The Difference Between Writing for Children and Writing for Adults
It's about more than just word choice.
Photo by Nicole Wolfon Unsplash
A big part of my graduate study was trying to find the line between writing for children (or young adults) and writing about children for adults.
I wrote a paper once that looked at Megan Abbott’s The End of Everythingand Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish. They’re both books about girls in middle school who are dealing with grief after the loss (by death in Benjamin’s book and kidnapping in Abbott’s book) of their best friends.
Abbott’s book is marketed for adults and Benjamin’s is marketed as a middle grade children’s book. I wanted to figure out why.
There are some obvious answers.
Simpler language and phrasing in Benjamin’s book over Abbot’s. Marketing — Abbot’s publisher positioned her book for adults and Benjamin’s positioned hers for children, so book stores and then readers followed suit.
But there’s more to it than that. Writing for children isn’t just dumbed down adult writing with a cartoonish cover on the front.