Kids are wonderful readers. They read very differently than adults do. They’re fully engaged. They identify with the stories. They live through a story in a very different way. Adults are much more analytical, even critical, and objective about what they read. Kids lose themselves in a story and become part of the story. You can’t ask for a better audience than that. They’re wonderfully loyal and they’re very direct. You know? They don’t hedge. If they like the book, they read it. If they don’t like it, they don’t. It’s very simple. They’re not sophisticated readers, thank goodness. They just suck it all up and take pleasure in it.
The other thing that differs them from adults is they give back much more. If you’re a reader yourself, think: when was the last time you wrote to an adult author and said, “Hey, this is a cool book. I really like this. Thanks for writing it, your favorite reader.”? But kids do that all the time. Insofar as they do that, it’s a great giveback, sharing your work and their lives and putting them together and saying, “This is good,” “This is real,” “This gives me pleasure.” And that’s a great gift, because you write a book, and you send it out there. And, sure, you get reviews; but there’s not a lot of feedback that you get.
But kids do give you great feedback. Kids are, in that sense, wonderfully supportive of writers.
