Suppose you've just gone through a divorce and lost custody of your kids. Or a loved one has recently died of cancer. Or you struggled in school as a child because you have dyslexia. Many writers turn difficult periods in their lives into books for children, hoping to help young readers through similar painful experiences. Children want to read about how they feel.
Many writers create a child character and tell the story through that character's eyes.
If you want to stick closer to nonfiction, make sure the book focuses on the child in the center of the event, and is told in a narrative format with a beginning, middle and end. Older children can handle more traditional self-help books, with each chapter concentrating on a specific aspect of the problem. However, interspersing the advice with personal anecdotes from other children who have gone through the same thing will make the information more appealing and relevant to the readers. Targeting appropriate publishers with these manuscripts is important. Always send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the children's editorial department asking for writer's guidelines before submitting your manuscript.