Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Book question

Ok, so I've just read a couple of Magic Treehouse books. I know a lot of you really like them, and I'm wondering about a couple of things.

What age group do you have that likes them? And I know that your kiddos' ages will be typical for a different demographic from what the books actually aim for -- that is to say, if the books aim for, say, 3rd or 4th grade (?), then yours are probably age 5 or 6.

Do you think that a big book that would encompass a dozen different Magic Treehouse plots, say 65000 words or so, would meet with favor with your kids who like these little ones, or is it better that they are all split up into 12 different books in that amount of words? I estimate book #2, for instance, to be about 6000 words. For a book aimed at our gifties of about age 6-9ish, would yours prefer it to be all one book or a bunch of small ones like the MT series?

I ask because I am close to finishing my NaNovel from last November, which is such a book, and I'm looking at some of the current "hot" equivalents to get a feel for whether it's likely to fly or not. It would lend itself to a series of short books if necessary, or it could be (and was intended to be) one fairly large (for the genre and age-range) book on its own.

Ideas?

I think DD would say that they should be a shorter series of larger books, rather than such a long series of short little ones or one big one. She seemed to think that there were bunches of the MT books that would have been better if they were published as 1 book with more chapters. But, since the general format is the same throughout each little adventure, she didn't think they should all be together because she felt it would get too repetitive.

She has always been someone who likes thick meaty books over thin little ones.


Of course, this is for the girl who would read 24 hours a day if we let her!

Good luck with your book!

My DYS dd8, going into 3rd was done with MT book series about a year ago. She reads about 15 books a week. Those were a nice size for her. She also has liked the american girls books which have some history too, but are different. Are you gearing this towards a gifted population? Maybe they are the big readers?

I suggest breaking it into separate books too if it is like Magic Treehouse. My experience has been that younger kids prefer to read many small books rather than one larger book. I suspect that this has to do with text size (which is smaller in bigger books and harder on young eyes) and weight of the book. It's comfortable to throw an MT or two into one's backpack when you are still small, less comfortable to carry around HP. I also think that younger readers like the feeling of finishing multiple books and the anticipation of the next book.

My DS7 liked them at age 4 and 5, IIRC. He re-read them as quick and easy. At 7, looking at what he's reading now (The Number Devil), I don't think he has a preference for size of books. But a couple of years ago, when the MTB were an interest, the size was an issue. He would happily read through the smaller regular series books in a flash, but was more hesitant when it came to the bigger Merlin Mission books. So, for that type of book, I'd vote for series of smaller.

Congrats on finishing your Nano novel!

Well, I had gifties in mind for this book, because of the dearth of reading material that is sufficiently advanced and yet age-appropriate for kids like my DS8. And it's about three gifted kids, one of whom is essentially him.

I picked up the MT books because I'd seen them mentioned here and thought they sounded something like my story -- which it turns out they are only in a minor, superficial way. I would say mine bears more of a resemblance to The Mysterious Benedict Society, although it's not really like that either, if that makes any sense. Mine is a large, save-the-world quest, but entirely different from MBS.

Being one big quest, it is put together as one reasonable-sized book (for a kids' or YA sort of book), but it would be possible to turn it into a series of short books. However, it wouldn't be like MT in that sense, because the short books would still be bits of the same plot. That would make it difficult, though, because it would be possible to pick them up in the wrong order. It would be a Harry Potter in that sense, where getting out of sequence could be a problem, or at least reading the last book before the others would not be good. Maybe not Harry Potter, but perhaps at least like Narnia. Those aren't bad to read out of sequence, except the last one.

Sorry, I'm working through this here while I pick your brains.

And no, it's not quite finished yet, just getting there, but thanks!

Excellent to hear of people writing books! One thing I think is relevant is that children (ND ones as well as gifties) often seem to have a phase in which they can read, but long books are off-putting. That's what tends to suggest splitting a long book up. *But* the downside is that once they're past that phase, long books are much more attractive to those who do the buying, chiefly parents. E.g. DS7 recently chose this book from a school book fair, and literally read it on the bus on the way home. No way am I going to buy books that length for him! Anything I buy is going to keep him quiet for longer than that :-) I'm no good with word numbers, but that book was 134 pp with fairly large print, maybe 15k words? If something looks shorter than that, I'm not even going to pick it up (DS wouldn't either - in a shop with a wider variety of things than the school book fair, he too looks at big books these days); so one long book if I'm the target buyer!

I don't know Magic Treehouse, but I often hear about it being an early choice for newly-independent readers. It sounds as though you're not going for that market?

My son loved Magic Treehouse at around age 5 and would never have read them if they had been big books. At that age he was intimidated by big books, even if he could read them. Also, he loved and still loves series of books.

I think your idea of a series is good for that reason. But like Colinsmom says, they can't be too short or they are a waste! We've gotten books at a book fair or book sale and DS has read them in the car on the way home, never to look at them again. $7.00 per book, down the drain!!!

DS8 read Harry Potter over a few months and Narnia in about 3 weeks. He's going to start Lemony Snicket which I think is a very long series and will keep him occupied for the rest of the summer maybe! We are lucky that we have friends with older kids giving us piles of books. Our problem at the library with series is that they just happen to be out of a book smack in the middle. Stops DS in his tracks!!

Kate

Ha, I remember doing that when I was little -- we would check out 10-20 books and I'd read half of them on the way home from the library! My mom always asked me why I checked out the ones that I had read a dozen times before, instead of something new that might last me a while, and I always said I knew I liked those already!

No, I'm not going for the market of "newly-independent readers" with this -- and I can see how MT would be that, now that I've read a few of them. I'm aiming for the young gifted market, although it would probably have to market to an older set of "regular" kids -- I doubt publishers would be interested in our niche market. It'll work either way, I hope.

I have to wrestle the books out of DS 5 arms at the library. the first book we pick up he starts reading, so he is trailing behind me with a book while I shovel them into a bag and try to check out before he starts reading the next one because he won't let me put back the one he has already finished!

DS 5 loves things that continue - but the MT books and most on those level are not large stories in which you learn a piece of the puzzle - they are the same characters and schtick used in successive books. The MT seem to be entry books for gif ties because of the things that are good for super early readers - good size print, pictures and easy vocab - but the stories are pretty simplistic too and at least with my DS - who read them at 4, was easily bored, he did like the Merlin ones better. He loves more complex stories even as he got more comfortable with longer stories and more complex vocab - now at almost 5.5 he is reading series books like Ordinary Boy, Pseudonymous Bosch. and we just started NERDS (although not really social appropriate for him). He likes things that go over books, so long as the individual books have enough stuff. He likes richly painted worlds, with less focus on character development and interpersonal relations. But he loved the George and the Universe books - very complicated, with a story arc, although that was one of the first long books we did and I read most of it. Not so anymore. But on the other hand, brought home the 39 steps which I thought would be perfect and he rejected it saying it had too many words, which was code for it looked like an adult book, which he is oddly resistant to.

To my mind this conundrum is like the magic school bus books, they look like picture books but easily translated into chapter books because the story was so complicated. You could separate your story in to several books and my DS would love it, he likes to read more about "his" characters but if you have to thin out the story it wouldn't be as much fun. If separating into books allows you to make each mini quest more rich then that would be great. Alternatively, is there a sequel to the story you have now. If its truly finished then it makes sense to spilt it up, if you can see going on, then leave it as one. IMHO of course!!!

DeHe

My vote would be to do with the size of book and the little hands that are going to hold it. Will it be available in paperback to start or only hard cover? How long in hard cover until available in soft cover? I agree that throwing HP in a backpack was difficult. Also for sneaking through at school the smaller books passed easier than did the bigger/thicker books. (I use to sneak books into my kiddos class in her backpack to read after she had finished the work or it was individual reading time.)

Well, that's a conundrum of a different sort -- technically, it is probably too late to get it into publication (even if it were finished right this second) due to the time-sensitive nature of the need to save the world from this particular threat. It doesn't hurt to say that the problem they are solving has to do with the Mayan prophecies. But if kids wouldn't mind that it was already past, I'm still ok.

That said, assuming I could get one book out before the end of the world, so to speak, it would be impossible to get them all out by then if it were split into a series.

It's hard to imagine what you could do for an encore after saving the planet, but then again, the Benedict kids managed to do it again, I believe (I have only read half of the second one, so I'm not sure). And Harry Potter kept doing it again and again, although it was all part of one big thing. And comic book heroes do it every issue. So I'm sure that there would be other quests that my kiddos could be roped into -- and there's a NaNoWriMo every year.

If you can get in shape to go, you could self-publish on Kindle through Amazon, and in softcover POD through Lightning Source in plenty of time.

Hi Everyone-

I've been peeping in on the Davidson discussion boards for years now while raising my now 10-year-old, but this is the first time I felt compelled to register and post.

Nautigal, I agree with the other posters, shorter is less intimidating for many younger ones. My daughter cruised through the MT series at 5 partly because of the sense of accomplishment she got from "finishing a book." (And flower -you made me laugh about small books being easier for sneaky-reading. My daughter still gets in trouble for reading at school. Gosh, that sounds odd, but it's true.)

But you're the writer, so it's up to you.

As far as self-publishing goes, I just listed a book on Kindle -written for the same reasons as you - just to provide fun reading for young advanced readers. But now that it's up there, I have realized that while a lot of teens buy ebooks, and moms load up picture ebooks for the younger crowd, the 8-12 crowd still relies primarily on librarians to help them find new books. (Or just going to the library and cruising the shelves.) So at least for the near-future, it might be better to aim for the traditional publishing route. That's what I plan to do now.

I also had an early reader whose abilities were quite high but who was intimidated by "fat" books. She would read books that were quite hard if they "fooled" her by having pictures and being thin and light. Hey, that's one thing. Pictures! You want pictures for this crowd, IMO.

[quote=ultramarina Hey, that's one thing. Pictures! You want pictures for this crowd, IMO. [/quote]

Yes I think pictures are a must! When their reading that young they still want to see what the characters and the setting of the story looks like.

As far as the thickness on the book, I'm mixed on that because I have two different type of readers.

with dd8 she was reading 200 page chapter books at 4 by herself, now she reads whatever interests her and that could be a 400 page book or a very simple 50 page book, The only question is does it interest her. With her she never read the MT books , no interest

with dd6 she likes the smaller chapter books, she loves reading the MT books

Hope that helps, good luck with your book!

I totally agree. DS 5 loves seeing things, particularly the equipment, outfits, anything that makes the story distinctive but not in a picture book way. It's also what DS likes in his nonfiction, he can absorb really complicated stuff when it comes with pictured. He especially likes really crowded pictures, sort of like where's Waldo or blueprints, apparently this is usual though, according to my school librarian friend.

DeHe