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@arindown

Hey, no problem.  Again, I apologize if I gave too much info 🙂  Your YA books sounds really interesting (let me guess, you’re a LoTR fan?)  And that’s awesome that you get to tell stories to your younger siblings (how many do you have, if you don’t mind me asking?)

arindown wrote: How much is too violent? In the plan right now, I have one main figure dying at the end, but not too much else.

I’m hesitant to answer this question because it does walk a fine line.  Are you going into detail on how this person died?  Or are you mentioning it?  Does the protagonist witness the death, or do they receive the news from someone else?  And is this person that dies a really important Main Character?  It’s been my family’s experience that when a beloved character dies, it’s very heart-breaking, and it could be traumatic for younger kids who became attached.  If it’s a secondary character, it’s sad, but not really traumatic as there may be some emotional distance.  And if it’s an evil character, then there’s a sense of justice.  It’s up to you to decide, really.

arindown wrote:  As for swearing, I think that 99.9% of the time, it’s unneeded anyway, so I’m not going to even touch it…that is, unless a character has an exclamation of their own invention, but that’s not really counted as swearing.

Totally agree!  Have you ever read the Poppy books, by Avi?  He definitely invents ‘exclamations’ for one his characters.  It’s a perfect example of what you’re talking about.

arindown wrote: where would anyone be if we never got inspiration from people greater than us?

So true!

arindown wrote: Are there any books besides Chronicles of Narnia, the Hobbit, or Wizard of Oz that your sister recommends?

She says she mostly focuses on older MG.  But she thinks maybe the Penderwicks series?  Or Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry might work (it’s not labeled ‘MG’, but it sounds close to the age-range you’re looking for.)