WRITING FOR THE VERY YOUNG
I once worked as editor of the first national literary magazine in Australia for the very young. Little Ears was geared for the three to six-year-old market and published stories, poems and plays to be read by adults to children in their care.
In the first few months I received over 650 unsolicited manuscripts. We published about 16 contributions every month, so the majority of manuscripts were obviously rejected for publication. In assessing a manuscript’s suitability for publication I asked a few questions of myself: is the length appropriate; is the subject matter and language appropriate, are sentences short and simple, will the young reader understand what is being said.
Quite often in their submitted manuscripts, the writer’s choice of subject matter was a problem. Generally speaking young children want to hear about subjects which are within their immediate sphere of life. Topics such as my mum and dad, my family, my toys, my friends, my bath-time, my loose tooth and so on have more appeal to pre-schoolers than stories I received about elderly neighbours, hungry snails, rampaging bunyips, rainbows or dining with dinosaurs. Similarly, young children do not want to be alarmed by monsters under the bed, bloody accidents, death and losing one’s nose – which also featured in some stories submitted to Little Ears. To sum up, the ideal subject matter for the very young deals with what is familiar: going for a walk, helping mum in the kitchen, playing on the beach, dressing up in old clothes, discovering that caterpillars have legs but worms don’t.
In an article on writing for the very young, American Jan Weeks wrote, “Generally speaking, the younger your audience, the more concrete your (writing) must be. Young children have such a limited range of experience that they cannot make connections between the sun and a golden disk because they have no point of reference for "a golden disk." When dealing with young toddlers, they have difficulty grasping comparisons at all. To a toddler, dogs are so much like cats, that if you compare them, the child may have difficulty understanding that they are really different things at all.”
Writing in a “concrete” manner where young children know what is being described is imperative when presenting a story, play or poem for them. Pre-school children cannot grasp abstract concepts and it is folly to think that they will “learn” as a result of hearing your too complex story or poem. As a writer you can use play on sounds, but using a complex simile in your writing will most likely go over your young reader’s head. A writer can help the young reader stretch his boundaries slightly – perhaps by using animals instead of people as protagonists – but not too much since we’re still dealing with baby-friendly ideas like cuddling mum, my own bed is for sleeping or night-time is dark.
Rhyme, rhythm and repetition are important to very young children. Poetry for this group usually has simple meter (and may mimic nursery rhyme metres) and exact rhymes. Short sentences and simple sentence constructions are also imperative. A story about friends at a park should, for example, use simple action verbs on each page to show common park fun: they swing…they climb…they ride. A variant might come at the end when the story sums up all that togetherness by announcing that friends are good.
It is acceptable to show in a poem or story that one thing is like another, but again simplicity is the key. The moon, for example, might be compared to a white button in the sky, or the sun to an egg yolk, a playful cat to a lion. Stories and poems can also be active and challenge a small child to imagine something out of the ordinary. Grandma being a clown in a circus, Mum bringing home a pet kangaroo or a friend who wears a silly hat can be topics are within their level of understand and help to create a sense of fun for the young reader. Stories and poems can also challenge a child to do something, such as climb to the top of a slippery dip, pat a new, friendly dog or go for a dip in the beach for the first time. There can be funny stories or poems about manners or comparing being bundled up in winter clothes to being a chubby polar bear or playing in the bath to being pirates at sea.
Summing up, it is important if you want to get stories or poems for the very young published, you need to remember that your work must have connection to common experience and learning, repetition, humour, action, and – in poetry – exact rhymes and simple metres. Most importantly, remember to keep your story-line and your language simple!by Dianne Bates
Dianne (Di) Bates has published over 130 books for young people and has also worked on the editorial team of three national children’s magazines. Her website is http://www.enterprisingwords.com.au
In the first few months I received over 650 unsolicited manuscripts. We published about 16 contributions every month, so the majority of manuscripts were obviously rejected for publication. In assessing a manuscript’s suitability for publication I asked a few questions of myself: is the length appropriate; is the subject matter and language appropriate, are sentences short and simple, will the young reader understand what is being said.
Quite often in their submitted manuscripts, the writer’s choice of subject matter was a problem. Generally speaking young children want to hear about subjects which are within their immediate sphere of life. Topics such as my mum and dad, my family, my toys, my friends, my bath-time, my loose tooth and so on have more appeal to pre-schoolers than stories I received about elderly neighbours, hungry snails, rampaging bunyips, rainbows or dining with dinosaurs. Similarly, young children do not want to be alarmed by monsters under the bed, bloody accidents, death and losing one’s nose – which also featured in some stories submitted to Little Ears. To sum up, the ideal subject matter for the very young deals with what is familiar: going for a walk, helping mum in the kitchen, playing on the beach, dressing up in old clothes, discovering that caterpillars have legs but worms don’t.
In an article on writing for the very young, American Jan Weeks wrote, “Generally speaking, the younger your audience, the more concrete your (writing) must be. Young children have such a limited range of experience that they cannot make connections between the sun and a golden disk because they have no point of reference for "a golden disk." When dealing with young toddlers, they have difficulty grasping comparisons at all. To a toddler, dogs are so much like cats, that if you compare them, the child may have difficulty understanding that they are really different things at all.”
Writing in a “concrete” manner where young children know what is being described is imperative when presenting a story, play or poem for them. Pre-school children cannot grasp abstract concepts and it is folly to think that they will “learn” as a result of hearing your too complex story or poem. As a writer you can use play on sounds, but using a complex simile in your writing will most likely go over your young reader’s head. A writer can help the young reader stretch his boundaries slightly – perhaps by using animals instead of people as protagonists – but not too much since we’re still dealing with baby-friendly ideas like cuddling mum, my own bed is for sleeping or night-time is dark.
Rhyme, rhythm and repetition are important to very young children. Poetry for this group usually has simple meter (and may mimic nursery rhyme metres) and exact rhymes. Short sentences and simple sentence constructions are also imperative. A story about friends at a park should, for example, use simple action verbs on each page to show common park fun: they swing…they climb…they ride. A variant might come at the end when the story sums up all that togetherness by announcing that friends are good.
It is acceptable to show in a poem or story that one thing is like another, but again simplicity is the key. The moon, for example, might be compared to a white button in the sky, or the sun to an egg yolk, a playful cat to a lion. Stories and poems can also be active and challenge a small child to imagine something out of the ordinary. Grandma being a clown in a circus, Mum bringing home a pet kangaroo or a friend who wears a silly hat can be topics are within their level of understand and help to create a sense of fun for the young reader. Stories and poems can also challenge a child to do something, such as climb to the top of a slippery dip, pat a new, friendly dog or go for a dip in the beach for the first time. There can be funny stories or poems about manners or comparing being bundled up in winter clothes to being a chubby polar bear or playing in the bath to being pirates at sea.
Summing up, it is important if you want to get stories or poems for the very young published, you need to remember that your work must have connection to common experience and learning, repetition, humour, action, and – in poetry – exact rhymes and simple metres. Most importantly, remember to keep your story-line and your language simple!by Dianne Bates
Dianne (Di) Bates has published over 130 books for young people and has also worked on the editorial team of three national children’s magazines. Her website is http://www.enterprisingwords.com.au
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