What parents do NOT want to see in books for children

On a social media site, someone asked what parents had tired of seeing in children’s books, and the response was overwhelming! Since parents are the primary book-buyers and readers of books for kids, their voices need to be heard and heeded by those of us who write for young readers.

Here’s what parents consistently dislike:

Rhyming books with no sense of rhythm or musicality

Text and illustrations created by AI

Dark pictures and dark-on-dark text

Books about eliminating body wastes

Text scattered around the page instead of moving left to right

Glittery books without interesting content

Fantasy stories with no depth of characters 

Didactic stories that lecture

Books that are hard to read aloud

Dialogue that identifies speakers at the end, instead of up front

Formulaic books that follow the same story patterns

Stereotypes i.e., boys hating school, girls loving it

Stories that bad-mouth parents, teachers, or anyone!

Books that condescend

Books with incorrect information

Books intending to be playful but only confuse a child

Stories spreading fear of wildlife or...

Stories showing wild animals as cuddly friends

Characters with disabilities who have magic powers to compensate

Stories that are boring, sarcastic, unrealistic, or weird

Stories that put-down anything from veggies to ethnic groups

Books written by celebrities who don’t really know kids

Children’s classics retold with changes in the story or characters

 

Did this list include your pet peeves? If not, feel free to add what you don't like to see in books for children in the Comments Section below this post. Thanks.

Mary Harwell Sayler, lover of kids and books for children 

 

 

 

 

Writing children’s picture books

Picture books may seem easy to write, but writing them for actual kids to read and enjoy requires work. Why? There's a lot of competition in this genre, so you not only have to come up with a fresh idea, you have to write about it in the simplest terms, yet keep it lively! To give your manuscript an edge, try these tips:

Study the genre. 

Talk to children in the age group that best suits your ideas.

Read stacks of children’s picture books and note your preferences.  

Ask the librarian in the children’s section of your public library which books parents and teachers like and, more importantly, which ones kids return to again and again.

Make a list of interesting, kid-appropriate topics that might need to be covered.

Keep an idea file.

Read your manuscript to children in your chosen age group.

Study catalogs and guidelines of publishers whose picture books you like.

Notice how a successful picture book has simple sentences, kid-friendly vocabulary, and only a few words on each page.

Each page needs to be visually-oriented to lend itself to illustration.

The total page length – including front and back matter (title page, copyright page, dedication, bibliography, notes to parents or teachers, etc.) – should be divisible by four since a sheet of paper, folded in half, adds four pages.


For more ideas and information, see these related articles:

Keeping Your #KidLit User-Friendly

Writing Winner Nonfiction for Kids

Writing Children’s Stories With No Pink Fairies Or Old Fads



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler