“I like reading books about kids where there weren't really many adults, where they didn't need an adult to come and solve the problems for them. They could use their own ingenuity, use their own talents to solve whatever the issue was. And I like that still. I think that children want to read about heroic children. They don't want to read about children that have to be saved all the time.” ThinkingWantNeedsChildrenStillsBookUseProblemKidsReadingIssuesTalentAdultsSolveSavedHeroicReading BooksIngenuity Author:John Boyne
“I think that books for young people should have serious and important themes, they shouldn't be trivial. So the books I write, they would be the kind of stories you would write in an adult novel only they just happen to feature a child at the center of them.” PeopleThinkingShouldWritingKindChildrenImportantBookStoriesHappensWould BeYoungNovelSeriousAdultsShould HaveFeaturesTheme Author:John Boyne
“With the adult ones, I feel I need to get as deep inside the psychology of a character as I can, and that needs to be first-person. In the children's books, I feel I need some distance. I don't want to be the nine-year-old at the center of the story. I need to have some type of narrative voice.” WantNeedsFeelsYearsFirstsChildrenPersonsI CanBookCharacterStoriesVoicePsychologyTypeAdultsDistanceNineNarrativeFirst PersonDeep InsideNine YearsChildren's BooksNarrative Voice Author:John Boyne
“I don't change the language for children books. I don't make the language simpler. I use words that they might have to look up in the dictionary. The books are shorter, but there's just not that much difference other than that to be honest. And the funny thing is, I have adult writer friends [to whom I would say], "Would you think of writing a children's book?" and they go, "No, God, I wouldn't know how." They're quite intimidated by the concept of it. And when I say to children's books writers, would they write an adult book, they say no because they think they're too good for it.” ThinkingKnowsWritingLooksChildrenBookUseMightLanguageDifferencesKnow HowHonestConceptsAdultsBeing HonestLook UpDictionaryFunny ThingsIntimidatedDon't ChangeChildren's BooksChildren BookChildrens Book Author:John Boyne
“Children's book writers tend to feel quite superior, and adult writers tend to feel they wouldn't know how to write a children's book - which might surprise you because I think a lot of people think it's the other way around.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayFeelsWritingChildrenBookMightKnow HowAdultsSurpriseSuperiorsChildren's Books Author:John Boyne
