Writing for Children & Teenagers

by Lee Wyndham

Writing for children & teenagers

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Jane Andrews Lee Hyndman (December 16, 1912-March 18, 1978) was born in Russia and came to the United States in 1923 where she became a U.S. Citizen. She was the daughter of Andrew and Alexandra Levchenko. In 1933 she married Robert Hyndman (pseudonym Robert Wyndham) and they had two children. Lee Hyndman was educated in both the United States and in Turkey where she studied singing and painting. She was a member of the Author’s Guild of the Author’s League of America and Women’s National Book Association (New York).

During her career Hyndman worked as a children’s book editor for the Morristown Daily Record in Morristown, New Jersey from 1949-1958 and at the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1950-1963. Beginning in 1958 Hyndman began lecturing on writing for teens and children at New York University. She also held several other jobs such as author of a syndicated children’s book column in five New Jersey newspapers beginning in 1963, lecturer, book critic, free-lance editor and project consultant. She also conducted several writing seminars and conferences. She was also a professional fashion model in New York.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a handbook on producing commercial fiction. About half of it is standard writing advice: your protagonist must be active, they must have a strong motivation, they must have a serious obstacle to overcome, they must have a goal that is important to the reader, etc. There's a little bit that relates to children's literature, but most of it is sound, general fiction writing advice. If you need that sort of advice, this isn't a bad place to get it. Although I've read several books of writing advice, every one seems to have a tip or two I hadn't run into before, and Ms. Wyndham's is no exception. Ms. Wyndham writes clearly and simply, and isn't coy about laying out for the new writer what they need to do. She describes her method of organizing her novel materials, and her four-step process of revision. Her style is chatty and informal, and she sometimes sounds almost as if she's speaking to one of the child readers of her novels.

There is a chapter on writing non-fiction, and another on scriptwriting. These don't seem terribly useful; both are rather different from prose fiction, and if a writer is interested, they need more than a single chapter to teach them.

The book has two major shortcomings. First, despite its title, it says nothing useful about writing YA fiction of the type being published today, and little about middle grade fiction. All the writing examples given are clearly from books aimed at grade schoolers.

Second, the most recent edition was published in 1988, and although it was updated at that time, it still has a strong flavor of the time of its first printing in 1968. Advice for formatting, filing, and mailing manuscripts is from the age of typewriter and postal mail. At least one piece of advice is seriously wrong: the authors advise against obtaining representation by an agent. This was possible in the 1960s. Isaac Asimov never used an agent, for example. For novelists today, it's not good advice. Some publishers simply won't take unagented manuscripts, and it has been shown that an agent, despite taking their cut, can still get a better deal for the average author than the author can alone.

[Thomas Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was read in conjunction with a writing course called "The Institute of children's Literature" Took the course... Thoroughly enjoyed the effort. I know all about a 'Hook' beginning, conflict & growth middle, and resolution endings... Character development and to write within your own experiences. The course focused on writing many different types of short stories and documentaries, etc. Happy? Yep, It was a good way to get toe wet in the writing game.

[Breana Sprinkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with useful information on plot,characters, some genres, general word count (but not exact), writing for different age groups, fiction, nonfiction, research, and other valid information.
Aside from some of the publishing information being out dated due to the book being older, it is a recommended read if you can still find a copy.
The woman who gave this to me at age seven deserves a huge thanks even now. I'm completely finished reading this and will reread it in the future. Have left tabs in it to take notes later as well.

[Linda Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this quite a few years back, maybe around 2001 when I first started writing novels in the middle grade genre. I remember it as being full of standard writing advice - a good resource for beginning writers. It focuses more on fiction for younger children rather than teenagers.

It was first published in 1972 so is a bit dated at this point. The world of juvenile fiction writing has changed a lot since the 1970's. The competition for publication is so tough, one must read a lot of recent middle grade, tween and YA novels to see the quality expected by publishers these days.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was first written in 1972 but stands the test of time in its advice and know-how. Wyndham is very thorough in her descriptions on how to write, what to write, and who to write to. Even though it is clearly out of date, there are some things that remain the best advice and this book is chock full.

[Sirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this book was written in the 70s. While children have largely remained the same, the publishing industry has not, which makes about 70% of the advice in this book useless. I don’t regret reading it, but i can’t say I recommend it for anyone hoping to learn how to write for children in 2022.

[Cynthia Rimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much of this is outdated in the digital age, esp, when this was written a couple generations ago, but there’s still enough useful information to be worth a read…and worth buying to annotate.
I’m glad I own the copy.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a bit outdated, so not everything in this book was relevant today. There were some gems in there. I enjoyed the bits about writing habits, research, and keeping track of ideas.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is plenty of very useful information in this book but it is also very outdated.

[Ella N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good well done but may be outdated

[ashley elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. I skipped two or three chapters because not all of them were required for the BYU course I got it for, but I would go back and read all of them if I had time. This book really encouraged me to write - so much so that after I read each chapter I wanted to close the book and pick up my novel to apply the stuff I'd learned. (But I couldn't do that because I had to do the course work, lol.)

I'd encourage all writers to read this book! Even if you're not writing for an adolescent audience, the rules that the author talks about applies across the board. Wonderful, wonderful book. 10/10 would read again

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good, although very dated, so the last third of it (focused on how to get published) is too out of date to be useful. The first 18 chapters on the writing process are very information, interesting, and, I expect, useful. Obviously it is intended for writers looking to write for children and youths, but there is great advice for anyone looking for write fiction for any age. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in fiction writing.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid advice, but most of it can be found in books that are more entertaining and less outdated (last updated in 1988, it gave advice on typewriter paper and the politically correct terms "Moslems," "Orientals," and "Amerinds" [=Native Americans]). It also includes more mediocre example passages than excellent ones.

[Olivia Cornwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit dated, but an excellent book on exploring the craft of writing stories for kids and teens. I read it for school, and it's given me a lot of good advice on writing, preparing your manuscript for submission to magazines, and other topics.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great jumping off point for getting a novel organized and started.

[Eric Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorugh and well-done book about writing for children, most of the principles of which apply to more adult writing. Helpful.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read this book for a class, but it was so worth it! Great manual for those wanting to delve into the world of writing for children and teenager's.