Why Children/Young Adult Books

I am very interested in the publishing business. I’m looking to get my foot in the door somewhere where my skills and talents can be translated into a career. However, I would very much like to work with children and young adult books. When I told someone this, I was asked why.

My automatic response to that question is that young adult literature is what I write. My books, while complex and convoluted are essentially about a young girl who ends a war in another magical world. At the end of the series, she’s 25 years old, but she begins her journey at 16. She struggles to find herself, to find love, to deal with pain and loss, and to simply live. It’s a high fantasy epic which I hope can be purchased in every bookstore out there one day. Of course, it needs to be finished then published first, but that’s a minor detail.

The truth is. I like children and young adult books. I like reading them, they’re quick and easy, and they remind me of where I came from. I wasn’t always a fast reader, or a good one. But I developed that. Every chance I got, I bought books and bookmarks (because that’s what kids do. They buy the fancy, holographic, find-the-picture bookmarks) from the Scholastic book fairs. I still have some of those – both the books and the bookmarks. I still haven’t read some those – the books only this time. I bought too many for me to read every year, I kept my favorite books and the ones I still intend to read. But those book fairs helped to shape me into an avid reader. I rarely go anywhere now without a book in my hand.

But that’s not the only reason why I want to work with the books that the kids of today will be reading.

So here’s the list of why:

1. You’ve heard it. I like them.

2. My parents, specifically my dad. When I was young, every night before I went to bed, my parents read to me. I don’t know how many times I fell asleep to the sound of my dad’s voice, but I do remember that sound. Even now, the memory of his voice rumbles through my chest as he reads the words and acts out the voices for each character of some unknown tale. How many children received what I had? How many children do so now?

3. My sister, who is mentally handicapped and will never develop mentally beyond that of a five year old. She can’t read. She probably never will. But if you put a picture book in front of her, she’ll tell you a story. She’ll “read” it to you. I love that childhood imagination. And it reminds me to keep it alive in myself. I want to help bring that out in others. I want to be a part of someone’s adventure, even if they don’t know I was involved.

4. Me. I’m a big kid. There are certain areas of my life in which I have always felt above my years in responsibility and maturity. I attribute these aspects of my personality to having a sister who is mentally retarded. In many respects, I had to grow up a little faster than everyone else because I had to protect her from bullies, babysit for my parents, and care for her when my parents weren’t able to (which admittedly wasn’t often). I don’t mind though, this helps me immensely in the business world because I have a strong sense of my responsibilities and I’ve always taken them seriously. One of my last bosses wrote the following recommendation, taken from my LinkedIn page: “I am very pleased to recommend Lisa Wicks, as her work has been exemplary, on time, often delivered prior to tight deadlines, and with the maturity and quality of a professional many years ahead of Lisa's position.” But my weakness is cartoons. I love to watch the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. They make me laugh. Phineas and Ferb is pretty ingenious; example below. So I feel like I have a connection with kids.

I may be 25 years old, but when my nieces and nephew come by, guess whom they’re playing with. I’m usually up for a game on the Wii, or my PS2, or even a game like Uno, Parcheesi, or Apples to Apples. Last time my niece Samantha came over to spend the night we spent a couple hours reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". We only got through maybe half a chapter, but we were reading aloud and had to check the definition of several words (for her benefit, not mine obviously). But I did this because I liked that book and quite frankly, reading was always an adventure for me and I want so much for her to feel that way about reading as well. I would love for all kids to feel that way about reading.

But how does one say all of this when answering that question on the street? “Well, there are many parts to this, here let me read you off a list.”