What Kids Like to Read

Irene Watson raised an interesting point when she said there is something wrong with the way we produce kids' books and then wonder why kids don't read them. Adults write for kids books. Adults review kids books. Adults decide what books kids should read. Times have changed drastically since we were kids, even if it was not so long ago. Are we the best judges of what interests today's youth? No. We've got to let the kids tell us what we want if we expect them to read what we write. Irene, of Reader Views, (www.readerviews.com) has started having kids review books for kids. She is finding that they are mostly interested in fantasy and science fiction.

I maintain that young girls, and some boys still love horse stories, as well. I hear from a lot of fans who've read Miranda and Starlight and the rest of the books of that series. These books are still selling well, and I hope to get them into the hands of more kids who love reading about horses by combining the series in a six-book set and selling them for a lower price than the sum of each book sold individually.

Of course we are still competing with ipods and video games, so it's up to us to give kids really good books on subjects that interest them, and make them readily available. Any more suggestions on how to do that?