I require a modicum of assistance!

[napoleonherself]

I am in a YPP forum contest to write and illustrate a children's bedtime story, with many delicious in-game prizes for the top winners. It has to be geared towards kids roughly in the 6 to 8 block, in the reading-it-to-them sense, not in the they-read-it-themselves sense. I have not had much experience with kids that age in some time, so I will need some input from those more knowledgeable in this area. Ergo I ask: How many minutes should a story of this sort run? I mean, assuming that the time I take to read it out loud, with pauses for the showing of currently-imaginary pictures, is the same time a parental figure would take reading it to a kid at bedtime. I'm guessing 10 minutes would be acceptable, but is this actually too long for a small child's bedtime attention span? I have no idea!

Help plz? Tenkyoo.

Comments

[kastofsna.livejournal.com]

just look at what seuss did. "hop on pop." i mean seriously, this is easy stuff. bright and colorful, rhyming and/or rhythmic words. try to avoid ethnic jokes

[napoleonherself.livejournal.com]

I've got the basic language structure down, and the pictures are definitely going to be colorful. I just don't know what's a good length!

[ohamsie.livejournal.com]

I thought you didn't like the kiddies? Anyways, I'd keep it between five and ten minutes, probably closer to the five minute mark.

[napoleonherself.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't much like kids at all, at least not in the general sense. But I could not resist a contest that so perfectly dovetails with my drawing abilities, and that might get me shiny nonexistent things.