New to Children's Storywriting

by Beatrice Bachleda
(Cleveland, OH)

New to Children's Storywriting - Wondering if my story would appeal to children of a certain age

Hello!

I have always enjoyed coming up with snippets of ideas that could potentially turn into great childrens' stories, but I have very little experience being around kids and reading childrens' literature.

I'd love to write a story about a goat named Sofia who goes around her farm and meets the other animals.

Each animal exhibits a certain trait of human nature, for example, she meets a horse who is jovial and loves to use a lot of idioms such as "spitting image" and "you don't look a day over 2 years!" (in a conversation with Sofia's mother.) He is almost flirting with Sofia's mother, but is really just complimenting her because Sofia's mother is a well-loved goat on the farm and deserves to hear nice things.

In that encounter, Sofia learns that saying nice things to people makes her feel good as well. There are other encounters that reveal other common human "quirks."

I want this to be a picture book, I can just imagine the wonderful drawings of the farm animals and a cute, expressive goat as the main character.

Now, I am aware this sort of content may be a bit more advanced for the kids that most picture books are marketed to. I can't imagine a kid of 3 or 4 being able to understand this. And I did check out some childrens' book from the library, mainly a few Patrica Polacco books and a George and Martha book, and saw there were picture books for ages 6-9 covering some pretty deep subjects (The Butterfly by Polacco comes to mind.) However, now I'm wondering if my subject content may be too simple or childish for a kid who would read the aforemented "older kids" book.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you made it all the way down here, thank you! And thank you in advance as well for any advice.