Books for Emerging Readers

Here’s more from my interview about my new verse novel, Little Cat’s Luck, coming in February. (Make sure to read all the way to the end for news about my January book giveaway.):Questions: Marion, many of your books are a great match for newly independent readers. What are the particular challenges of writing for young people who are still developing their reading skills? What is the particular appeal for you in writing those stories?My Answers: I’ll start with the appeal of writing for this age group. Though I write for all ages, babies to young adults, my very favorite age to spin stories for has come to be about seven to ten. I’m not drawn to that age level because they are emerging readers but in spite of that fact. First and foremost, the stories that fit them are usually about family, and family always matters. The more peer-based stories for adolescents often happen in a much more narrow world and deal with issues we all move through and leave behind, but families remain important at every stage of life. Second, writing for that age group allows me to move freely between straight-up realism and realism-touched-by-fancy, also between human and animal characters. It’s a place I settle into with deep contentment, and I can bring my contentment to my stories.The challenge of writing for that age group, of course, is that at the lower end they are emerging readers. I have written many novellas aimed at second/third graders, and while I loved creating the stories, I sometimes found them challenging to write. Partly that challenge had to do with holding down vocabulary, though I don’t limit myself a great deal there. I always work on the assumption that the best word for any purpose is the simplest one possible, so my style is a good fit for younger readers. What has been more difficult, though, is writing in short sentences to give developing readers easy bites. It is possible to write in the shorter sentences younger readers need and still establish a good rhythm, good flow to the text, but doing it is not easy. And the flow I end up with is different than the natural flow of my writing voice.So after a time I found myself wanting to do another novella for younger readers but impatient with the limits set by the need for short sentences. Hence my discovery of the verse novel, something I had never considered attempting before Little Dog, Lost and now Little Cat’s Luck. Learning to write fiction with the sensibility of verse has been an adventure. I have loved seeing how the white space on the page can make the longest sentences accessible. I have loved not having to break up the natural flow of my writing. And I have found myself holding back even less on vocabulary, assuming the tumble of words down the page will help carry emerging readers through an occasional challenging word. These verse novels have been a new world for me, an energizing discovery late in a forty-year career.Special giveaway: Over the next few days, I’m giving away three copies of Little Dog, Lost as a way of sharing my “new world” of verse novels with some of my readers. I hope you’ll check out the giveaway here!