For today I’m putting on my editorial hat. No, not that one. I’m not looking for typos, or even grammatical uses of Swifties and their ilk. This hat is the one I wear when I’m reading boy’s adventure books for Raconteur Press. I put it on for most of the last week when I had time and brainpower, to read submissions for the middle-grade manuscripts (still an open call, by the way, if you want to try your hand at it) and then do the worst part of my job, writing rejection notes. I also put it on briefly to answer a question on the book of faces, where an author-in-process asked for recommendations on books on the craft of writing for children. Here’s what I told him, based on my recent experience:

Read a lot of good children’s books.

I suspect that a book on the craft of writing for children isn’t going to help him much, if it’s like the vast majority of ‘how to write’ books out there which purport to assist fiction writers in their toils. It may be more focused on reading levels, which are largely tripe, and it will be from an adult perspective of what a child should read. Which is not at all the same as what a child will read, given access to a library* and the freedom to choose.

In the run-up to becoming a selection editor for RacPress, I went back and started re-reading the children’s books I had known and loved. I threw in a few of the books my own children left in my library when they ventured out into the grandest adventure of all: adulthood. I contemplated the wisdom of C.S. Lewis.

Since it is so likely that [children] will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.

Nor do most of us find that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer.

Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end the book.

C.S. Lewis.

When I start reading the children’s books, I’m looking first for a hook. If the first paragraph, the first chapter, doesn’t grab me and show some action, then it’s hopeless. I’m reading with the mindset of an 8-12 year-old boy, and having mothered one, and observed many, this is not the age of patience and persistence. Yes, they will hyperfocus, depending on the kiddo, but likely not unless their interest is engaged. Do that first. Don’t tell them what you’re going to do, show them. If you start out with action, and then flip back to the quiet description and build up to something you meant to do in the first place, that may work. Perhaps. Kids don’t like saggy middles any more than adults do. And for goodness sakes, give them an uplifting ending. Don’t rush it thinking this is going to be a series. Let the triumph play out, for the reader living vicariously with the main character(s), because that is very important. Even if you want to leave a loose thread to tie on the next book, don’t end on a down note.

Give your hero agency. He and he alone should be the one who takes action to resolve whatever crisis you have engineered for him. Having him assisted by friends, warm-hearted adults, or loving parents isn’t a bad thing at all, but he has to do the thing, rather than passively have it done for him. He should be the hero, flat-footed and perhaps terrified, but there should be courage to stand and face down the critical moment. If he got himself into this fine mess, have him redeem himself and get out of it on his own (and yes, calling for help is a good thing to learn, as well, so long as he doesn’t over-rely on there being help because there isn’t always help at hand). Develop your young character. Don’t be afraid to allow the shadows into your story, either. The darkness makes the light that much brighter and sweeter, as in Lewis’s quote above, there can be battles, violence, and villains killed without any harm to your young reader. No need to go over the top on description, but even if a mother objects to it’s presence, a wise father will nod knowingly at his son’s reading preferences.

For reading, I will of course recommend classics, but don’t forget the new books as well, like Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon! I have a whole big list of books for boys which were recommended by a crowd-source project years ago: Classic Books for Boys. Or for younger readers, the Step-Up list.

*For libraries, the first and always best is your home library. Begin developing it before the first child even arrives, and don’t neglect reading aloud to them before they are born, not stopping until they leave home on the Grand Adventure. The second is the public library, particularly if you have a good one with safe access. Third and poorest of them all is the school library, which may not be relied on for much reading material at all these days.