People often assume that writing and illustrating a children’s book is easy – children don’t understand much anyway, so one can get away with minimal effort, right? Wrong! Writing and illustrating a children’s book that actually resonates with our tiny audience is a different ballpark altogether.
The problem is this: as adults, we tend to think like adults. It is actually really hard to put ourselves in the shoes of a four-year-old and understand what they would like to read. So, if you want to make it big in the children’s book industry, here is our advice.
Tiny Audience is Still Audience
The first step to writing an inspiring children’s book is to understand your audience. You can look at it using these age groups:
- Picture Books (Ages 0-5): Simple stories with many illustrations.
- Early Readers (Ages 5-7): Short, simple stories with some illustrations.
- Chapter Books (Ages 7-9): Longer stories with fewer illustrations.
- Middle Grade (Ages 9-12): Minimal illustrations and stories with deeper themes.
If you know which age bracket you are writing for, you can tailor your writing style and illustrations accordingly.
Children Are Easily Bored
This is why an inspiring children’s book needs to have an eye-catching storyline. Here are some tips that can help you work on that.
- Identify a Central Theme: Choose a theme that children would love and use it to offer a moral or lesson. Common themes include kindness, bravery, friendship, and self-discovery.
- Create Relatable Characters: Develop characters children can identify with or look up to. This is similar to adult novels as well. Your protagonist needs to be someone who has seen growth.
- Build a Simple but Engaging Plot: Keep the story clear and straightforward. There is no need to add complex tangents and storylines. Children tend to love a singular theme and characters working towards that theme from beginning to end.
- Incorporate a Positive Message: Remember, you’re selling books for children but their parents are the ones who actually buy them. The book needs to have a positive message that kids can look up to later on.
Illustrations that Stay
Illustrations are not just illustrations but things that can turn into core memories for children. Here are some tips to create memorable illustrations:
- Have a Unique Style: Choose a style and stick with that style so that kids can uniquely identify your work and your characters.
- Colors Make it Work: Bright and engaging colors work best to capture kids’ attention. Colors are directly related to emotions, too.
- Focus on Expression and Detail: Make sure your characters’ expressions and body language convey the emotion you want to emphasize.
- Text and Illustrations Go Hand in Hand: Your illustrations and the actual story need to complement each other rather than overshadow one another.
Text Should Also Be Catchy
The text should be easy to understand and enjoyable to read aloud. Here are some tips:
- Use Simple Language: Keep sentences short and vocabulary age-appropriate. You’re not writing an academic essay.
- Use Rhythm and Rhyme: For younger readers, rhythmic and rhyming text can make the story more enjoyable and memorable.
- Show, Don’t Tell: Classic advice for all books. Don’t tell kids what is happening; make them use their imagination.
- Include Repetition: Kids actually love repetitive lines in stories. It makes the story sound more like a song.
Test Your Book with Children
It does not matter if your audience has tiny hands and legs and developing brains. It is still an audience. So, before finalizing your book, test it with children in your target age group. Observe their reactions and gather feedback, even if it is silly (especially when it is silly).
Edit and Revise
Any critique you get, it is important to work through it in the editing stage. Here are some tips:
- Work on the storyline.
- Make sure it is clear and easy to understand.
- Work on adding the final touches to the illustrations and improving their quality.
Our Recommendation
If you are still confused and want to look at a practical example of how to do it right, then we highly recommend you purchase April Pierre’s Mama n’ Me. It is a beautifully illustrated children’s book about how parents can help children discover their unique place in this world. It enforces the message that everyone possesses unique values, and we shouldn’t try to conform to societal standards to please others. The book also contains eye-catching illustrations created by Vajihe Golmazari that keep children engaged and increase their attention span so they can easily grasp the book’s concept.
Conclusion
Writing a children’s book is no easy task by any means, but by going through the right tools and resources, you can surely turn into a celebrated children’s book author, much like April Pierre!
