The Writing Magazine Children’s Book Prize is running again this autumn, and we are looking for outstanding chapter books for young readers, aged between around five and eight years old. Ideally, we are looking for stories that could realistically be part of a popular series, as this is usually the way chapter books are published, rather than standalone books.
WHY A SERIES?
It’s important to understand why chapter books work well in series. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, children who read chapter books (mostly between five years and nine years old) enjoy collecting things – so books within a series is very appealing.
Secondly, a series is very helpful for new or developing young readers. The world, characters, tone, and format are alreadyand familiarity about how it works. This means that when they step into a new book from the series, a lot of the hard work has already been done – they understand how the story is going to pan out. For new readers, this means they can concentrate on story and the physical process of reading rather than also trying to understand what the book actually is.
