How to Write for Young Children; the 3Rs

The 3R's; Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition

Dec 28, 2009
Ann Burnett

Picture Books for Young Children - Ann Burnett

Rhyme, rhythm and repetition play a large part in the development of language in a young child. The first stories that children hear use these three elements.

Imagine the scene; a mother is dandling her baby on her knee. The baby is looking at her, watching her face intently. What does the mother do? She bounces the baby up and down and sings a short, simple song. The baby smiles and laughs, the mother sings it again. And again. And again. And each time the baby laughs and takes it all in.

Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition

The simple songs the mother sings or recites are more often than not in our culture, nursery rhymes, handed down over many years and now collected into books in their own right. Rhymes like Humpty Dumpty and Hickory Dickory Dock are chanted by mothers to their children as they have been for generations because they have these three elements within them, the 3Rs.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses

And all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Hickory Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the clock,

The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down,

Hickory Dickory Dock

Say these rhymes aloud and you cannot fail to be made aware of the 3Rs. The rhymes are simple, the rhythm infectious and there is plenty of repetition to carry the story along.

A Successful Picture Book Writer

Successful picture book writers often use these elements in their stories though for many years it was suggested that, as picture books are expensive to produce and international sales are aimed at, verse is not easy to translate and so authors should steer clear of writing in rhyme.

Julia Donaldson changed all that. The Scottish writer's books have been successfully translated into many languages and children world-wide can enjoy her stories. Her most successful one is The Gruffalo which has recently been made into an animated film for TV. She uses rhyme, rhythm and repetition to tell the tale of how a little mouse got the better of the woodland creatures and of the gruffalo who were all out to eat him.

A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.

A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.....

The story swings along with a bouncing rhythm and simple rhymes. Every so often, she repeats the couplet,

'A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?'

'A gruffalo? Why, didn't you know?'

Donaldson's other books follow a similar pattern and she has developed a close working relationship with her illustrator, Axel Scheffler. Together, they have won many awards for their work as well as substantial sales.

Janet and Allan Ahlberg's Books for Young Children

Before her untimely death, Janet and Allan Ahlberg produced deceptively simple and fun books for young children using simple rhymes. Each Peach Pear Plum takes the child's game I Spy and links it to nursery rhymes, each illustration requiring the child to find e.g. Jack and Jill or The Three Bears

Both Julia Donaldson and Allan Ahlberg make it look easy. But it takes a great deal of thought and writing and rewriting to get your story just right. Using the 3Rs will help bring your children's story to life.

Read as many of their books as possible to see how these masters of writing for children manage it.