When writing a story for children there are a few things to keep in mind. You want to keep younger children interested in your story. The first thing to remember is to keep your story simple, particularly when writing for younger age groups.

Use humor so the child and reader have fun and laugh together. It is a wonderful bonding experience that is also conducive to learning. Read other children’s stories and you will see how important this is and how other an author engages their audience with rhyme and even made-up words.

Do not have too many characters. Show. Don’t tell. Use action and speech to reveal you’re the personality of your characters. Make your characters distinctive from each other. For instance, show them with different reactions to the same thing. Use words and storylines that are appropriate to the age of your audience.

Decide and define a story arc for your age group. Ages 3 to 5 will have a bit more storyline than for toddlers and babies. Ages 5 to 7 may have longer stories that can be read over more than one night. Explain bigger words to not frustrate the reader. It helps to think of a child you know in developing your storyline.

The Children's Book Council, Inc. is the nonprofit trade association of publishers and packagers of trade books and related materials for children and young adults and an excellent resource and can be found at http://www.cbcbooks.org/about/