Children's Books discussion

Hi

I spent some time in a bookstore this morning, children's section, age-range 8 – 12. There were many books but hardly any books of stories. The sales assistant told me that books of stories were very rare and the few she knew of were compilations. So that put paid to my idea - there isn't a market for books of stories.

Moving on to Plan B, is there an optimum length for novels for the age-range 8 – 12?

I think the level for middle grade novels is around 25,000 to 40,000 words, maybe a bit more. I know that teachers don't want the books too short (less than 100 pages) when their students are doing book reports.

Thanks, Chris,
and I hadn't considered the teacher angle.

fyi, there's a group called 'Great Middle Grade Reads' that has more active authors in it and might be able to give you more inspiration

Thank you for this advice, Cheryl.