Writing Children’s Books: Why It’s Much Harder Than It Looks

Many new writers assume that children’s books are the easiest place to start. They’re short, they look simple, and from the outside, it seems like you can finish one in a weekend. But once you actually sit down to write for kids, the truth hits quickly: children’s books, especially nonfiction, require more strategy, clarity, and discipline than most adult books ever will.

Adults will tolerate long sentences, tricky vocabulary, and abstract ideas. Children won’t. It’s incredibly easy to lose their attention, especially when your book is competing with TV, the internet, and video games. With young readers, every word, every sentence, and every illustration has to be purposeful. Writing for kids means taking big, complicated ideas and reshaping them into something a young mind can understand and enjoy. And above all, a children’s author has one job before anything else: inspire them.

So, what makes writing children’s books so challenging? In my experience, these are the key areas you need to pay close attention to when developing a concept for young readers.

Writing for Their Age

Before you can explain anything, you must know exactly who you’re writing for. A seven-year-old and a ten-year-old might only be a few years apart, but developmentally, they live in entirely different worlds. Their attention spans, vocabulary, and ability to handle abstract ideas vary widely, and as an author, you have to consider this when writing.

Kids at different ages learn in different ways.

A strong explanation for younger readers needs to start with what they already know. Their world is physical and concrete, so new ideas must grow from something familiar. For a seven-year-old, you might say: “Space begins just above the sky we can see. It’s a huge, dark place filled with stars and planets.”

They see the sky every day. You’re simply taking something known and stretching it upward.

A twelve-year-old, though, can handle more depth and abstraction: “Space starts where Earth’s air becomes too thin to breathe. Beyond that point is the universe, an enormous expanse filled with stars, planets, galaxies, and countless objects we are still discovering.” Older readers can imagine things they haven’t experienced. They can follow ideas that don’t connect directly to their everyday lives.

This difference is also why vocabulary is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for new children’s writers. Words that feel basic to adults, such as “environment,” “structure,” and “ancient,” aren’t always part of a child’s vocabulary. That doesn’t mean you should avoid them. It means you must introduce them deliberately and define them clearly.

If you’re unsure about which words fit which age group, there are excellent tools designed to help. The Children’s Writer’s Word Book breaks down thousands of terms by grade level and offers simpler alternatives. Oxford Reading Tree and Oxford Owl provide leveled reading stages and vocabulary expectations used in schools worldwide. In other words, you don’t have to guess. You can write with confidence, using resources like these, to ensure your vocabulary fits the age group you are targeting.

The Children’s Writer’s Word Book is a good resource for children's authors.

Use Page Space Wisely

A children’s book page isn’t a bucket you fill with text, no matter how much you want to teach them. It’s a designed experience with limited space, built to teach effectively and inspire them. Kids don’t start by reading; they start by looking, scanning the page to decide whether it feels welcoming or overwhelming. A crowded layout, tiny text, or too much visual noise can lose a child before they’ve read a single line.

This is why it is essential to understand that different types of books use the page in completely different ways. Comics break everything into panels. Each box carries a small piece of the story, one moment, one expression, one action. The page flows like a sequence of snapshots.

Comic books divide the page clearly to guide the readers through the story.

Drawing books flip this approach. The entire page may be one large illustration with a small instruction tucked into a corner. The open space is part of the design. It’s meant to give children room to imagine and create.

Most fiction picture books and story books follow a predictable rhythm: a paragraph of text on one side and an illustration on the other. Nothing surprising, nothing confusing. It’s a gentle, steady reading path the kids are used to, which makes reading them an expected experience and helps them focus on what’s important: the imagination.

Nonfiction, however, is far more complex. One spread might include the main text, vocabulary boxes, captions, diagrams, timelines, photographs, and questions that encourage critical thinking. Done well, this creates an engaging page rich with information. Done poorly, it becomes a maze where the children get lost. To address the design flaws, it is important to use consistent yet varied style guidelines, including different fonts, colors, and shapes.

A page from my Pyramids for Kids book, available on Amazon.com.

This is why nonfiction spreads must be planned with intention. A child should always know where to look first, what to read next, and how the elements connect. When the flow is clear, they follow naturally. When it’s not, they disengage long before reaching the bottom of the page.

