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What makes a great children’s story?

Jul 25, 2021 | Blog

What makes a great children’s story?

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
– Charles Mingus

At Whimsifull, our stories are the heart and soul of everything we do.

We’re passionate about getting kids to read, learn new things, and experience positive screen time by immersing themselves in our personalized video stories.

And through our research we’ve discovered that the most successful children’s stories have three things in common:

1. Relatable themes and characters

Whether the story is real or imaginary, the most successful children’s stories are ones that kids can relate to.

The reader wants to live an adventure through the main character’s eyes. So the best authors link the reader and the protagonist so they can share one identity.

That’s why kids are often the protagonists in books aimed at kids – whether it’s an 11 year old Harry flying off to Hogwarts, 7 year old Alice going down the rabbit-hole to Wonderland, or 9 year old Max heading to Where the Wild Things Are.

 

Whimsifull-mother and daughter watching tv on tablet

Writing kids as characters helps to keep young readers engaged so they can better connect with the story and retain it’s information.

That’s because stories help kids to develop their sense of empathy by mirroring the characters’ experiences, perspectives and the lessons they learn.

At Whimsifull, we’ve taken this one step further by transforming the reader into the main character.

Using our unique cutting-edge character creation and rendering technology, you can create main character avatars with any skin color, hair type and eye color. That means your kids are literally the star of the story and hear their name throughout their adventures into our Whimsifull lands.

Whimsifull-Small children sisters at home, watching story tales on laptop.

2. Unique writing style

Childrens’ books tell their story through a seamless fusion of visuals, words and writing style.

This triple approach expands young minds, especially when the text uses poetic language, fun alliteration, and interesting vocabulary.

Rhyming is a popular choice in children’s books, and for good reason. When there’s a pleasing rhythm to the language, the story flows naturally from page to page.

And the anticipation and resolution of the rhyme keeps young minds engaged while helping them to develop their active listening skills and phonemic awareness.

3. Attention-grabbing visuals

Children’s books are full of big, bold visuals.

The best visuals tell the eye where to focus and aren’t too busy or confusing.

When done correctly, illustrations will help to keep kids’ attention and stimulate their imagination, and enhance the entire reading experience.

But the biggest benefit of visuals is that they help kids to understand the stories, especially if they can’t read yet.

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Children’s stories may seem simple to read, but take it from us, they are complex to create.

One thing we know for sure – it’s all worth it to see their eyes light up, their synapses fire, and their imaginations soar.

After all, these are the stories that set the stage for a lifetime of reading.

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