Writing a children's book

[BerryCheesecake]

What would like a new book about?

Would you prefer it if it rhymed/ had a moral element etc?

:)

Rhyme and rhythm make them easier to read when you're half asleep yourself or thinking about something else!

Moral or real life elements can be useful to stimulate discussion. What age group do you have in mind?

I am thinking nursery/ Reception age children so probably 3 - 5 years old.

I like to read aloud rhyming books too, but not unless done well (a la Julia Donaldson, for example). At that age, my DD loved stories about cars and there are surprisingly few of these about.

Here are some possible topics/propaganda
New baby / sharing
starting school
making friends
moving house
death of a pet
reading/writing/numbers are great
non-nuclear families
Basically scan through these threads and see what sort of books people are asking for!

We love Shirley Hughes stories for this age group because they are firmly grounded in the minutiae of ordinary toddler life... My 4 year old finds the silly things that Annie Rose the baby says and does to be hilarious. They also have good morals which helps. I might be a touch extreme but I find myself constantly adding "please" and "thank you" into dialogue in stories- please include some!

My kids all like animal books or funny books about children. But it needs to be funny (partly becase they enjoy it, partly because otherwise I won't read it out of pure boredom).

They like books which speak to the reader. DD1 loved There Are No Cats In This Book, book about three cartoon cats trying to get out. They tried to push out, fly out, get a passport out, burrow out, cannon themselves out. Eventually, they wished themselves out. A few pages later (all blank), they returned, saying 'we brought some friends!' and there were other cartoon cats, all saying hello. A French cat said 'Bonjour!' and had a beret and onions, the Swedish cat said 'Hej!' and had a viking helmet on etc; It was all done in an interactive way, with notes, pull-outs, and envelopes in the book. Something funny, interactive, talking to the reader and having a moral message.

• Baby brother/sister. Maybe have the story of a little girl who's mother is having a baby. Along the story, you could have pull outs of the embryo/foetus and baby in the mother, and show the mother holding it and them crowding around, with a pullout from the girl saying 'Happy Birthday!' or something, and stuff.

• Moving house. A story about moving homes. Start with a little child going with their parents to look at houses. Have a slightly sticking up fence, and sticking up people. The 'for sale' sign can be pulled to show a 'sold' sign. Next few pages show her putting her things away, maybe saying 'bye' to the dog when it goes to stay with her grandmother, every box shown could have a flap showing the stuff inside, and the girl saying bye to every bit of the house (you know 'bye kitchen' stuff). Have her unpacking, exploring and getting her dog back and stuff. When we moved, I really wanted a story which could explain to DD1 a bit about what would happen.

Multicultural takes on traditional fairy tales.