I recently discussed Look at my Book, a picture book about writing picture books. It was surprisingly good, and made me curious how strong other books on writing for kids were. This led me to Patricia Forde’s 2025 book Making It Up As You Go Along: A Children’s Guide to Writing Stories.
This is not, I hasten to add, a picture book. This is a fairly thick book (over 250 pages), aimed at older readers (say, 10ish on up). It is, however, surprisingly and genuinely strong.
Let me expand on this. Making It Up As You Go Along is both a good book for kids on how to write and good overall. It gives better and more varied writing instruction than many writing books written for adults. The author is Laureate na nOg or Children’s Literature Laureate of Ireland, and clearly takes her charge seriously: this book displays both energy and dedication. But Foote doesn’t include just her own perspectives: she includes brief pieces by a range of other authors and illustrators, include former Children’s Literature Laureate Siobhan Parkinson.
The book’s 12 chapters start with the idea, then move through character, plot, setting, beginning your story and ending it, and then moves to more specific aspects of fiction writing: world building, comedy, mystery, historical fiction, working with myths and legends, and then, finally, revision. The book (intentionally) offers only limited theoretical discussions, but is full of practical tips (and fun illustrations by Mary Murphy).
