walk away from because they make no noise. For the child to genuinely enjoy it and come back for more, the story must be able to capture its imagination, not just its sense of right and wrong (which in any case, I suspect, is more acute in children rather than in adults). In our hurry to teach the child all the values that s/he ‘ought’ to know, let’s not forget that for the child, fun, in itself, is a value.
About the author
Sowmya Rajendran is a children’s writer based in Pune. She has published ten picture books and has co-authored a children’s novel. She enjoys blogging, traveling, and pretending to have not grown up… yet.
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Comments:
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I agree, the stories should have values that emerge naturally from the story. Let the children figure them out rather than using words that SCREAM VALUES.
Great post, thanks for the tips Sowmya.