Today I’ve been dipping into a big bundle of children’s books, deciding which ones to review for the Irish Independent in the next few weeks. Mainly August and September publications, but some July and Oct ones too. And to be frank, some of them aren’t great.

These are books from all kinds of publishers: big UK publishers, smaller UK publishers, Irish publishers (and I must say the O’Brien Press early readers for July/Aug are good). There are picture books, early readers, 9 to 11 novels, teen novels. A lot of them held my attention for a few pages, and then I got bored/fed up/annoyed with them and stopped reading.

The ones that are good :
1/ In general the team at Puffin seem to be selecting good teen novels to publish at the moment – meaty, interesting, clearly intended for particular markets and jacketed this way – ie the new Charlie Higson is a horror title for teens, and the cover is black with skulls on it. It’s called The Enemy.
Great opening line: Small Sam was playing in the car park behind Waitrose when the grown ups took him.
See!

The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff has a fab cover – atmospheric pic of a girl on a horse, with lots of swirls of gold. Fitting for this 19th century set, Hardy-esque novel.
Some thoughtful publishing from Puffin.

2/ Walker – OK, OK, I’m published by Walker so I’m slightly biased. But Life Swap by Abby McDonald does exactly what it says on the cover – 2 girls, 2 different lives, laughter and tears – funny, sweet, Meg Cabot stuff.

And their Kate DiCamillo cover for the Magician’s Elephant is perfect – glowing, subtle, magical. Nice typeface inside too – different. Great book (so far).
So, again, some thoughtful publishing here.

Now, do I name and shame the ones I didn’t enjoy and put down after a few pages?

No, I wouldn’t like to hurt or upset any fellow writers – so I won’t. But suffice to say some of the writing is just plain bad, some of the covers are terrible, terrible, terrible (shame on you, publishers), and even some of the ‘names’ don’t always produce the goods – and this includes the picture book writers too.
There’s not enough heart and soul writing out there – very few of the books are making me laugh out loud, cry, gasp, people! I haven’t had a gasper for quite some time.

So, to get to the point, if you hope to, or are writing for children, take heart. The children’s book world needs you; the publishers need you; us poor reviewers need you; and damn it, most of all, the readers need you!

Original ideas, genuinely funny writing, a truly wonderful, from the heart writing voice. Fresh blood! A strong premise or hook would be an added bonus. And gets-me-in-the-belly humour – unfortunately the hardest thing of all to write. And picture book writers, please, please, please – a story for goodness sake, not just some linked images, or yet another a to z book, even if the illustrations are quite sweet.

Right, got that off my chest! More on writing for children next time . . .
SarahX