Writing for Young People: Critical Readings and Discussions on Craft

Applying the methodology of ’reading-as-a-writer’ to the craft of writing for young people, this textbook combines critical analysis, unique author-insight and practical application of ideas to give writers the skills to create successful fiction for youth audiences. Under the guidance of children’s author Elen Caldecott, compelling close readings dig deep into the construction of modern classics and contemporary middle-grade, YA, picture books and more to explore how paragraphs, sentences and words engineer specific reader responses. Interviews with the author of the extracted work follow before each chapter rounds off with writing exercises that prompt writers to engage with techniques and ideas discussed.

Accessible and equipping writers with the valuable knowledge and skills to write in one of the fastest-growing fields in creative writing, Writing for Young People
- Draws upon the works of prominent writers such as David Almond, Leigh Bardugo, Louis Sachar, Jasbinder Bilan, B. B. Alston, Frank Cotrell Boyce and many more
- Author interviews cover topics such as the book’s origin, their writing and editing process and their perspective on the analysis made of their work
- Discusses vital craft techniques in novel-writing and editing including language, plotting, constructing characters, narrative time, worldbuilding, dialogue, cultural history, tropes and conventions
- Covers key contemporary issues that students, teachers and professional writers of fiction for youth audiences will encounter from villains, archetypes, class and race, and transnational writing to conceptions of childhood, environment, colonialism, power, coming-of-age and social justice
- Considers the role of wider literary and community landscapes in creating compelling texts
- Includes a list of Further Reading resources

Light-hearted but intellectually rigorous and rewarding, the field of writing for youth readers has been waiting for this book.

Elen Caldecott is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK. She is the author of 12 novels and dozens of early readers for young people. Her debut novel, How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant (Bloomsbury, 2009) was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Prize and longlisted for the 2010 Carnegie Award. Her website is https: //elencaldecott.com/