Frimble3, I agree with you and this is exactly my starting point.
Brightdreamer, I have read non fiction and historical fiction books about how life on the American frontier was. Otherwise I couldn't write any of my books. But they don't include much about children, which are the focus of 1-2 chapters.
I'm sorry, I can't help with your direct question as I don't know any books like that, but if I may make another suggestion, you might try going to redbox or netflix and watching popular movies with main characters who are in that age range. The story element is often fairly similar, and if you're just looking for inspiration (rather that specific book examples of things) that may be very helpful.
Good luck!
Thank you very much. I don't know what is redbox and I have heard about netflix, which is a thing which doesn't happen in my country. What movies are you suggesting? Because I might find them on youtube or something.
I don't understand how one chapter could be a subplot.
What is your main story line?
If it is a children's book, is there a lesson to be learned?
Once you decide that, think about a subplot that might support that lesson but in a slightly different way.
Caroline, why does it need to be in a different way? What is wrong with it?
And no, the book in itself is NOT a children's book, it is young adult/ western/ adventure. The children becoming friends after an initial... adversity is just a first step to their bonding together, which prolongs into teens and adulthood. And two of these children will get married later in the story.
It is the third volume of a family saga, spreading from Jacobine Italian republics of 1790s and the rise of Napoleon (the first volume, which title can be translated into English as "Bloodied lands" - bloodied by wars, of course, and the cover has a painting of the battle of Novi, which is important in the story) to emigration to the US following the disappointment of the French revolution turned into Napoleon's dictatorship (second volume, translated as "The New World", where my characters are going West, settling near St. Louis, but on the Illinois side, the village founded by Venetians being called Venice and it really exists, now a part of Greater ST. Louis, withnessing Louisiana Purchase and the development of the village with its families and the adjacent St Louis incidentally), the first two volumes having been published already under the book title "Lives in turmoil". The third volume I am writing now, which will be titled "Other turmoils of life", deals mostly with the next generation, the Venetians' children born there, how they grow at their turn. (So this is why they are children only for 1-2 chapters, and yes, these chapters can be a subplot or two). The War of 1812, New Madrid earthquake and various other aspects will be caught, ending about 1830, the Cherokee Trail of Tears being somehow reflected indirectly.
For all those who are sending me to read new children's books - thank you, I am not interested in reading these, as my novels aren't meant for this age group, even if some chapters have the main characters' children as protagonists. I am reading Westerns, both new and old, and historical fiction, but some choices are limited in a country which is not English speaking and where Amazon doesn't deliver. So Project Gutenberg books and others I can find online are my bread and butter....
And why would you want me to read RECENT books, when the older ones are more focused on the period I am interested in?
