When writers set out to pen children’s books, they may well anchor to their own childhoods for inspiration.
Which is good on the whole! I’m on record arguing that a good memory is more helpful for writing children’s books than proximity to current children. It’s important to channel what it’s like to be a child. Even if you’re a parent or teacher, it’s hard to shed your now-adult lens on what kids are like.
But there’s a danger here. Many writers set their children’s books in the era of their childhoods, or, even worse, the setting is nominally the present, but no one seemingly has access to a smartphone.
If you’re going to set a children’s book in the past, there needs to be a good reason for it.
Don’t set a book in the past simply because you struggle to imagine a childhood with smartphones
Agents tend to look skeptically at children’s books set in the recent past because quite honestly, many authors set their books in the 20th century simply because they struggle to imagine childhood with smartphones and social media.
If the era a book is set doesn’t really affect the story, except for the fact that no one has smartphones, agents may well wonder why the book isn’t simply set in the present. A book set in the past solely because that’s what an author remembers may feel like it’s more for the author cataloguing memories than truly intended for a contemporary child.
While there isn’t an official cutoff for when a book ceases being contemporary and starts becoming historical fiction, it gives me no pleasure to tell you that anything set in the 20th Century at this point is historical fiction.
Immerse the reader in the setting
I’m absolutely not arguing in this post that you’re not “allowed” to write historical fiction for kids. You absolutely can!
But…
- The era needs to be an intentional choice bound up in the story being told
- The setting needs to be immersive and impact the characters
An instant classic example here is Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, which won the National Book Award a few years ago. It’s set in 1950s San Francisco, and focuses on a Chinese American girl who starts frequenting North Beach lesbian bars. It captures a unique moment in history with a subculture that no longer exists in the same way, with an undercurrent of danger given the societal norms of the era.
That novel could only have been set at that particular time.
If you’re going to set a book in the past, think about how the era can influence the characters, whether via different societal values, historical events (e.g. the AIDS crisis of the ’80s affecting the story), and broader cultural ephemera (records, posters, pop culture).
Don’t just remove the cell phones from the story and call it a day.
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Art: A Girl Reading by Pierre-August Renoir
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