Writing Children's Books For Dummies. Peter Economy

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target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_a72e205d-2c02-52dc-bc68-4abde2bac5ce">FIGURE 3-8: One True Way, from the LGBTQIA genre.

      Gender-oriented series books

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.

Photo depicts Mean Ghouls: A Rotten Apple Book, a example gender-oriented title.

      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

      

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.)

Photo depicts Friendship titles for young children.

      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.

Photo depicts Ventura and Zelzah, a YA friendship title.

      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).

      School issues

Photo depicts Wishes, Dares, & How to Stand Up to a Bully.

      From Wishes, Dares, & How to Stand Up to a Bully. Text copyright © 2020 Darlene Beck Jacobson. Illustrations copyright © 2020 Simon Stahl. Reprinted by permission.

      FIGURE 3-12: Wishes, Dares, & How to Stand Up to a Bully.

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