Real life stuff in kids' books

[CammyMayHunny]

For want of a better term.
The book I'm working on has could be seen as little fuzzies with a little girl for a pal, but it has things like bloody killings in it.
I get the impression that freaks out publishers and agents, but it was a part of the books I read as a kid. *And things like Watership Down.

So where does this put me as far as being able to get rich and famous and put on airs?


(I already wrote out the cute fuzzy little crack whores, so I'm only concerned with the characters' unfortunate experiences with hungry foxes and electric fences.)

[Kitty Pryde]

Go research the difference between picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and young adult. Which one are you talking about? PS Watership Down is an adult novel.

Middle grade can have killing, but not bloody killing, and it's always described minimally. Read some books--The Graveyard Book and The Spiderwick Chronicles and Redwall series are excellent examples of tolerable levels of kid book violence. And I'm not sure if you're joking or not but...no crack whores in children's books.

If it's young adult, you can do anything you want, pretty much, but it's rarely written gratuitously and the focus is usually on the character's feelings rather than blood and guts flying around.

[CammyMayHunny]

Damn. And I do love flying guts. I think I figured out what a "chapter book" is from your comments, though. Thanks.