How to evoke interest in children for reading and be age specific: Blogchatter WritFest

I am always interested in reading Children’s books and it provides me with so much joy, contentment, curiosity, and comfort that I keep revisiting them. One of my current reads, “Nina Soni, Perfect Hostess” by Kashmira Sheth is also a children’s book. And while reading them and letting my imagination flow into the beautiful illustrations there, I sometimes feel what the authors go through while writing them and how they can arouse the curiosity in the readers.

And so when the Blogchatter came up with the panel discussion on “Why should everyone read children’s books” with Sonia Mehta and Sohini Mitra, moderated by Shalini R. on 26th May 2023, I joined it and thoroughly enjoyed it. They talked in detail about “Writing books that evoke adventure in children and making sure they cater to a specific age group is a special talent.”

Here are some Key Takeaways from the session:

• In general, children are curious as a species, so anything they perceive will get their attention, as long as it is not repeated.

• Children’s fiction sells more but non-fiction with activity, learning, or preschool content equally has a market in India. And as parents are buyers here, so they go for books having some learning content and in fiction, they generally go with already popular titles. So it’s a tricky but challenging market.

• The research for children’s books would be as intense as any other genre because you cannot make factual errors in books, especially not in children’s books where the child’s basic knowledge is developed. There can be a team to help with fact check and rectify very minute information and details that you are looking for, and to get the nuances right. You can use some highly reliable and credible sites for it as well.

• In fiction, there is no didactic element. There is no learning in the face but it is through the framework of the story, where the children take away the details. It’s “Learning By Stealth” when they learn without knowing they are learning, and it is what stays with them because they are engaged and interested in it.

• Design and art are two equally critical, important, and challenging elements to make children’s books more visually appealing. Visual depiction is very important because it is what is going to stay with the reader, and it should be age appropriate. Being very tight with your target group is very important because for example there is a lot of change in the perception of a child of two years and of four years, and so it should be kept in mind and like for very young readers, fonts should be large and there are more artworks and designs.

• Toys, games, learning tools, and others can supplement the reading experience but cannot replace it, and nor should they. They all are useful when there is a learning outcome that you’re trying to achieve, but if it’s pure fiction, then there’s nothing that can beat children’s imagination. Don’t limit their imagination by giving physical manifestation.

• Parents are the decision-makers. So to make children able to drive the book buying decision, it is important to adopt the culture of “book browsing” which is restricting because of online shopping. It can only happen when parents make conscious decisions like visiting bookstores and creating a reading environment in a family. Other factors that can help it with the help of society are working with schools to change the landscape there and making focus groups, as schools play a very important role. Some schools make children take one book per week and return it the next week and take another one, and it is a very appreciative act. Other factors are like working with book clubs and reading clubs and promoting library culture. We need to give children the freedom to browse the books and select what they want.

• The language and word count in the children’s book is as per the target age group. So one has to write by keeping in mind the word count because, without that, you won’t be able to get the right amount of engagement in the book for the age group you are talking to. So it’s written in a particular language and you have to be aware of the ability of their understanding. You cannot use very big words but at the same time, you introduce a few words that they never encountered before for their learning and vocabulary. So it’s a balancing act.

About The Panelists:

Sonia Mehta is a children’s author whose body of work ranges from creating one of India’s first dedicated children’s newspaper sections; to conceptualising the Bournvita Quiz Contest for television; to writing books, songs, poems and stories for publishers in India, Africa, USA and UK. She has also co-founded Podsquad, a company that creates learning tools for children.

Sohini Mitra is a publisher with over 14 years of experience. She’s passionate about children’s books and has collaborated with literary giants for content. She heads the Children’s and YA list at Penguin Random House India. 

You can watch the full session here: Why should everyone read children’s books

This post is a part of “BlogchatterWritFest

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