Writing for really young listeners?

[Svrtnsse]

My sister just had a baby and she suggested I should write a children's story so she'd have something to read for the kid. Now the baby is only three weeks old and can't quite tell the difference between Harry Potter and the phone book (will she even know what a phone book is when she grows up), so the deadline isn't exactly tight.

I'm curious though, what should you think about when writing for really young people. My sister wants to read the story/stories to her daughter so the kid probably won't even be able to read herself at the time.

Reading out loud to someone else is different to reading to yourself, so I'm thinking the prose ought to take that into account.

How complicated can stories be?
At the moment I get the impression it's enough for the kid to hear her mother's voice, but that probably won't last that long.

I have no experience with kids whatsoever, but I'm liking the idea of writing for my niece. I'm sure there are people here with kids who can share some experience of writing for them.

 

[MineOwnKing]

Babies love books with mirrors inside.

Shapes and colors.

Peek-a-boo books are great too.

As for words...

One word for each page is plenty.

Example:

Red,
Blue,
Train,
Dog,
Circle,

etc.

Babies love to chew on books.

 

[Heliotrope]

I second everything MOK has said above.

Simple words. Short sentences.

If you want to write a story for an older audience (like a 2-4 year old) they like MC's that are animals or creatures of some sort (check out Little Critter books, my son's favourite).

They like repetition… the same words or phrases repeated over and over and over. There is a very popular Canadian author named Robert Munch that does this and kids love it.

They like themes they can relate too. Little Critter has a book called "I was so mad" and it is about a bad day where Critter isn't allowed to do anything he wants to do. (Like put frogs in the bathtub, do juggling with raw eggs, make the goldfish disappear… etc).

Another one by Robert Munch is "I have to go pee!" about a kid who has to go pee in the most annoying places, like in the car driving to grandmas (after mom and dad asked him repeatedly to go pee at home), or once he has been all bundled up into his snowsuit (again, after mom and dad have asked him to go pee inside). And of course, Robert Munch uses repetition wonderfully, every few pages the kid yelling out "I HAVE TO GO PEE!" Kids like this because they can 'read along'… and join in and use potty words all at the same time

 

[Svrtnsse]

Thanks for the advice guys.
It seems I have a very generous deadline here. I'll keep it in mind though, and maybe I'll have a story for the little one - and her mom - in a few years.