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.
I can already picture the AI-generated Sora clip of the babysitter reaching out to her necklace with a stick as phonk music plays in the background with a robot voice narrating the whole thing
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.
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.
Have you ever read any of the William stories by Richmal Crompton? No distant planets or anything like that, but the moral stance is pretty much the same as in your story. Mischief is good, adults basically suck, their values are at best irrelevant, at worst inimical to the good life, William is constantly doing things analogous to the glue/necklace trick… the stories even occasionally feature actual children’s book writers who write “improving” books about angelic children, but only to absolutely rip it out of them, their works, and their odious little goody-goody children. (My kids love them, and seem perfectly happy to puzzle out the language, which is that of an erudite 1920s English classicist who refuses to talk down to her audience… oh, and apparently John Lennon was a big fan!)
Man, this takes me way back. When I was a kid, my nanny at my grandparents' place would tell me stories to get me to eat lunch. There was this one character that stuck called "Jakkambatti Raakachi." Raakachi means ghoul/poltergeist. JR was a mischievous, rule-breaking, inconsistent character who was stealing eggs from nests in one scene and saving a bunch of hens from getting run over in the next one, making hell for police officers and then saving a kid from a kidnapper in the next, and so on. He was the only character I wanted to hear stories about. I can't think of many "classic" children's books like this, but there were comic book characters and cartoon characters with anti-heroes like this – in Tinkle comics, Tom and Jerry, Codename Kids Next Door, etc.
I was so into this type of harebrained story with lawless characters. Reading this post made me wonder, "Huh, when did I stop seeking such stories?"
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.
I thought of Jon Klassen too. My daughter (5) and I read The Skull often. We both enjoy it. It's a dark tale and the moral, if there is one, is quite ambiguous. Which is why I enjoy it! Probably no coincidence that it's a retelling of a Tyrolean folktale. European folktales don't bother with saccharine morality.
This is super interesting! You specified it already, but just to be absolutely sure: The penultimate paragraph is literally how the story it's told?
That's the most interesting part to me, because it seems like a summary or pitch. They raced against the clock? That just seems so abstract!
Do you have any idea why this plays better than having a more fleshed out trip to the glue planet, some words about how exactly racing against the clock plays out, etc?
In my experience, with this type of story, children like to fill in those details themselves. I’d be interested to know if Naomi’s ever interject to do this…
Yep! Sometimes she interrupts, rambles at length about this kind of stuff, and then I try to continue the story and she’s like “no, you say it!” I have to actually repeat everything she just told me :)
this thing about the kid wanting us to repeat back their story is why I have to tell a story every night about a character named tree-monster-with-horns-mountain. it's a mouthful, and he scolds me if I say it wrong.
Instant flashback to the "stories about Annie" I made my dad tell me when I was a preschooler. No space travel or anything, but three sibling groups and the girls were always in implausibly elaborate prank wars with the boys.
Tbh children really don't notice quality, do they. When I was six I was equally happy to devour Anne of Green Gables as those supermarket juvenile fantasy stories churned out at preposterous speeds (obligatory pink cover with glitter and a girl riding a unicorn). I did not really see a difference except in that my mother would grumble about the latter having no value.
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 is perfect. This could be a picture book.
Stego and Hot Dog, lol. I am cackling.
The 3 year old named them!
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)
I can already picture the AI-generated Sora clip of the babysitter reaching out to her necklace with a stick as phonk music plays in the background with a robot voice narrating the whole thing
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.
important question: are the cats and the mice friends
This question has been insufficiently explored. I will ask.
Isn’t this basically Brer Rabbit? A tale Í insisted on over and over when I was 5…kids have no taste
I wonder how contemporary publishers would react to the Brothers Grimm.
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.
Or more non sequiturs — https://axecop.com/comic/episode-0/
— this was my own thesis with Overmorrow, however much I succeeded or failed: ut ex eo sequatur non sequitur.
Have you ever read any of the William stories by Richmal Crompton? No distant planets or anything like that, but the moral stance is pretty much the same as in your story. Mischief is good, adults basically suck, their values are at best irrelevant, at worst inimical to the good life, William is constantly doing things analogous to the glue/necklace trick… the stories even occasionally feature actual children’s book writers who write “improving” books about angelic children, but only to absolutely rip it out of them, their works, and their odious little goody-goody children. (My kids love them, and seem perfectly happy to puzzle out the language, which is that of an erudite 1920s English classicist who refuses to talk down to her audience… oh, and apparently John Lennon was a big fan!)
The gluenies! Finally they're getting their due. They have such a fascinating history.
Man, this takes me way back. When I was a kid, my nanny at my grandparents' place would tell me stories to get me to eat lunch. There was this one character that stuck called "Jakkambatti Raakachi." Raakachi means ghoul/poltergeist. JR was a mischievous, rule-breaking, inconsistent character who was stealing eggs from nests in one scene and saving a bunch of hens from getting run over in the next one, making hell for police officers and then saving a kid from a kidnapper in the next, and so on. He was the only character I wanted to hear stories about. I can't think of many "classic" children's books like this, but there were comic book characters and cartoon characters with anti-heroes like this – in Tinkle comics, Tom and Jerry, Codename Kids Next Door, etc.
I was so into this type of harebrained story with lawless characters. Reading this post made me wonder, "Huh, when did I stop seeking such stories?"
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.
You can tell this is whole anecdote is fiction because there's no poop in it.
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 thought of Jon Klassen too. My daughter (5) and I read The Skull often. We both enjoy it. It's a dark tale and the moral, if there is one, is quite ambiguous. Which is why I enjoy it! Probably no coincidence that it's a retelling of a Tyrolean folktale. European folktales don't bother with saccharine morality.
This is super interesting! You specified it already, but just to be absolutely sure: The penultimate paragraph is literally how the story it's told?
That's the most interesting part to me, because it seems like a summary or pitch. They raced against the clock? That just seems so abstract!
Do you have any idea why this plays better than having a more fleshed out trip to the glue planet, some words about how exactly racing against the clock plays out, etc?
In my experience, with this type of story, children like to fill in those details themselves. I’d be interested to know if Naomi’s ever interject to do this…
Yep! Sometimes she interrupts, rambles at length about this kind of stuff, and then I try to continue the story and she’s like “no, you say it!” I have to actually repeat everything she just told me :)
this thing about the kid wanting us to repeat back their story is why I have to tell a story every night about a character named tree-monster-with-horns-mountain. it's a mouthful, and he scolds me if I say it wrong.
Instant flashback to the "stories about Annie" I made my dad tell me when I was a preschooler. No space travel or anything, but three sibling groups and the girls were always in implausibly elaborate prank wars with the boys.
Tbh children really don't notice quality, do they. When I was six I was equally happy to devour Anne of Green Gables as those supermarket juvenile fantasy stories churned out at preposterous speeds (obligatory pink cover with glitter and a girl riding a unicorn). I did not really see a difference except in that my mother would grumble about the latter having no value.