Match Images to the Reader’s Age

Images aren’t simply decoration; they’re part of the teaching. For the youngest readers, illustrations often do most of the explaining. Kids between five and seven need bright, clean, and bold artwork that’s easy to interpret. Clear shapes, simple backgrounds, and strong colors help them understand what they’re seeing.

Different art styles work best at different ages, and you can see this in some of the most popular children’s books. Cartoon-style illustrations with rounded shapes, big expressions, and simplified designs are ideal for early readers. Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems and Pete the Cat by James Dean use this style perfectly: clean shapes, simple lines, and expressive characters.

Children between six and nine respond well to watercolor art. Soft, gentle washes create warmth and mood without overwhelming detail. Books like The Tale of Peter Rabbit or The Water Princess, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, use watercolor to guide emotion and help young readers connect with the scene.

Readers nine to twelve can handle much more complex visuals. Detailed paintings, textured digital art, semi-realistic characters, and even real photography become appropriate. This is why publishers like National Geographic Kids use high-resolution photos, diagrams, and labeled images. At this age, kids want accuracy and detail. They want to see the “real thing.” Series like The Chronicles of Narnia or graphic novels like Amulet lean into richer, more sophisticated artwork that matches older readers’ abilities.

Nonfiction for older kids also relies heavily on maps, diagrams, cutaways, and labeled illustrations. These visuals help organize information and provide structure for topics such as ancient civilizations, biology, and outer space. But even here, clarity is everything. A chaotic illustration is just as confusing as a chaotic paragraph.

As a writer, it is important to remember that the right art style doesn’t just make the page look good; it makes the information accessible.

Keeping Kids Engaged

Children learn best when they’re participants, and not just spectators. Asking them to think, choose, search, or solve transforms reading from passive to active. A simple prompt like, “If you could go to space, which planet would you choose to visit and why?” invites imagination and anchors the child inside the topic.

Different ages engage in different ways. Younger children, around five to seven, connect best with simple activities: maze puzzles, coloring pages, matching games, and “point to the picture” prompts. These activities don’t require advanced reading skills, but they reinforce what the child is learning.

Kids seven to nine enjoy slightly more complex challenges, such as letter jumbles where they find words like “Mars,” “Moon,” or “comet.” Spot-the-difference puzzles and simple fill-in-the-blanks are also effective at this age.

A page from my upcoming book, Mars for Kids.

Older readers, nine to twelve, are ready for multiple-choice questions, scenario-based thinking, and short quizzes. A question like, “Which tool would an astronaut use to collect rock samples on Mars?” encourages them to apply what they know and helps them imagine themselves in the scenes.

Interactivity breaks up long stretches of text, strengthens comprehension, and helps children form their own relationship with the topic. You should see it as part of how kids learn, not an add-on.

Build an Emotional Connection

The primary job of any children’s author is to inspire. And inspiration always begins with emotion. Kids don’t connect to facts or information easily. They connect to feeling wonder, excitement, curiosity, empathy, tension, humor, and comfort. If a book doesn’t make a child feel something, it won’t stay with them for long.

In stories, emotion is the backbone. Think about Harry Potter. Children don’t remember it because of every complicated spell or the dates of the wizarding history. They remember the friendships, the danger, the courage, the warmth, the mystery. Or simply, the emotions. The emotional connection keeps the story alive in their minds long after they finish reading the book.

Educational books rely on emotion, too, just differently. A cold list of facts won’t hold a child’s attention. But a nonfiction book that sparks curiosity with questions like, “Why is Mars red?” or “What would it feel like to stand on the Moon?” lights up the imagination. When children care, they learn. And when something makes them feel wonder, they remember it.

The best educational books understand this. National Geographic Kids uses striking photography to grab attention with lion cubs, erupting volcanoes, and glittering galaxies. The Magic School Bus uses humor and chaos to make science unforgettable. Books like What Do You Do With an Idea? succeed because they make children feel brave, capable, and creative.

If you want to create a memorable learning experience for kids, emotion isn’t optional, it is the key that unlocks everything else and the first step to effective learning.

Writing for children isn’t about making information smaller. It’s about making it clearer, warmer, and more meaningful for their level. You’re giving young readers their first glimpse into worlds they’ve never seen: space, oceans, ancient cultures, microscopic life, magical realms, dinosaurs, and everything in between.

When you choose the right words, design thoughtful pages, use strong visuals, keep them engaged, and reach them emotionally, you do more than write a book. You open a door. And once a child steps through that door, they may carry that sense of wonder for the rest of their lives.