After I wrote the third book in my Jonathan Stephens series, it occurred to me that with those books, I had limited my potential audience. The Jonathan books were only aimed at boys. Not many girls in that age group want to read books about boys, so I started thinking about how I could write for both girls and boys. Why not expand my reader base?
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. My wife and I have a daughter and a son, so our house has always focused on girl and boy stuff. I came up with the idea of a girl and boy who worked together to solve mysteries, and the result was The Natalie & Noah Mysteries: The Garbage Vandal. Natalie and Noah are 8 year-old third grade students who have been friends for several years.
A book with two, equal main characters, one girl and one boy, should be interesting to both girls and boys. I needed these characters to share the spotlight to underscore the notion that girls and boys are equally important. Natalie and Noah work side by side to hunt for clues and solve mysteries I did my best to ensure that they receive equal credit in their quests, and hopefully, become equal role models.
I wanted my characters to be quite smart, but not to appear smarter than the adults. Many of us do know kids who are smarter than many adults, but that’s not a character that many students like or can identify with. Kids of this age are often wary of fellow students who are clearly smarter than most, and sometimes, they avoid those allegedly smarter students.
Kids seem to enjoy characters that are more like they are – basically, regular kids, not necessarily the smartest person in the room. And definitely not kids who are smug enough to know that they are smarter than many adults and take advantage of it. My characters, Natalie and Noah, are perhaps a bit smarter than the average kid, but they don’t pretend to be smarter than adults, and they don’t really notice that they are a bit smarter than some of their peers.
I wanted these kids to appear to be a little smarter than my original kid character – Jonathan Stephens. Making kids appear genius level could be a turn off for the average kid reader, so I did my best to make Natalie and Noah smart enough to solve mysteries without getting into the stratosphere – too smart for average readers to identify with. I wanted Natalie and Noah to be a bit heroic, but still relatable.
Natalie and Noah are clearly smart kids, but they are humble about their abilities, and respectful to peers and adults. Like my Jonathan Stephens character, they are still kids, subject to the problems encountered by others their age.
These two sleuths do their best to use their brains to discover clues and to solve mysteries. A great many kids their age do not think of themselves as smart. The world is still new to them, with many things they don’t understand. Too many kids of many ages take this to mean that they are just not smart enough. Many of them do not realize that knowledge comes with age and experience. The lesson to young readers in the Natalie and Noah book is, of course, is that at this age, no one is expected to be worldly and to know everything. Anyone can develop their thinking abilities, regardless of age.
Larry Manch is an author, teacher, guitar player, freelance writer, and columnist. He has written 24 books; available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.com.
Follow @LTM_Author
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