- Is it so interesting that children will read it rather than watch TV? If you were buying a book for an Native American child, would you buy this book in preference to most of the books in the store?
- Have you hooked the reader on the first page of your novel, or the first two paragraphs? Children's stories must be quick starting and fast action. If in the first two paragraphs there is not something that makes the child want to go on to find out what is going to happen, he will lay the book down and choose a different one. So will your editor!
- If your first page is a description of the Native American boy on his horse, what he looks like, and the romantic setting, tear it up and throw it in the rubbish. However, if your first pages are building background which is essential to the story, remove it, and work it unobtrusively into your second chapter. You may have something important to tell, valuable information to give, and an important moral to teach -- it is all worthless if nobody reads your story. If it has a slow start, children won't read it, so there is no reason for us to publish it.
- Is there a well-developed, on-going plot that will keep the reader wanting to read on?
- Is it authentic? Does it portray Native American characters acting as Native American children really act? If it is a contemporary story, do they act and speak the language of current times? If it is of the past, do they live the part of Cheyenne children of the 1870's, or whatever time, place, and culture you have chosen? Know the culture and the values thoroughly. Make sure this is a true portrayal of the people about whom you write.
- Are you downgrading any group of people? Of course, you have to have a problem for your main character to solve. The problem may be people, nature, or situations, but if the problem is one or more people, no matter how evil, it should not be implied that they are typical of their race or their culture. There are good and bad people in every race and every group. Don't imply that any race, nationality, or culture is superior or less worthy than another. Never imply that any person is bad because he belongs to any cultural or racial group .
- Does your story portray a positive, hopeful attitude? Are you complaining? "Oh, we poor [Native Americans], look what you terrible people did to us!" If that's what you write, you are 75 years out of date. Whether it is a poem or a story, we will not publish it, and we hope nobody else will.
- Will it build the self-concept of the Native American child who reads it, or give the non-Native American reader a better understanding of his Native American neighbors? (Stories for our beginning reader series are based on a somewhat different criteria. The purpose is to give beginning readers of any age reading material which will interest them and make them want to read, and through which they can learn new words or build basic reading skills.)
- Are your characters fully developed? Is the child's character shown through action rather than description? Especially not by physical description. By the end of the first three or four pages, does the reader feel that he really knows and cares about the main character? If there are other characters, does he feel that he really knows at least one other character by the end of the first chapter? Are the characters realistic, not all bad or all good? Real people with good intentions can also make mistakes. In fact, mistakes are often the instigation for the plot.
- How intrusive are the adults? If the child gets into a problem (your plot) and an adult solves it for him, this is not a children's story. Sure, he can remember his grandfather's teaching, but Grandfather can't tell him what to do, or do it for him. The child has to solve the problem himself, through his own thinking and his own action.
- If the story is based on someone's actual experience, is it a real story, or are you so concerned about recording a real incident that only your own family will be interested? If so, give it to your children. Don't send it to us.
- Is there a satisfying ending that makes the reader feel good about the book and the characters it portrays?
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