Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Using footnotes in fiction: children's book which can be enjoyed by adults

When I was a kid, I had the Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking With Beasts companion books, and I read them over and over. I didn't know a lot of the more technical terms, but I could either look t...

posted 5y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:42:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48878
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:13:22Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48878
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T13:13:22Z (almost 5 years ago)
When I was a kid, I had the _Walking With Dinosaurs_ and _Walking With Beasts_ companion books, and I read them over and over. I didn't know a lot of the more technical terms, but I could either look them up in the dictionary, or just guess what they meant based on context. It didn't affect my enjoyment of, or engrossment in, the stories in the slightest.

I personally wouldn't worry about including footnotes _or_ a glossary. If a child reading your book doesn't know what a word means, they can always ask their parents/teacher/dictionary/Google what it means. I _would_ worry about making them do this too often, though: they will either get bored of having to look things up, or simply get confused. Either way, they'll stop reading.

(Disclaimer: I was a fairly precocious child so my experience may not be true of all children, but that's also partly why I advise making sure you don't overuse technical language.)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-11-08T14:16:58Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 3