At the early age of  four  I discovered the magic of reading , and by the time I turned eight I took my passion to the next level-  to write my own poetry and short stories. At nine years old I knew I wanted to be a writer one day.

Then, as  I grew up I also developed a deep passion to work with children; babysitting at twelve, camp counselor for five summers in a row from age twelve to seventeen,  attending vocational school for childhood careers during high school , to my first full-time job as assistant preschool teacher, to teaching CCD during the years  I raised my own four children, to substitute teaching while working in healthcare during the covid pandemic.  Combining my passion for writing with my passion for children resulted in my  forever dream to write for children.

In Kevin Henkes’s delightful picture book Summer Song, illustrated by Laura Dronzek, the sun is described as a giant flower and little flowers likened to little suns as the rest of the story dives into the summer song of colors, the wind, sprinklers, lawn mowers, birds, the weather, crickets and so much more. As the story unfolds, it touches on so many charming emotions about summer for young readers (as well as for the adults reading to them! )

Everything, regardless of how small or simple, is enchanting and new for a child. As former editor of Harper & Row, Ursula Norstrom,  said: We must remember that children are “new”, and the whole world is new to them. Writers must learn to see the world with young eyes and through the filter of young moods, in order to present youthful adventures through the viewpoint of young story people.

In Parenting Blogger Kristin Sterk’s touching article titled: Seeing Life through the eyes of a child , she writes;   Children have a way of reminding us to take a step back. To enjoy the moment. To just move on. She tells us that adults once upon a time were like that, innocent in our thoughts and perceptions, alive in the present and eager for each brand new day without the baggage following us from the day before’s trials and tribulations.

From caterpillars to the giant brown leaf on the ground, looking at nature through the eyes of a child brings a whole new perspective …… Children have a way of seeing the little details of life that as adults, we often overlook.

She further tells young readers to keep dreaming that you will one day be a teacher. Meet Elsa. Own a horse. Be the president. And don’t care what other people think.

Young children do not usually get hung up on what other people think of them.  If they want to wear a mismatched purple pajama top with green polka dot pants they will because it makes them feel happy. If they want to become a race-car driver, or a marine biologist or an ice-cream man, they believe it can happen.  If they dream to become a ballerina, a scientist or a maid in a fancy hotel, they are certain they will one day do it. There is nothing stopping them. The young child does not allow negative criticism from adults and unfounded limitations get in the way of her dreams,… at least not until she becomes an adult and falls under the same restrictive rules of limitations under which so many of us eventually suffer.

Books are magical to a child. They open doorways to ideas, hopes and dreams that adults learned to laugh off or ignore at some point. Time is not a constraint to a child. It is merely an abstract they are aware of like the air that envelopes them, as is money, keeping a tidy room or following a daily to do list.  Of course, some of those things we must incorporate into our lives as we grow into adults, but they don’t need to consume us or replace the magic we once cherished as children.

To a child, possibility is in every idea, dreams are within reach, clouds can be anything, rainy days can become board game – jigsaw-reading- coloring book days, snow days are escape days from school, and there is always a pot of gold waiting at the bottom of every storm’s rainbow.

Nordstrom says: flat, colorless statements won’t do it, when creating images in the minds of readers. To a grownup, a leg may be asleep, but to a child “it feels like ginger ale, all tingly.  Further, to attach the specific image to a character in our story, we attach the child’s sense of amazement, and curiosity.  As Emerson said: The universal does not attract us until housed by an individual” and in this case, by a child.  And Ralph Bunche clarified the thought further: If you want to put an idea across, wrap it up in a man.  Or wrap it up in a caboose train that struggles to make it up the track behind the rest of the bigger , more seemingly important train cars, or a pig that makes friends with a spider, or an elephant with over-sized ears who can fly.

Children  believe in the impossible, thrive through imagination, and delight when the underdog wins, or the ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan.  They route for the victims and jeer the bullies.  They side with the heroes and hiss the bad guys.  They know right from wrong when they see it as they become the characters who forge new friendships, mend old ones, win battles, and learn and share the story’s life lessons.

