"It's made for kids"

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest"

- C.S. Lewis "It's made for kids" is an excuse often used to dismiss criticism towards entertainment made for younger audiences.

This article will focus on the matter regarding literature, but there are also articles on this topic on the Crappy Games, Terrible Shows & Episodes, and Awful Movies wikis.

Background
It is well known that kids are easier to entertain by simpler things that older readers may find stupid or boring at first. Likewise, kids are unlikely to have the skills to read and understand more highly complicated and mature literature. Because of that, literature targeted at younger audiences tend to be simpler than literature targeted at an audiences, but that doesn't mean that kids literature should be too simplistic, realistic, and basic.

Often when people criticize kids literature for either poor quality, short length, cheap comedy, lacking any substance, or anything else they don't like, some people might use the fact that "it's made for kids" as an excuse for it. Sure, it may be made for kids, but that shouldn't be a good enough excuse for poor-quality, effortless, and excessively kid-friendly literature that teens and grownups will find stupid or boring. This excuse also makes kids look like idiots with no real taste who will like anything aimed at them, which isn't actually true. Kids are actually smarter than they're given credit for.

On the other hand, some older people dismiss literature targeted at young audiences as "kiddie books." Just because it's made for kids doesn't mean older readers can't read them or won't find challenge and substance in them. If it's written well enough, anyone of any age can enjoy.

Even if it's made at kids, older readers may be interested in it too. There is a lot of literature aimed at younger audiences that can also be enjoyed by grown-ups, such as Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Harry Potter, etc; the aforementioned literature are made for kids, but have enough substance and real effort put in to be entertaining for older readers and don't pander towards kids too much (either younger or in their pre-teen years).

There is no excuse for making poorly-made kids literature.

Why This Excuse Sucks

 * 1) It’s just a way for people to dismiss criticism towards bad kids' books. By dismissing criticism, the quality of the books may never improve.
 * 2) By pointing out the flaws in kids' books, that can leave improvement and ensure that more kids books can be made to be enjoyed by grownups as well.
 * 3) Let's say that dangerous, faulty, or broken items were on sale. Would you buy them anyway just because they're for kids?
 * 4) It's somehow possible for kids to like books that aren't made for kids.
 * 5) This whole excuse treats kids like idiots with no real taste or standards, who will like anything given to them, which isn't true. Kids may be easy to entertain, but they're not as dumb as you might think.
 * 6) *It should be noted that contrary to popular belief, actually even kids would very likely not enjoy these poorly-made kids' books, hence highlighting this fact further.
 * 7) The only thing this excuse encourages kids to do is to stoop to any low level like ignoring their parents, not listening to them, or simply not caring one little bit about them.
 * 8) The overuse of this excuse is what tends to make kids books in general receive a negative reputation from older audiences, even though some of them don't even deserve all the hate and backlash they get or if the book in question is well received or not.

How to Write Good Kids Literature

 * 1) A pleasing colorful art style and character design(s) that is/are easy on the eye but not too "cartoonish," "basic," "realistic," or "simplistic."
 * 2) *Humanoid/anthropomorphic animals, talking vehicles and trains, and fantasy creatures are usually a good pick for this.
 * 3) A premise or plot that isn't too complicated, but not too simplistic either.
 * 4) *The writing should also be either sharp, well-timed, or just paced decently for all viewers to follow and see how competent the story and everything around it is, not have everything dumbed down.
 * 5) **And don't write stories that make the writing so shallow to the point the literature you're writing looks as if you're playing down the audience by thinking most kids are too stupid to not find poorly written substance funny either.
 * 6) *Kids and/or viewers should be able to read the literature and enjoy their time observing what's in-page or just catch the viewers' interest with what's going on in a chapter without having anything essentially annoying, tedious or boring.
 * 7) Little to no swearing, sexual content and/or minimal blood. Mild cartoon violence is fine, especially if the characters in the literature are non-humans or the violence is used as "slapstick."
 * 8) *However, this can be somewhat averted if the book is aimed at both kids and adults.
 * 9) Educational value, especially in books aimed towards preschoolers.
 * 10) Immersive characters that serve as good role models as protagonists or real challenges as antagonists.
 * 11) *Some children's books even lack antagonists to retain a pleasing mood.

Examples of Good Kids Literature
NOTE: Keep in mind that some good kids books could also use the excuse.
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Diary of a Wimpy Kid
 * Captain Underpants (and its spin-offs Dog Man & Cat Kid Comic Club)
 * The Bad Guys
 * Big Nate
 * Pearls Before Swine
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Calvin and Hobbes
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Green Eggs and Ham
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Bone
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Charlotte's Web
 * Harry Potter
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Garfield
 * Timmy Failure
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:The Cat in the Hat
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:The Gumazing Gum Girl
 * Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
 * mh:wonderfulbooks:Percy Jackson and the Olympians
 * James and the Giant Peach
 * Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing
 * The Railway Series
 * Where's Waldo? / Where's Wally?
 * Curious George
 * Harold and the Purple Crayon
 * The Very Hungry Caterpillar
 * Dinotopia
 * Clifford, the Big Red Dog
 * Where the Wild Things Are
 * Bluey Episode Books
 * The Lorax
 * Pig the Pug
 * Wombat Stew
 * Harry the Dirty Dog
 * The Very Cranky Bear
 * Goodnight Moon

Examples of Bad/Average Kids Literature

 * Dork Diaries


 * My Weird School
 * Fast Food! Gulp! Gulp!
 * Jokes for Minecrafters: Booby Traps, Bombs, Boo-Boos and More
 * Nintendo Coloring Book
 * Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode
 * Kamen Rider 555 Seiden: Deformed Flowers
 * Pinkalicious
 * The Story of The Little Mole
 * Donkey Oille's Christmas in Heaven
 * Funny Kid
 * Fleabag Monkeyface
 * The Emoji Movie: Junior Novel