Welcome back to my series of articles. In case you didn’t read my last article, I talked about character building, action levels and descriptive terms for books for middle schoolers. This time around we will talk about adding animals to your book, age appropriate topics and more.

Every kid likes an animal in the books they read and sometimes the animals can even keep a person reading. First thing to know about adding an animal is not to make them too human-like unless the book is completely about animals. That tends to dilute their character and can sometimes even make a reader think that your book is too far-fetched. Talking animals, for instance, are more of a little kiddie thing than a middle school thing.

The first rule of adding an animal, however, is don’t ever kill them off unless absolutely necessary. Kids hate it when a cute puppy dies or a kitty falls off a cliff. A trick to know is that girls like horses and other cute animals more than boys who tend to prefer dogs. Cats are a middle ground with both boys and girls liking them. Cats should have a calm and mostly sunny disposition while dogs should be energetic and fun. Horses and other animals can be their own unique selves. Just remember, DON’T kill the cat! Most animals in books tend to have a relationship with a person. That is often very important to the plot and other major parts of the book. If an animal is not friendly, or at least gentle, kids will tend not to like them. So if the animal needs to be liked for readers to fully enjoy your story, make sure the animal has at least some appeal.

One common issue with books is age-inappropriate topics. For instance, a book for little kids may talk about people killing each other. This is what some people might call an inappropriate topic for the age. As a little kid, I read a book just like the one I described that was meant for little kids. It gave me nightmares. For a middle school age kid, violence without a ton of gory stuff is fine. Blood here and there? Fine, too. However, draw the line at bloody murders, horror scenes or other stuff like that. Save that for your older kids' books.

Swearing is not okay either. I know I mentioned this in the last article; however, I'm going to bring it up again. Swearing in books teaches kids bad language and may even encourage them to use that type of language at school or in public. Not exactly something most people want their kids to do. Also, don’t mention current politics. That can cause a ton of problems, especially if the kid has a different opinion than you or a book character. Good rule: no politics at all. (If you are writing a historical fiction book, then it is fine.)

Thanks for reading, folks! And don’t worry, there are more articles coming soon!