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Lately I’ve been
getting a bunch of queries featuring main characters that are beings previously
unheard of. While I’m a big fan of aliens and/or other nonhuman critters
playing a part in a story, sometimes when an author embarks on a tale including
only a checkerboard, slimy, spherical, who-knows-what, the plotline gets really
difficult to understand. Stories featuring animals (families of bunnies, dogs,
cats, etc.) all work because those animals are something a child is familiar
with already. However, a host of some things previously unknown, like tiny,
fluffy cubes, are going to have a hard time keeping kids interested enough to
turn the page, unless the next page consists of the cubes interacting with a
relatable human character. Fluffballs can work, but they can’t stand on their
own; there must be some relatable animals or humans in there too.
When the
protagonists in a story are beings previously unheard of, a leap of faith is
required that not all readers are willing to take. Emphasizing with those types
of characters is much more difficult than relating to a human character.
Typically as readers, we are led to highly imaginative places with a guide we
can believe in and trust, like Alice in Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland. When our guides are creatures virtually unheard
of, it can stop a younger reader from reaching the second page. On the other
hand, there is a way crazy characters can work. Many well-known children’s
books feature an all-animal cast or introduce creatures we are not familiar
with. In The Sneetches, the story is
clear and the characters have the aid of Dr. Seuss’s own illustrations; and
because he is able to illustrate his creative creatures as he intends them to
be seen, it works. But without an illustration or some frame of reference for
readers to visualize these great characters, stories with bizarre nonhuman
non-animal characters are not as successful.
Written by Ariel Rosen
