By Colleen Flanagan, Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows News
Vocabulary is one of the biggest challenges to writing a children’s story.
Just ask students in Sid Siddique’s Writing 12 class at Maple Ridge secondary who had to write a story, illustrate it, print it and put it together as part of a book in three months.
There were 20 students who took part in the term two project, a few were brought in strictly to illustrate the books.
Siddique says that getting the appropriate vocabulary for the appropriate age group is one of the biggest difficulties students faced because they are used to writing with a teenage, adolescent vocabulary and have to tone it down for the younger audience.
Marianne Kwon who wrote Let’s Go On A Feels Trip about not being ashamed to cry and letting your emotions out, said the most challenging for her was taking a heavy topic and condensing it into a short book that children can understand, including simple words and examples that children can relate to.
Alexis Jensen-Des Jardins, one of two students who wrote and illustrated the book Wish Upon a Star, about a little girl who soars through the clouds and takes a star with her when she returns home, echoed her teacher’s thoughts.