• Age: 15
• Grade: 10

Whether picture book or novel, fiction or nonfiction, writing for a young audience is about establishing a connection with the young people who read your work. To create that connection with your young readers, you need an understanding of the fundamental elements of a children's story and the craft of writing.

This book will show you how to create stories that will inspire and educate young readers, and meet the needs of your publishers. From learning to find their own voice to finding markets within the many genres of youth writing, this book is invaluable.

Loaded with illustrative samples and helpful worksheets, this book will show you how to transform ideas into stories that will delight, intrigue, and satisfy readers - and ultimately result in a manuscript that sells.

Marion Crook has written many books for young adult and middle readers. Here, she offers advice on writing, publishing and marketing. Crook’s background in child development education as a nurse and her PhD in education giver her solid knowledge, but she maintains that a keen observation of people, places and events can be the author’s most useful tool. An experienced teacher and writer, she gives her readers clear and practical tips, with humor and understanding of what it’s like to write and publish.

Marion Crook's profile page

Writing for Children and Young Adults

Writing for Children and Young Adults is one in a series of how-to-write-in-a-genre books. It coaches the reader on everything from the ingredients of a story to promoting the book. Many of the tips and techniques presented will carry over to other styles of fiction writing. Packed with descriptive examples, Writing for Children shows how to select the age group to write for, build and motivate convincing characters, research settings, manage plots, submit manuscripts to publishers, deal with criticism and promote the published book. Ideas are organized in a coherent manner that is easy to read and understand. For the beginner fiction writer, Writing for Children and Young Adults offers valuable and helpful content.

A companion CD-ROM is included which contains several examples, ten worksheets, and a recommended Reading List.