Logo-sue-palmerLogo-sue-palmerLogo-sue-palmerLogo-sue-palmer
  • Home
  • My Books
    • About my Books
    • May’s Moon Trilogy
    • Poppy’s Periwinkles
    • Jed’s Jailbreak
  • My Blog
  • About me
  • School Workshops
    • Workshop Overview
    • From the Moon to Mars
    • Could you be an Astronaut?
    • Launch your story
    • Teacher’s Resources
  • Fun Stuff
Contact me
Show my Blog

Bring back Adventure Stories for Children

Children's Adventure Stories

Where are our adventure stories?

Why Adventure Stories are still so important for our Children…

Stories about magical trees, islands, making camp fires and sleeping under the night sky were a large part of my life for years; some secretly enjoyed under my bed covers far too late into the night.

If I think back to the stories that first awakened my love of reading, and later writing, they were all adventure stories.

What appealed to me was the excitement of characters taking part in things too daring for the child version of me. Their experiences were unusual and thrilling to follow, pulling me willingly into their worlds within the first few lines.

Whether Clive King’s, Stig of the Dump, J.M. Barrie’s, Peter Pan or any one of Enid Blyton’s books, I was there in the action from the very first lines of the story.

The other thing that was special about these adventure stories, was that parents hardly ever featured. Those boring conversations about bedtime or homework or writing thank you letters after Christmas were beautifully absent and schoolwork didn’t seem to even exist.

These stories were my escape into a world enjoyed and run by children and their imaginations and I still love them today.

When I’m visiting schools, I’m interested in what children are reading right now and we always have a lively debate about the best stories. The children’s book market has exploded in terms of volume and quality since my early reading days and the choice is now immense.

In any one class I tend to find humour, mysteries, sci-fi, history and always a touch of magic. But there are also a growing number of stories which focus on a character’s internal adventure, with family problems and dramas providing the narrative tension and action. Real issues, current technology and an emphasis on internal struggle result in stories that are are often indistinguishable from real life and that don’t provide the external escape of the traditional adventure story.

When done properly and sensitively, I see huge benefit in these stories helping children to identify with characters who are experiencing the same difficulties as them but the trend seems to be to focus more and more on an internal setting rather than an external one and on a problem that is difficult for a child character to ever solve.

As a writer I love characters who take risks, parents that remain incidental, action, pace and a story where the expected becomes unexpected. These are also the characters I want to create for my books.

Philip Pullman’s, Lyra in his Northern Lights, gives the reader no choice but to follow her through adventure, hardship and resolve in both the most spectacular and ordinary settings.

Escapism is important for all of us and it is usually easier to discover when we look outside of ourselves and our ‘normal’ environment. The outside natural world that we often find in adventure stories can also be a source of rejuvenation, well-being and excitement. Stories set on islands, beaches, in caves or on mountains can be thrilling and, along with new worlds or unusual creatures, encourage children to explore and reach out beyond their existing world.  As we all spend larger parts of our life working and studying indoors, the outdoors can act as a sanctuary and reservoir for ideas, imagination and exploration.

The outside world giving children room for adventure and escapism.

Perhaps a focus on the internal world is a current trend and we will, at some point, see an increase in the number of fabulous adventure stories that are published each year but I’d like to see this sooner rather than later. I want to ‘bring back adventure stories’ now and let our children be children without condition.

 

 

Share

Related Articles

26 February 2021

World Book Day Wonders – Children’s Books


Read more
17 December 2020

Schools showcase their space writing talent


Read more
30 November 2020

Authors into Schools – Cost v Benefit


Read more

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles

  • Classroom Space Quiz for KS2
    25 March 2021
  • World Book Day Wonders – Children’s Books
    26 February 2021
  • Image of Satellite orbiting the Earth
    Super Satellites And What They Mean For Us
    31 January 2021
  • Schools showcase their space writing talent
    17 December 2020
  • Authors into Schools – Cost v Benefit
    30 November 2020
  • Blog Topics

    • Book News & Events
    • Fun Stuff
    • Reading & Writing
    • School Workshops
    • Space News
    • Teacher's Resources

Article Archives

Search our Articles

Toppsta Profile

Book Reviews - Happy Reading

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow
no title has been provided for this book
Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed (Uncle Gobb 1)
Wonder
The Last Wild
Cover of Journey to the River Sea Book

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL MY BOOK REVIEWS

Buy my adventure books at your local independent Book Shop or online

Waterstones Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Toppsta
Click here for all the bookshops selling my books

May's Moon (ISBN: 9781782797807)
May's Moon - Fortis Mission (ISBN: 9781789040913)

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

View / Buy Online here

  • Hive UK
  • Foyles
  • Waterstones
  • The Space Store
  • WHSmiths
  • Barnes & Noble US
  • Indie Bound US
  • Amazon UK
  • Amazon US
  • Toppsta
 

Local Book Shops

  • The Bell Bookshop, Henley
  • The Wallingford Bookshop, Wallingford
  • The Book House, Thame

Subscribe to my Newsletter

Receive updates on my books and writing events. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Email address

Legal and Disclaimer

GDPR Privacy Policy
Terms of Use, Disclaimer & Copyright

School Workshops - Documents

Sample Workshop Agreement Form
Sample School Pre-Order Form

Workshop: Launch your Story

Launch Your Story - KS2 Workshop Outline
Launch your Story - Workshop Worksheets

Workshop: From the Moon to Mars

From the Moon to Mars - KS2 Workshop Outline

Workshop: Could you be an Astronaut?

Could you be an Astronaut? - KS2 Workshop Outline
© 2015-2020 S Y Palmer. All Rights Reserved. | South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
Office Access
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Instagram
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Email