On October 2, HWG hosted a workshop by Brian Henry about writing for children and young adults. As well as giving us some instruction regarding the many different types of books there are, he also did a critique of samples we brought from home. I was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to stand up in front of the entire class to read mine aloud. It made my day when one of the other students announced, "I want to hear more" and Brian echoed her sentiments.
There are several formats for books that we discussed.
Board books - for babies, published on cloth, plastic, or paperboard
Picture books - 1,000 - 1,500 words,meant to be read to children.
Easy Readers - Pre-school to Grade 2, Usually 32 pages divided into chapters
Chapter books - Grades 2 - 4, About 4,000 to 20,000 words, divided into chapters
Juvenile novels - Grades 4 - 7, 100-150 pages or 25,000-50,000 words.
Middle-Grade non-fiction - about 40-100 pages or 10,000-25,000 words
Young Adult - grades 7 and up, about 175- 200 pages, 40,000-50,000+ words
"High-Low" books - high interest, low vocabulary for students with reading or language difficulties or new English readers.
We talked about how the writer of a children's book usually is not the illustrator - even if they are a professional artist. Most publishers keep a list of illustrators and use them to create the artwork for manuscripts.
Brian also gave us information about children's book publishers, a few books about writing for children, and some examples of query/cover letters to submit once your book is complete.
Several of the group that day were interested in Picture books. Personally, during our writing time, I started a Chapter book which may turn into a Juvenile Novel for my sons.
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