Posted by I met Kevin Lewis at my regional conference. He’s a seasoned agent at Erin Murphy Literary Agency and kidlit creator. His presentation on “The Truth About Trucks” was engaging and jam packed with practical craft tips for those interested in creating board books and rhymers for the youngest readers.
Here’s one takeaway that I’ve never heard before:
Check the CDC milestone chart for ideas on age-appropriate behavior.
Kevin Lewis, 2019 SCBWI MDDEWV Regional Conference
As a parent, I was super familiar with milestones, but I had never thought about using them to inform my writing or visual stories. They describe physical, social, language, and cognitive milestones. This chart is a goldmine of traits for characters that might help map out a character whose age you can’t quite pin down in the page.
Of course, any rule is meant to be broken. And of course, we have characters who act older than their age, but I like to be the ballpark first. Hope this helps!