A Great Time to be a Male Writer in the Children's Book World

It's a very good time to be a male writer in the children's book world.

I just read an article in PW about a panel of male YA authors at the LA Times Festival in CA a few weeks ago. Neal Shusterman moderated. The authors were Gordon Korman, Pseudonymous Bosch, and PJ MacHale.

I don't know MacHale. I know of Bosch. I had dinner with Gordon Korman in April when we were both making school visits in Alabama. So much talent, I thought wistfully as I read the article, directed at older readers. (In the same PW, I read that Louis Sachar has a new book. The protagonist is 17.)

I'd love to run into Gordon again. I'd say, "Gordon! Direct some of that magic, that humor, that quirkiness of yours, to younger readers. Little boys would be rolling on the floor if you wrote for them the way you write for your middle school readers."

Gordon knows this, I'm sure. He has two boys of his own.

There are few things in life more enjoyable than watching small children (and especially boys, because capturing them through reading, and getting them interested in books, is no small feat) get completely wrapped up in a book. Especially a silly book. They adore silly. They don't hold back. They don't read under cover of darkness. Give them a fart or a pair of underpants and you have them rolling in the aisle.

I recently read my newest book, an early chapter book, to a large group of first graders in Texas. They were the book's first audience. When I came to the word "belly button," there was an audible gasp. Plenty of giggles. I wasn't expecting it. I hadn't planned it. The words worked in the story, that's all.

Now I want to liberally sprinkle all of my books with belly buttons and poop and anything else that'll make them react that way. Because making children laugh is so much fun. More importantly, it goes such a long way in convincing them that books are fun. Coming from me, however, those words could end up sounding gratuitous. I usually don't write that way.

But men do. Some men do. Men who remember how hilarious it felt to be a little boy. Having raised a son myself, I have a great appreciation for a boy's love of silliness; for that sweet and constant desire many of them feel for life to be exciting! and wild! and so much more than just sitting at a desk, being good.

I want that panel of YA male authors to write for the 5 and 6 and 7-year-olds they were.

And then I want to put my name on their books and watch my royalties soar.