Hello there :)

So, to elaborate on my title, I've gotten an idea for a story recently that I think would be better geared to a more pre-teen audience, but most of what I've written has always been more relevant for the young adult (I mean 17-25) group. When I think back to the books that were popular when I was in that age, it's kind of a really mixed bag. Lots of girls were reading the American Girls series alongside Harry Potter. There's a wide range of level that's acceptable is what I guess I'm getting at. I know I was advanced for my age group (my reading level was always tested at four-five years above my grade) so I don't know if looking at my own history is a fair example. Though I did love some books that were considered 'at' my grade level.

Really what I want to do is figure out how to find the happy medium - I don't want to be too dense or too mature, but I also don't want the story to come off like I'm looking down on my readers, which is a huuuuge mistake that it seems reading lists can make all too easily. When I was in first grade, my teacher actually told me there was no possible way I could be reading the chapter books that I was enjoying because she just didn't believe it. I don't want to be that negative image in a kid's life that makes them feel they're bad for being ahead of the curve. Alternatively, I know a book that doesn't interest kids won't sell because the kids won't want it.

I really would love anything you can offer from advice to samples to examples because I really like this story idea and I think it could be something that could really shape and encourage readers.

One good thing to do is to look at what worked and didn't work in books aimed for the age range you want to write for. That's really a good tip if you're writing anything as only through experience can you form opinions on themes, cliches, ect.

As for worrying about how your young readers will feel about what others think...that's really not something you can control. People will be picked on and looked down for anything.

I tend to write for older teens to adults (some things I write I wouldn't want people under 18 readingXD). So knowing how to write for a pre-teen audience...can't really give personal advice on that.

For me I always prefer romantic books at a young age probably due to Disney movies but one thing I learned from them was they always entice you the moment you read the first chapter. Nowadays there are a lot of genres for young readers and sometimes it's hard to choose what story you want to read but all in all, it's really the story that counts. A good story no matter what genre will be readable :3! Hope this helps a bit!

Kids are usually smarter than we give them credit for, at least in my humblest opinion. The best way to know what, exactly is going to be enjoyable for a younger audience is to think about the opinions you may have had on certain media at a certain age. I think a good example in my own case was with two animated movies (not books, I know, but bare with me) that I remember seeing around the same time, Titan AE and Osmosis Jones. I LOVED the former, because it made me believe in its world, and enveloped me in a colorful, innovative story with some pretty cool characters that wasn't afraid of taking certain risks. The latter, while having some of the same positives (colorful imagery, a creative art style, etc.) turned me off quite a bit with some of the overly gross humor and the jarring shift being the animated segments and the life-action ones. I was only eleven at the time, but even then, I was very opinionated. ^^;

So, tl;dr, just try to remember what you liked as a preteen, and decide what elements you want to take in from certain media you loved at that age.

- that's what I was thinking, but then I remembered I was a /really/ weird kid (and am a very weird person by most standards today) so I don't know if my own experiences are a fair basis. I was fairly easy to please, though if something tried to be pandering or talk down to me that was a 'nope go away.'

The thing that I'm /really/ worried about is the structure though. What age do added pictures become too dumb? (Personally I love it when adult books have a few pictures in them, even if it's just some art with the start of every chapter.) How long should chapters be, and sentence structure, and does it really matter if I focus my writing at being a certain reading level? There's some kind of weird equation where you add up the words in a sentence and the words in a paragraph and divide it by the number of pages or something really weird like that to determine reading level, but that doesn't seem right (since paragraph density varies so much). Then there's the 'vocabulary set' that's expected of different age groups, but again everyone has their own abilities. I don't want to fly over people's heads, but I accidentally use a lot of 'GRE words' in my everyday speech. (I found out that the words I was using were considered GRE prep words when I was trying to study for the GRE and they kept pulling up words and I was just like 'wait...I use that...when speaking...that's supposed to be vocabulary people have to learn?') On the other hand, using words people aren't familiar with is the best way for them to learn new words, and learn how to figure out how to learn what new words they encounter mean.

I'm probably making no sense right now ._. I'm just so nervous. I don't want to mess it up.