Furthermore, research evidence involving picture books^1,2,3 indicates that children are more, rather than less, receptive to greater narrative complexity -- i.e., setting and worldbuilding elements -- than adults. Writers often believe that in order for kids to be able to follow complex narratives they need to acquire a certain level of developmental maturity. But interviews with children indicate that they're capable of comprehending difficult subject matter at far younger ages than most people suppose2 and frequently notice details that adults routinely miss3.

However, it means that children's writers face an especial challenge: How to effectively introduce and convey a wholly realized fantastical realm within such rigid space considerations?

Worldbuilding Basics: Avoid Infodumps

Infodump - Large chunk of indigestible expository matter intended to explain the background situation. This can be overt, as in fake newspaper or "Encyclopedia Galactica" articles inserted in the text, or covert, in which all actions stops as the author assumes center stage and lectures⁴.

Common Types of Infodumps:

• Frontloading - Piling too much exposition into the beginning of the story so that it becomes so dense and dry that it is almost impossible to read⁴.
  
  
• "As You Know Bob" - The most pernicious form of infodump. In which the characters tell each other things they already know for the sake of getting the reader up to speed⁴.
  
  
• Author Needs You to Know - Dialogue or action that blatantly has no purpose other than to educate the reader about some important story detail. Usually a failed attempt to smoothly work in an infodump; cousin of the As You Know Bob⁴.
  E.g., "Do you really need it spelled out?" Bob ranted. "We [followed by explanation]..." Or, "So, boss, remind me what time I'm supposed to whack the president?" Or, "Say, Captain, do we have enough fuel to reach Tau Ceti, our destination, in our scheduled time of six months?"
  
  

The same complexities exist for the children's literature worldbuilder, that of maintaining readers' suspension of disbelief, as the adult literature worldbuilder, but we have less time to establish credibility and consistency, the keys to upholding a reader's trust. And the sin of committing an infodump is even more egregious in works for children. Writers have to be very selective in what details they employ to describe their setting, and each word has to carry its own weight.

Guiding Principles

1. Show, don't tell. Avoid writing scenes whose sole purpose is to explain something about your world. Intersperse narrative with dialogue or action, or preferably both.
   
   
2. Don't stop the action. Your story should always be moving forward, progressing your characters through the events of your plot.
   
   
3. Stick close to the action and your protagonist. Don't allow yourself to drift into lengthy expositions and digressions. What's a "lengthy exposition"? Too long and just long enough are subjective and circumstantial, but if you find it tedious to write, it's a good bet that it's too long.
   
   
4. If you create a wholly fantastical world, establish laws upon which to lay the groundwork of how it works. And use your setting and characters to show (not tell) how things works through cause and effect, creating plausible actions and outcomes. The technical construction of your new laws of reality should be based, however loosely, upon what we know about the real world. And when you veer away from the real world, have a reason for it.
   
   
5. Stringently maintain logic of circumstance. Avoid introducing coincidences and deus ex machina. The exception is a coincidence that is to the detriment of your protagonist's goals. Bad coincidences are believable because they do not further your (and your story's) target: to get your character to the resolution of his or her story in a satisfying manner. Coincidences which create new obstacles that your hero(ine) must overcome are interesting . . . up to a point.
   
   
6. Your characters must be "real" people, no matter how many extra limbs, antennae, or exotic abilities they might have, with understandable emotions, motivations, and goals that kids can relate to. Believable characters are ones that grow and change as a result of their experiences.
   
   
7. Anchor the unfamiliar with the familiar. Even the most fantastic worlds are based -- to greater and lesser extents--on the real one. This provides a necessary frame of reference in order to ground understanding. Use figurative language -- similes and metaphors -- to draw parallels between the fantastic and the mundane. But keep them tangible and salient. Metaphors that refer to sensory objects are better than ones that use abstract concepts or ideas.

Kids are wonderfully imaginative. If you don't give them a reason to get pulled out of your story, they'll stay rapt with you and your characters to the end.

Find Out More...

• Creating a Realistic Fantasy World, by Penny Ehrenkranz

1. Lewis, D. (2001). Picturing Text: The Contemporary Children's Picturebook. London, New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

2. Bromley, H. (1996). Spying on Picture Books: exploring intertextuality with young children. In V. Watson & M. Styles (Eds.), Talking Pictures: Pictorial Texts and Young Readers. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

3. Styles, M. & Arizpe, E. (2003). Children Reading Pictures: Interpreting Visual Texts. London, New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

4. Shiner, E. & Sterling, B. (Eds.). The Turkey City Lexicon: A Primer for SF Workshops 2ed. https://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/18/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/.