The adults who write for children/teens are incredible and their talent is undeniable. I admire their work because of all the elements they pull together. Their creative use of language, story ideas, characters, and (sometimes) illustrations appeal to both children and their parents (in the early years) and often inspire the imaginations of young people and instill a love for exploration through reading.

But these books (Robert Munsch, Ronald Dahl, Judy Blume, etc.) so quickly are put back on the shelf, handed down to younger siblings, and cast aside for more "grown up" books. Yet at this critical stage in reading development when children should be confident independent readers many of them are left behind.

As a gr. 9 teacher for 11 weeks I had a number of children in my classes who read between a gr. 2 and gr. 6 level. These students were all dedicated to their work but their reading development had suffered due to environmental factors and soemtimes learning disabilities. While their peers read The Wave these students did independent novel studies in a sense by reading short chapter books that were reading level appropriate for their skills. But, while I delighted in their accomplishments, I was disappointed that their readings were selected from the elementary side of the library, because while their reading level was at an elementary standard their undertanding of the world was on par with their peers. Actually, in some of their cases they have seen and experience more struggles than I have or would wish on a 14 year old.

There are what's called high interest, low vocabulary books which are age-appropriate or curriculum appropriate topics but have a more simplistic vocabulary. Well these books aren't as available as they should be and children often do not have access to the titles that their peers are reading.

So, where do I fit into all this? I would like to write high interest books for children! I would love to share my love of books with children/teens in a new way. I often dream of writing but I don't always know where to start and I think this area is just waiting to be pushed. I could "rewrite" popular books (I wonder what the permission/copyright rules are on that) or tackle topics that are interesting to teens but are often inaccessible because of vocabulary barriers.

Those are the books I would write!