Chapter Books

[Cassie88]

I am presently doing a lot of feelance work for a small company...mostly rhyming picture books....My sister Jill teaches 3rd grade and keeps urging me to investigate Chapter Books. Her class is now reading the Magic Tree House books, but they're really for second graders. Can anyone direct me to site that explains the criteria for these type of books? And she tells me I should read Patricia Polacco and Cynthia Rylant.
Cassie

[watcher]

Google says:

<http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/>

and

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/books.html

Looks like they're all written by one author though.

[Kudra]

Everything I needed to learn about writing for children, I found at this site: http://www.write4kids.com/

Specifically, here's an article that defines the various children's book genres: http://write4kids.com/colum44.html

[Christine N.]

That's a great article. BUT... I think that the "middle grade" set will now (since HP) read a book longer than 150 pages. Maybe not at 8, but at 9 and up.

I like the "new age group" of 10-14. I write for middle grade in subject and style, but my ms's are all 50K or over, and I think most children don't even blink at a book of such size anymore, as long as the story is interesting.

[Cassie88]

I appreciate all the info guys.
Cassie