Writing for children and young adults

I was chatting to Judith Ridge, one of our wonderful presenters at the Sydney Writers' Centre, and she pointed out something I found really interesting.

Judith is a specialist editor in books for children and young adults and she is widely recognised as one of the best editors of this genre in Australia. She said: "Many children's and yound adult authors didn't realise their books were best suited to young readers when they started out – they were just telling the story they needed to tell."

Maybe you have a story that is perfect for this market. It's certainly a growing area and one that's receiving tonnes of attention lately. Especially next week when the 8th National Book Now! Conference is on. It's run for the Children's Book Council of Australia. www.book now.org.au

Anyhow, I asked Judith a few other questions, which I thought I'd share here.

Me: Why do you enjoy working with writing for children and young adults?

Judith: I decided I wanted to work with children's and youth literature after I read a novel called The Magicians of Caprona. It's a fantasy novel by the wonderful British writer Diana Wynne Jones. I read it as part of post-graduate studies in children's literature, and this novel reminded me of the experience of totally losing yourself in a book that is so common for young readers.

Me: So you think adults can enjoy books that are aimed at kids and young adults?

Judith: I always loved reading, but as an adult, I never really felt the same way about books as I had as a child. Reading The Magicians of Caprona made me feel like I was 12 years old again, reading sitting perched in the branches of our mulberry tree, completely oblivious to the outside world, and I suppose I wanted to be part of creating that experience for children today.

Me: Which children's authors do you admire and why?

Judith: How long do you have? I have over two thousand children's books in my collection, and choosing favourites depends on so many factors! Children's and Young Adult lit is such a broad field; there are highly literary writers like Ursula Dubosarsky or Philip Pullman, or those writers who are masters of genre fiction, such as fantasy and science fiction—Diana Wynne Jones and Garth Nix being favourites. Humour is difficult to do well; Jaclyn Moriarty is one of my favourite writers of funny, insightful stories about the lives of high-school aged young women.

I also have a great deal of admiration for those writers who tap into some kind of zeitgeist and produce highly popular, well-written series fiction; people like  Andy Griffiths and Emily Rodda. Anna Fienberg is also a favourite — she can cross ages and genres and couldn't write a bad sentence if she tried. Basically, it comes down to good, fresh storytelling and an interest in ideas, language and character.

Judith's blog: http://www.misrule.com.au/serendipity
Her website: http://www.misrule.com.au

Find out more on Judith's writing course on Writing books for children and young adults here.

Comments

[Cecily Bradshaw]

I would dearly love to participate in your course, but because of my location and family commitments, it is impossible to get to Sydney. So I am begging you to consider doing an online course please, please, please!

Can you please think about this and email me back.

Kind regards,
Cecily