3, when we discuss genres.
PICKING THE BRAIN OF A CHILDREN’S BOOK EDITOR
Erin E. Molta is an editor who has worked across a broad spectrum of formats in children’s publishing: from novelty books, to licensed books, to book clubs, to young adult novels — even running her own editorial service. If novelty books are your passion, she has some tips about what she looks for in novelty book submissions:
What formats sell: “It’s not so much the format but the author. Straight board books by Sandra Boynton sell continually, lift-the-flap board books by Karen Katz, as do classic board books reprinted from best-selling picture books, such as Eric Carle’s Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me (Little Simon).”
The best formats for new writers: “Again, the manuscript dictates a format, though we have certain formats that we consistently publish — mostly holiday or seasonal titles, like Sparkle N Twinkle or Sparkle N Shimmer series. They are holiday-based and have glitter and/or sequins on each spread.”
What formats constantly need new ideas: “The buzzwords these days are new and innovative. Everybody wants something different. So it can’t just be a flap book, it must be a flap book with touch-and-feel, or sound, or pop-ups and foil, glitter, acetate — and it has to be able to be produced really inexpensively, too!”
The most common pitfalls for new writers and in what formats: “Everybody thinks they can write for children. It’s easy, right? But most people are writing as an adult to a child rather than for — or with — a child. Kids want the text to be on their level. It doesn’t mean it has to be childish — just child-appealing and childlike.”
What grabs your attention: “New and innovative! The key to a successful format for the youngest reader is how it is integral to the text and art. If you have flaps in a book but there’s no incentive to lift them — and once you do, you don’t care — then that is a bad use of the flap as a technique to further the story and enhance the reading experience. I’m looking for truly interactive books, where a child can spin a wheel to find an answer or press a button, or something pops up to stimulate understanding.“I’m looking for the perfect integration of an interactive element and lively text. Say you have animals and it’s counting — and the animals are night creatures, rather than on the farm (I’m sick of farm animal books). Or you’re doing a book on colors, but it’s in outer space. There are zillions of books about colors, shapes, counting, and opposites, but something out of the ordinary sparks my interest!”
What leads to rejection: “Tell me you read it to your students, grandkids, or even your very own children and they loved it. Of course they did! Would any kid say they didn’t? Poor spelling doesn’t help either, nor do farm animals.”
Developing new formats: “We get ideas for new formats from brainstorming in-house or from packagers. I usually will come up with a format and see if I have a manuscript that fits or I get a manuscript and try and come up with a format that will make it stand out on the bookstore shelves. It’s very much a collaborative process — taking a little bit of what’s been done and tweaking it to make it new and innovative.”
For younger middle-grade readers, Dav Pilkey’s The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby: A Graphic Novel (Super Diaper Baby #1) (Scholastic, Inc.) provides stellar entertainment. For older middle-graders, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (HarperCollins), originally a novella that the publisher made into a graphic novel with art by P. Craig Russell, offers creepy excitement (and was licensed into a movie of the same name). Comic books, anime, manga, graphic novels, and combinations thereof populate many shelves in the young adult section — and we go into the differences between these genres in Chapter 3. (Interestingly, female teen readers were the first, most avid readers in all of these categories.)
Working through Wordy Books
In the following sections, we take a look at books that focus more on telling a story through words than illustrations, though they often also include illustrations. This category includes easy readers, early readers, first chapter books, middle-grade books, and YA books.
Early readers
Writers and publishers develop early readers for children who are just learning their letters or perhaps even sounding out their first words. Experts in reading, teaching, learning, or curricula create particular programs around the theory of reading that the publisher has chosen to embrace, often either a phonics-based (see Figure 2-9) or whole-language-based theory.
The We Read Phonics series, reprinted courtesy of Treasure Bay, Inc. Copyright © 2012.
FIGURE 2-9: We Read Phonics, an early reader series.
When a publishing house develops an early reader program, they create vocabulary lists and decide on parameters for story development and illustration, page counts, and more — all designed to make the child’s first reading experiences satisfying and logically progressive, and to encourage more reading.
Surveying early reader basics and age levels
With anywhere from 10 pages to 64 pages, the amount of information and the word count in early reader books varies greatly, but one thing normally stays the same: the size. Most early reader books come sized at 6 inches x 9 inches. Early reader books (also known as leveled readers) usually work for kids between the ages of 5 and 9, although many series divide them into five levels, depending on the reading level of each child:
Level 1: Just getting started reading; the reader knows the alphabet and is excited about reading their first books. Sometimes labeled for ages 3 to 6.
Level 2: For readers who can recognize and sound out certain words but who may still need help with more complex words. Often labeled for ages 4 to 6.
Level 3: When a reader is ready to tackle easy stories all by themselves. For kindergarten through third grade.
Level 4: Many programs introduce chapter breaks at Level 4 for children who are ready to jump into “bigger kid” books but aren’t yet ready for middle-grade topics or length. For second and third graders.
Level 5: If the program goes this far, these books are actual chapter books that have a few black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout. You can find third and fourth graders still reading these.
Writing early readers
Turning word lists into fascinating stories is no easy task. Indeed, writing truly good early reader
