At a certain age market, they'll let you have amoral protagonists like the Diary of A Wimpy Kid books, from what I understand. But the Calvin and Hobbes joke about nuking his elementary school from an F-15 is definitely out these days.
I was forced to tell the same story for 3 months straight about a baby stegosaurus named Stego and his sidekick triceratops buddy, Hot Dog. The plot was that they took a walk in the forest and got scared, and then they remembered they were dinosaurs and roared and everything was fine. The end. FOR THREE MONTHS.
This was fun. It's amazing how much kids shape our stories. I didn't think I'd spend a whole year telling my son hyper-violent stories about hamsters making their way through dangerous, booby-trapped mazes in order to slaughter and gorge themselves on rats, but that's what ended up happening.
While I was reading it I was thinking "this has a Roald Dahl flavor". I don't know enough about children's lit now to know if Roald Dahl could get published still, even if he took out the racism and words like "fat".
I accept your point about what kids want to read. But I also have to say that it's funny that you chose Narnia as your example because I was CRAZY about Narnia and it's the reason I put down the Dick & Jane books and started reading on my own, for fun. My mom was reading it to me, a chapter a night, and I got impatient. And that is how I became a 6 year old with glasses.
So if you write a Narnia book ...I don't know if children will read it, but I will.
I think the MO of kids is anarchic play and unlimited imagination. It's also mine which is why I write anarchically for kids and people that used to be kids. If you're in the power over position, avoid unaccompanied children and glue.
I think your story could perhaps fit in the Dory Fantasmagory mold -- which is the first set of books that my now 9-year-old toted around on her own, read and reread, and really, deeply related to.
This actually seems a bit like the kind of stories a six year old will naturally navigate to if you give him a phone open to YouTube.
(Just told with Minecraft characters)
important question: are the cats and the mice friends
This question has been insufficiently explored. I will ask.
Or more non sequiturs — https://axecop.com/comic/episode-0/
At a certain age market, they'll let you have amoral protagonists like the Diary of A Wimpy Kid books, from what I understand. But the Calvin and Hobbes joke about nuking his elementary school from an F-15 is definitely out these days.
I was forced to tell the same story for 3 months straight about a baby stegosaurus named Stego and his sidekick triceratops buddy, Hot Dog. The plot was that they took a walk in the forest and got scared, and then they remembered they were dinosaurs and roared and everything was fine. The end. FOR THREE MONTHS.
This was fun. It's amazing how much kids shape our stories. I didn't think I'd spend a whole year telling my son hyper-violent stories about hamsters making their way through dangerous, booby-trapped mazes in order to slaughter and gorge themselves on rats, but that's what ended up happening.
While I was reading it I was thinking "this has a Roald Dahl flavor". I don't know enough about children's lit now to know if Roald Dahl could get published still, even if he took out the racism and words like "fat".
I accept your point about what kids want to read. But I also have to say that it's funny that you chose Narnia as your example because I was CRAZY about Narnia and it's the reason I put down the Dick & Jane books and started reading on my own, for fun. My mom was reading it to me, a chapter a night, and I got impatient. And that is how I became a 6 year old with glasses.
So if you write a Narnia book ...I don't know if children will read it, but I will.
I think the MO of kids is anarchic play and unlimited imagination. It's also mine which is why I write anarchically for kids and people that used to be kids. If you're in the power over position, avoid unaccompanied children and glue.
You can tell this is whole anecdote is fiction because there's no poop in it.
Hee hee. Thanks for sharing!
Good luck on the multi-zillionaire thing... 💸 💸
I think your story could perhaps fit in the Dory Fantasmagory mold -- which is the first set of books that my now 9-year-old toted around on her own, read and reread, and really, deeply related to.
I’ll read this to my kid and report back.
For what it’s worth there is a small market for this kind of stuff. Jon Klassens books sell. But that may be the exception that proves the rule.
I fully agree on Narnia though. It’s fine. Mostly just kept alive because evangelicals love it.
I really loved this post!!! And now I am going to tell this story to my six year old hahaha