Children fiction no child's play

How different is children’s literature from adult literature? This is a question one of our readers asked recently. I submit that young authors must establish these differences to produce quality work in all aspects of writing, for these two audiences. Have you ever asked yourself why children like Harry Porter and will cry if you switched from Dora the Explorer to Pillars of the Earth or The Bourne Identity?

This question reminded me of what happened between two editors. One was working on a reader for children, which was taking long to finish, while the other was working on a bigger volume he had already finished and wondered why his other colleague was not finishing such a ‘small’ book! Obviously, the editor of the volume had an assumption that many of us have; we suppose that children’s literature is easier to write and publish. After all they are just ‘small’ books.