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Big Words, Big Adventures

Big Words, Big Adventures

Empowering kids through language, one adventure at a time.

While drafting our first middle grade novel, THE LOST HEIR, back in 2011, we toiled over how to approach the writing level. We ultimately decided NOT to dumb down the language in the books at all. Kids are smart! We figured they can handle it. 🤓 By doing so, we actually attracted a lot of adult readers, as well. Go figure! 😮

So, while sticking to kid-friendly storytelling, we wrote The Gryphon Chronicles with pretty much the same level of plot and character complexity and diction (i.e. word choice) as if we were writing the series for adults. You will find some pretty BIG words peppered into these books, especially from Archie, LOL. (For those of you new to the series, you'll meet him about halfway through THE LOST HEIR.) In one spot, he refers to Dani as "indefatigable," ha ha. Maybe not a word in the typical 10-year-old's lexicon. But how else are they going to learn? Seeing challenging words in context helps show how they work.

>>> An Aside from G: Funny childhood story on word choice! I've always been a word lover. In 4th grade, the whole class laughed at me once for using a big word when I raised my hand and answered a question, but my teacher was the one who instigated it, oddly enough. (Same teacher who once accused me of plagiarizing a homework assignment, but it was my own actual writing! 😠 My mother went Momma Grizzly Bear on her for that, as I'm sure some of you moms out there can imagine. "My daughter LOVES writing, it's her hobby, she writes constantly at home!" etc.)

ANYWAY when I raised my hand during our English lesson that day and said that the passage from our day's reading assignment was "repetitive," the teacher (not one of the nuns, btw) stared at me and then echoed the word slowly in a mocking tone, and all the kids laughed at me on cue. Sheesh! That moment nearly turned me into one of those kids who tries to hide the fact that they're smart. 🤓

Now back to the main topic of the post.

In closing, these two C.S. Lewis quotes also helped to convince us that we made the right choice in refusing to dumb down verbiage and keeping ALL ages in mind. The great man said: "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest." And, one of the best quotes of all time: "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." 🧚‍♀️

Okay word nerds... What's one of your favorite words? Gael is very fond of LUMINOUS. Eric couldn't choose between PHENOMENON and PLETHORA. 🧐

Let the adventure begin...

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