Peter Economy - Writing Children's Books For Dummies

Some standouts in the picture book category include Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero, by Ellie Royce, illustrated by Hannah Chambers (POW Kids); and the hilariously titled The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, by Lil Miss Hot Mess, illustrated by Olga de Dios (Running Press), which takes as its inspiration the song “The Wheels on the Bus.”

Middle-grade entries include The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, by Ashley Herring Blake (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), about a 12-year-old who thinks her perfect new best friend might be someone she wants to kiss; and The Witch Boy, by Molly Ostertag (Graphix), about rigid gender roles with subtle trans overtones.

In YA, tons of titles exist to fuel imaginations, satisfy curiosity, and reflect a sense of identity. Figure 3-8 shows a book about two girls who must negotiate their feelings toward each other while existing in a backward-thinking town. In your research, consider titles like The Gravity of Us, by Phil Stamper (Bloomsbury YA); Music from Another World, by Robin Talley (Inkyard Press); and We Are Totally Normal, by Rahul Kanakia (HarperTeen).

From One True Way by Shannon Hitchcock. Copyright © 2018 by Shannon Hitchcock. Reprinted by permission of Scholastic Inc.

FIGURE 3-8: One True Way, from the LGBTQIA genre .

Gender-oriented series books are designed to appeal specifically to either boys or girls, but not both. From board books to picture books, licensed titles to novelty books, publishers develop these series to cater to gender-specific themes or characters. And although you can find many books in this genre up to and through middle-grade series — such as Mean Ghouls: A Rotten Apple Book, by Stacia Deutsch (Scholastic), shown in Figure 3-9 — when we approach the YA audience, gender specificity tends to fall away.

Reprinted courtesy of Stacia Deutsch. © 2012 Stacia Deutsch.

FIGURE 3-9: Mean Ghouls: A Rotten Apple Book, a example gender-oriented title .

Some of the most well-known girl-oriented titles include The Baby-Sitters Club series, by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic), which later morphed into a graphic novel series; the Nancy Drew series, by Carolyn Keene (Grosset & Dunlap), which spun off into the Nancy Drew Diaries series; and The Little House on the Prairie books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperCollins). Dozens and dozens of other series have sprouted up since Nancy Drew in the 1930s, focusing on what popular culture still considers traditional girly fare, such as pets, ponies, fairies, and the like, seeking to capture some of the avid book reading (and collecting!) middle-grade audience.

Successful entries that have a lot of girl appeal include these series by Jim Benton: the Dear Dumb Diary series (Scholastic), Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), and It’s Happy Bunny series (Scholastic Paperbacks).

Some stellar offerings in the nonfiction category that specifically and unabashedly target girls include nearly every title produced in the American Girl series (Pleasant Company Publications), which also includes historical fiction series that have multicultural girl protagonists across the ages. A classic to check out for girls is Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (Signet Classics).

Boy-centric series include The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney (Harry N. Abrams), the Big Nate series, by Lincoln Peirce (HarperCollins), and The Zack Files series, by Dan Greenburg and Jack E. Davis (Grosset & Dunlap). (Publishers and authors first aimed these titles at boys, but girls read them like crazy, too.)

Friendship, as a theme, runs through an enormous segment of children’s books, from board books, to picture books, to YA novels. What’s more important to a child than their friends? Children’s books deal with questions like: Are we friends? Can we stay friends? Do they still like me? Is my old friend as good a my new one? What’s it like to have a friend group? Indeed, friendship and family are the most important issues for children. (We explore family in the section “ Family issues,” later in this chapter.)

You need to deal with friendship issues in an age-appropriate way. Board books and picture books often use animals to stand in for people; young children generally love anthropomorphized animals, and tough issues or messages seem to go down easier if animals, rather than humans, convey them (see Figure 3-10).

a) Cover only from Cow Boy Is NOT a Cowboy by Gregory Barrington, Gregory Arthur Barrington Illustrated by Gregory Barrington. Copyright © 2020 by Gregory Barrington. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. b) From Hugsby, published by Penguin Random House. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and © 2020 Dow Phumiruk.

FIGURE 3-10:Friendship titles for young children .

Some standout picture book titles about friendship include the classic by Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Are Friends (HarperCollins); another timeless classic by Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree (Harper & Row); and the bestselling The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister (North-South Books), which also has a board book edition.

In middle-grade fiction, friendship issues get a bit more complicated. These books weave other issues of growing up and negotiating the murky waters of middle school social interaction into the theme of friendship. Some well-done books on middle-school friendship include Amina’s Voice, by Hena Khan (Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), which is a touching story about second thoughts and the sting of changing friendships; and the classic Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh (Yearling), a timeless tale about navigating friendships and social situations.

When it comes to YA books, friendships are often complicated by other issues that the author explores at the same time, such as issues of race, gender, culture, social and political themes, mental illness, abuse, relationships, family, and other burning issues of the day (or days gone by, if it’s a historical novel). For example, Ventura and Zelzah (Santa Monica Press), shown in Figure 3-11, tells the story of teenage friendships set in 1970s suburban Los Angeles.

From Ventura and Zelzah, by J.G. Bryan. Reprinted by permission of Santa Monica Press © 2022.

FIGURE 3-11: Ventura and Zelzah, a YA friendship title .

One YA book about friendship that has become a classic is Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ember), which was made into a movie. (You could also consider this title a crossover back into middle-grade.) Other great YA books that deal with friendship include Not My Problem, by Ciara Smyth (HarperTeen); Early Departures, by Justin A. Reynolds (Katherine Tegen Books); and Darius the Great Is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram (Penguin Books).