Just to be clear. The Carroll Brothers Adventures: Pine Cliff Mystery is aimed at the young reader, ages 9 -14. (And secretly at moms, dads and grandparents, but that’s another post)

First, think of yourself as a young person just starting to read “chapter books”. You are 10 or 11 years old.

The book itself is written with short chapters. Why? Because you can put the book down after 30 minutes and think to yourself, “Wow I read three chapters tonight.” And that’s important when you are a young reader. There is a sense of accomplishment. And that sense of accomplishment helps you to pick that book up again tomorrow night before bed and read again.

And each chapter is written with it’s own mini climax. A situation occurs and the tension around that situation grows. Each chapter ends on that high note. And why do this? Well, as a young reader just starting out, your attention span is just developing. You need to engage quickly with the book, otherwise you are going to find it boring. And when you find it boring, you probably don’t want to pick it up again tomorrow night before bed and read some more of it.

The characters in the book are the same age as the young reader. If you are 10 and start reading the book, the characters are 10 in the pictures you create in your mind. The characters are written to be believable. Nobody has magic powers. The world is a world that many young readers can understand. Camping out in the rec room. Playing video games. Being curious. Being scared. Being brave. Having a trusted sibling or close friend. These are things that young readers are experiencing in their own development at this age.

And the characters are in a world of their own. Yes there are adults, but almost all of the interactions happen between the young characters themselves. The decisions. The reasoning. And that is important for young readers, because they are also at the stage in life where they are creating a construct of the world around them, through their own lens.

So why the Carroll Brothers Adventure book? Because to foster a young persons love of reading, you have to give them something that they love to read.