Books have an influential impact on how a child understands the world and their development. Perhaps your earliest memory is a bedtime story book or a children’s book from your elementary school. It might certainly have built some creative process and a few cognitive skills to process your ideas and emotions.

Depending on the reader’s age, the children’s book can open up to a small story or fully pictured pages to make a reader grasp the idea. Writing a book with few words may seem like an easy task but finishing an unforgettable book makes someone’s childhood another story.

Features of a good children’s book

If you’re fond of some books during your childhood, then you can think back on them. Meanwhile, compare those books and you might catch some common aspects.

Reader’s age

In short, the stories or lessons are mostly age-appropriate when you read them. 

Take a picture book, for example, that is intended for ages below 3 years. It mostly contains ideas like shapes, numbers, colors, or textures. Other books with a simple story, having a lead character or a lesson are hard for the same age group to understand.

Of course the vice versa is also true. If the lesson or story is too simple for the addressing age group, it can make the child lose interest to read it.

Highlighted Details

The highlighted feature of the children’s book is to feature an element. If the children’s book is for kids it implies the book should be a pop-up book that has high-quality illustrations and attractive colors.

Some details can be added like alliteration or rhyming in the phrases used in the book.

For kids, a standout feature can be an exciting story, a humorous dialogue, or a dynamic character.

Relatability

To design a children’s book for a timeless reading, you need to understand if the elements of the book are relatable for its target age group or not. For example, for school-aged readers, stories with themes of friendship and special social dilemmas can talk to this aged readers.

Amuses adults

Even though a good children’s book draws the attention of young readers, if it entertains the adults it will be an added perk. This ensures that the book will be read often instead of lying beneath the book stack. The news of children’s books that are enjoyable travels very quickly among educators and parents alike.

The audience of your Children’s book

If you want to start a children’s book then the first step is to decide the age group you’re planning to reach. It will determine how you need to approach terms of content, style, and format of the book.

If the age group is finalized, then research for that demographic. It will help in understanding what they might need. Children of age six to ten, who have just started to read on their own, can be interested in adventure stories.

If you have a story in mind and its complexity can guide you towards an age group. A simple story with pictures can be more appealing for toddlers.

In the process of understanding your target age group, decide if you are planning to reach a broad audience or only a segment of that entire group. Books featuring multigenerational and multiracial families lack in the children’s book market for early-readers. Focusing on these segments is a way that other writers haven’t yet tried.

Themes and aim of the children’s book

Although fun and a creative plot are essential for children’s books, be clear about the message or lesson you want your readers to take away from your book.

Is the message that all living things need to respect and care? Do you want to teach someone about boundaries? Perhaps your message is that people can discover joy in unexpected places and ways.

Whatever theme or aim you select for your book, it should be something you’ve researched and understand the challenges your readership experiences.

Story of a book

You’re ready to build your story arc once you’ve determined your target audience and topic. Narrative writing includes determining your writing style, setting, and character development, all of which lead to your narrative aim.

A simple story arc has three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Within that arc, you’ll discover:

• Set-up: Begin the book by establishing the setting, character introductions, and tone of your novel.
• The triggering occurrence is anything that occurs to the protagonist or their life as they know it.
• Increasing action: Your protagonist does this in reaction to the occurrence. This event sets the tone for the rest of your narrative and provides an opportunity to flesh out your characters.
• Climax: This is the time in your story that your protagonist is confronted with the difficulty that has been building up.
• Subsiding action: Lead young readers to the final closure of your story by resolving subplots and unsolved issues.
• Finally, close the tale by demonstrating how the protagonist or their world has altered since the climax. Has the protagonist’s point of view shifted? How? What happens next for them?

The writing style you utilize to portray your narrative arc may differ depending on the reader age group you’re aiming for. For example, you may write in the third person or explain your narrative through dialogue between characters.

Given these points, there is no correct or incorrect method to write a children’s book story. The story arc example above is a typical strategy for creating a children’s book, but it is far from the only one.

For beginners, here are some writing tips for help. Read them to start with.

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