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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48876
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48876
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I agree with the answer by @motosubatsu, +1.

What I would add is it seems you are not really writing a children's story, which just doesn't demand very challenging concepts for them. I think you are writing a story for adults and trying to disguise it as a children's story, to slip it under the radar, or to indoctrinate children and/or adults into some POV on the oil industry.

Personally I think the oil industry is packed wall to wall with evil incarnate, but understanding why is far beyond the mental abilities of children still being read to by their parents; heck it is clearly beyond the mental abilities of _some_ voters that have graduated high school.

Children's stories have simple plots and simple concepts, simple dangers they can grasp. At the age when they are being read to, their rationality is so weak they will believe in anything their Mommy and Daddy (or equivalent) tell them, including that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are real live people. Including magic and superheros that can do anything, because they saw them on TV with their own eyes.

If you have to explain more than one word in your book, I don't think you are writing on their level. You can devote a children's book to them learning one new word with examples of how to use it, but I think very few parents are interested in teaching their four year old what "fracking" means or even what a "pipeline" is.

I'd pick another topic, or write for a different audience, one developed enough to ask their phone to define the occasional word they do not understand. 10 year olds and up, perhaps.

Original score: -1