Sterk’s idea that children do not worry about what others think can be further expanded to include that children want to believe everyone is good, and can be a friend.  My oldest son, when he was a child, would welcome any child he encountered with open arms,…  into the park, at the town pool or in the classroom, with a friendly invitation to become his friend, subsequently earning him the endearing nickname; “ the Mayor”.  Like my son, my friend’s granddaughter also approaches children at the beach, the park or even at church, with a big, bright  “Hello friend”. These children do not judge, make negative stereotypical opinions or discriminate.  Everyone, regardless of color, gender or size has a chance to become a new friend.

In The Writers Digest January/February 2024 article, Out of the mouths of Babes, author contributor Jessica Strawser says; Kids are not cynical or jaded or used to the pain in the world.  As such, a well-placed reaction from a young character can make the adults in your story take notice. Kids can drive home a point, wake us up, and move us to action in a way many adults have inadvertently outgrown.

Children’s stories, while written simply, usually always convey a message or a lesson. They retell old stories in fresh form and they educate or teach beneath a camouflage of adventure, magical imagery and fantasy.  Like the small stone that causes large ripples in an open pond, ideas for the child distend into big dreams, beliefs and goals.  A simple story is not simple to a child.

For instance,  in Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, written in 1957, Little Bear tells his mother how he flies to the moon, and in Syd Hoff’s Danny and the Dinosaur, written in 1958, Danny befriends a dinosaur at the museum who follows him home to play games with the neighborhood kids. In Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo, a young Gerald McGrew discusses what changes he’d make if he ran the zoo, with “some beasts of a much more un-usual kind”. “Wow!” They’ll all cheer, “What this zoo must be worth! It’s the dol-darndest zoo, on the face of the earth!”

Similarly, in Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type, illustrated by Betsy Lewin, Farmer Brown faces big problems when his cows learn to type and in Margret and H.A. Rey’s Curious George goes Fishing, copyrighted in 1987, readers see the man with the yellow hat taking George the monkey fishing where George manages to cause havoc for another family, only to be invited to their lunch by the end.

In Eric carle’s The Tiny Seed written in 1987, a tiny seed seems to think like a person as it takes readers along on its journey through the seasons, teaching young readers a lesson in horticulture along the way and in Roger Audelte’s My First Race picture book, illustrated by Lance Raichert and Paul E. Nunn an unsure race car narrates his first race, which of course he wins!  And finally, in Dorothy Z Seymour’s Ballerina Bess, illustrated by Harry Devlin, in 1965, Bess enchants young readers when she dances across the stage in a beautiful red dress. This was an “Early –Start Preschool reader wonder book” and the book that turned me onto reading! 

Although the stories, characters, settings and premises all differ, the common thread is the magical manner in which the writers and illustrators create possibilities for young readers.   A little girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and takes the first step in her very first recital, a tiny seed becomes a giant and beautiful flower that gives birth to trillions of other flowers, and a young boy thinks of ways he can make a zoo  better than ever before.  On and on with small ideas turning into grand possibilities. 

A small stone creating huge ripples.

Children’s author Alan Dapre’ wrote in his May 2021 article, Five Things to Remember when Writing for Children:  When you write, magic happens. Doors open. People smile and the world is a better place.  When we write through the eyes of a child, we present  young readers with the opportunity to transform, to grow beyond their limitations and discover not only the beauty the world has waiting for them, but the beauty that lives within.   Everything becomes possible.  The wings they always had but did not feel or see at first begin to unfold in preparation to spread, allowing them to separate from the old preconceived constraints, to become the person they were meant to become, the person God always wanted them to be.

And further, when we write through the eyes of a child, we feel and we give through the hearts of a child, as we transport back to that time when we too believed in boundless possibilities, endless opportunities, forgiveness, acceptance and the vast amount of good that exists in others.  Judgments, discrimination, and the other negative traits we acquired through the chapters of our life stories, fall away like autumn leaves making room for new growth.  And THAT magic is the true gift we not only give to young readers, but we also receive for ourselves, when we write through the eyes of a child.