Books For Children Written By Children

The saying goes that there is a novel in everyone, but when it comes to kids there are probably lots more than just one!

Children by their very nature can let their imaginations run wild, so why not fuel their fire by suggesting interesting people, places, animals or objects for them to make up a story about.

For example, you could suggest they dream up a story involving his Uncle Tom, a car, and Australia. I suggested this to my son just for fun and he came up with a story where Uncle Tom won a brand new car in a prize draw, so he decided to drive it to Australia to see the Sydney Opera House. But the car was magical, and if you found some Pixie dust to sprinkle on the bonnet, it would be able to fly for 50 miles!

So his story could be developed into a series of mini-adventures where Uncle Tom stopped off along the way in search of Pixie dust, and would meet a mix of interesting people and strange creatures. The last story would be when he arrived at the Opera House, and was allowed to sing on stage.

Having some consistency like having one main character within the stories would enable your child to develop this character further - maybe discover some hidden talents, or learn something important along the way?

It is often more fun for younger children to make up stories about a person or family member they already know. How amusing would it be to have his great granddad really be a superhero who can fly, or climb tall buildings.... the list is endless.

Get out the colouring pens, crayons and paints! Let your child express themselves on paper and design a whole new creature they could make stories up about. You could use some of the artwork for the cover of the book too.

When I first discussed with Joe about making a kindle book from some of his stories, he was so enthusiastic that he told two of his best friends about our project. They in turn were also excited to know more about Dumblebum and his adventures, so much so that they both started designing front covers for his books, and even writing stories of their own.

This project has not only resulted in my son having his first book of stories published, but has also engaged and inspired other boys to get creative and excited about books and reading, which is no bad thing in my book!

If fact, the project has even spread around some of my son's school friends, and he now seems to have a whole team of 9 and 10 year old boys and girls all contributing story ideas, plot lines, and artwork for Josephs Dumblebum books. The idea seems to be snowballing, and some parents of these children have told me their kids have been drawing and writing away in note books most evenings instead of playing on their computers or game consoles. They are quite amazed by the effect the project is having on them.

One of Joseph's best friends has also written a story about Dumblebum using some ideas thought up between them.

He has also designed and drawn his own cover, and a couple of pictures to go inside his book. His mum then turned his story into a mini book using some desk top publishing software, and printed off some copies so he could give them to his friends at school.

This has sparked an idea with his teachers for a class project where each child writes a story and makes a mini-book from it. I think this is a brilliant way of inspiring the class to become more creative, and foster a deeper interest in reading books and help to develop their individual writing skills.

Once produced, the books can be passed around the children so they can read each other's stories, and maybe even give them ideas for new stories of their own.

You never know, there may be the next J K Rowling somewhere in there!

This idea could be developed further where the stories are all combined to make one book, then they could be printed and sold to parents and the general public to help raise money for school funds.