guinea-pig kids and where to find them

Borrowing children is tough. First, approach parents or a librarian and explain your situation. Second, find a critique group with childlike members. Think about yourself at your target age - would you have liked this book. The most important person for you to please is your innner child (the real child you were.) If that kid doesn't get it, none will.

-Debbie

There are members in SYW who sometimes read posted material to their little tots.

Thing is, kids love the attention and the story telling process and the awesomeness of hearing a story read by the actual person who wrote it...that makes them not such great critics.

There's a share-your-work section here on the forums where real live grown-ups who love and read picture books can give you some more balanced feedback. Stick around here, post more, critique other peoples' work, and post your own stuff up and you will get helpful critique.

You could check with the children's department your local library. Many have story hours for various age kids. Perhaps you could volunteer to do part of a story hour.

My 2 cents:
1) For a picture book, a lot of the impact for kids comes from the pictures. Having a PB manuscript is great, but I'm not sure how great it's going to be just reading a short story aloud w/o pictures.

2) As mentioned above, feedback from kids is tough. I'm not sure for MG books how important it is to get a kid reader, but for PB-age kids, I'm not sure what type of feedback you can actually expect. Do kids that age know what they like? I mean, if you sat down and read them a bad PB, would they notice/complain?

3) So much in PB writing depends on rhyme/meter/word-choice/phrasing/succinctness/theme/etc. that would never be picked up on consciously by a kid.

So sure, find a kid to read it to, but put your effort into finding adult critique partners.

I keep reading this thread title and being really creeped out by the idea of Guinea-pig-kids. Book idea, someone?

Ivan_B said:

I keep reading this thread title and being really creeped out by the idea of Guinea-pig-kids. Book idea, someone?

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I think you'd have to turn it into an anti-PETA PB, and I betcha there'd be someone out there to publish it. The book would start off with the animal-rights activists winning, and outlawing animal testing. Then you see in an abandoned elementary school all these little kids, all makeup-ed up, being poked and prodded by scientists...

Yeah, too creepy.

I definitely want a few guinea-pig-kids. At least then someone in my house would eat their vegetables...

And they'd be all cute and fluffy, wriggling their little noses...

Unless they had the face of a human and the body of a guinea pig. And little human hands and feet. That would be really creepy. Especially if it started asking you questions.

Ivan_B said:

Unless they had the face of a human and the body of a guinea pig. And little human hands and feet. That would be really creepy. Especially if it started asking you questions.

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I can totally see that. The hands would be under their bodies, and they'd scurry about on their fingers. But the feet would just sort of be there, on their rear-ends, serving no function at all, little toes wiggling like ten wagging tails.

Eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

No, you only get that after you dunk them in water.

Guinea-pig kids are cute but not very bright, I'm afraid...

Just don't feed them after midnight and you should be cool