Deciding on a Target Audience

When I first started to seriously consider writing children’s stories, I was so caught up in characters, themes, images, and rhymes that I had neglected to consider more practical steps such as deciding on a target age group.  I am coming to realize just how much hinges on this point, from the word count and number of pages to the  agent and publisher.

Under the broad category of “Picture Books,” which encompasses books for children ages 0-7 or 8, depending on the publisher, there are apparently several sub-classifications, including baby books (0-3), toddler books (1-3), and early readers (4-7).  ”Picture Books” are meant to be read to children as opposed to “Beginning Reader” books, which are geared towards children ages 5-8 who are learning to read on their own.  ”Picture Books” can range from 12 to 32 pages and may be up to 1500 words, depending on which end of the age range the book is intended to target.

I initially envisioned the central character in the story Tillman and I are currently working on to be 3 or 4 years old, which would place our story on the cusp of two “Picture Book” groupings, ages 1-3 and ages 4-7. Clearly, a decision has to be made so that the story is clearly geared toward the appropriate audience and marketable to an agent and publisher.  Our story is about a young (and yet unnamed) boy who gets a puppy. The puppy escapes during the night from his pen in the kitchen, leading the boy to name the pup Frog because he assumes the pup jumped high and frog-like to freedom.  The story explores the relationship between the boy and his dog and, accordingly, the wildly imaginative ways that the boy conflates species, dogs, frogs, and even humans.  The story ends with the boy finding and making a pet of a frog that he, of course, names Dog. Hmmm…decisions decisions.

There’s something ever so slightly odd about the boy riding the puppy-frog; I think it lies in the colors. Maybe it’s just me. This is my first attempt at such an illustration. I could see myself getting better at this. Comments are welcome.

-Tillman

In elementary school I never really owned many children’s books, although I do remember having a copy of Mrs Katz and Tush, written by Patricia Polacco in 1994. It was about a Caucasian woman, her numerous cats and an African American boy whom she lived next to.  I haven’t the slightest remembrance of the story, for I was more absorbed in the book’s lifelike illustrations. 

Though I was oblivious to it at a younger age, I now think highly of Roald Dahl, who authored children’s novels like Matilda and James and the Giant Peach; both do I remember reading. His characters are very extraordinary, his plotlines bizarre and I think this oddness worked in his favor; magnificent storyteller. 

A myriad of children’s books about The Three Little Pigs have, and still are, written, but the one I had was a pop-up book (not sure if writers make those anymore), which reminds me: I also owned The Very Hungry Caterpillar  which has been made into a pop-up book this year. The original had very colorful, crude illustrations that really didn’t strike my fancy, but I liked how the story progressed; as the caterpillar ate more leaves, it grew larger towards the story’s end. 

Without having read them, I am sure we are all familiar with classic children’s literature such as Dr. Seus’s The Cat in The Hat, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll or say, fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood. Had I read more children’s books, richer children’s books at that, I would more easily recall them, but my memory is vague. I suppose there’s precisely something missing from those stories that become drifted away and washed out against the tides of time. I’m not sure… what qualities make a story durable, unforgettable, timeless?

Celebrity Children’s Book Authors

I am always intrigued when celebrities, from actors to comedians, decide to make a foray into children’s literature.  Jamie Lee Curtis, Jeff Foxworthy, Madonna, Julianne Moore, and Brooke Shields were a few that came to mind when I began writing this post.  A quick search on amazon, however, revealed a much loooooonger list, which includes high profile names, such as Tiki Barber, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Caroline Kennedy, John Lithgow, Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Bernadette Peters, Rhea Perlman, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Desmond Tutu.  I’m undecided about my feelings on the subject of celebrity children’s book authors: does the endeavor represent  a wholesome creative impulse or is it an overindulgent profit-driven one? is the idea their own or someone else’s brainchild to which they’ve simply attached their big-draw name?

According to Brooke Shields, writing her first children’s book, Welcome to your World, Baby, which was published in spring 2008, was a difficult venture, more difficult, so she claimed, than documenting her battle with postpartum depression.  She followed this 145-word book with a second one published in early 2009, entitled It’s the Best Day Ever Dad! This one I actually purchased (not even realizing it was written by Shields!) as a Father’s Day gift for my daughter to give her dad because one of the little girls in the story shares her name.  Sadly, the book contains nothing clever or particularly memorable.  I decided to give a book by a Hollywood author another try just this past month after discovering that one of my favorite actresses, Julianne Moore, had a new kids’ book out, Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully.  Rather than buy this, her second book, I went with her first, Freckleface Strawberry (2007), and I found myself fairly endeared to the title character and her struggle with physical differences, namely red hair and freckles.  Moore clearly chose a topic that she knows personally and has written about it frankly and humorously; the illustrations by LeUyen Pham infuse the story with a charming retro vibe.

How do you feel? Does a celebrity author’s name on a book cover lure you or deter you from making a purchase?