The Things Children Write

There is a particular form of literature that receives insufficient recognition. It is not polished. It does not follow genre conventions. Its relationship with punctuation is improvisational at best. It is primary school writing, and it is one of the purest forms of human expression available to the modern reader.

Some examples, drawn from the genre's rich tradition.

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**On the topic of instructions (Year 2):**

> *How to Make a Sandwich* > 1. Get the bread. > 2. Put the filling. > 3. Put the other bread on top. > 4. Give it to someone else because I don't like sandwiches.

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**On the topic of family (Year 1 show-and-tell):**

> My dad has a very loud laugh. When he laughs at the TV everyone has to wait. This is annoying.

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**On the topic of what they want to be when they grow up (Year 3):**

> I want to be a scientist who invents a machine that tells you if the food is poisonous before you eat it. My mum says this is very specific. I think it is practical.

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**On the topic of historical empathy (Year 5, perspective of a Victorian child):**

> Life is hard. I must work fourteen hours in the factory. My feet hurt. Also I am hungry. Also the inspector came and I told him everything was fine but everything is not fine.

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**On the topic of the water cycle (Year 4):**

> The water goes up into the clouds and then it comes back down. This is called precipitation. The water has been doing this for millions of years. In my opinion the water must be very tired.

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**On the topic of an apology letter (Year 2, to a classmate):**

> Dear Kieran, > I am sorry I said your drawing was bad. It was actually fine. I was having a bad day. I hope we are still friends. I have put a sticker in this envelope as a present. > From Amelia > P.S. the sticker is a dinosaur. I thought you would like it. If you don't like it you can give it back.

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**On the topic of the Romans (Year 4):**

> The Romans were very good at roads. They built roads everywhere. The roads are still here today. Some people think this is impressive. I think they should have spent more time on other things.

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**On the topic of a setting description (Year 5):**

> The forest was dark and mysterious. The trees were very tall. The branches creaked. I could feel that something was watching me. It was probably a squirrel. But it might not have been.

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**On the topic of their weekend (Monday morning, Year 3):**

> On Saturday I watched YouTube for a long time. On Sunday we went to my grandma's. She has a dog called Brian. Brian is scared of vacuum cleaners but he is very brave about everything else. I ate some biscuits. It was a good weekend.

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**On the topic of their hopes for the year (September, Year 1):**

> I hope I will learn to read chapter books. I hope my friend Jayden is in my class. I hope the lunches are better this year. I hope we do more about dinosaurs.

*(Three out of four wishes were answered. Lunches remained a work in progress.)*

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**On the topic of a personal recount (Year 2):**

> First we drove to the beach. Then we found a good spot. Then my brother buried me in sand. Then I was still buried in sand. Then I was still buried in sand. Then we had ice cream. It was a good day.

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There is something in all of this — the perfect logic, the editorial candor, the complete absence of artifice — that is genuinely irreplaceable. Children haven't yet learned that you're supposed to leave some things out. The result is a form of honesty that trained writers spend careers trying to approximate.

Handle these pages with care. They are primary documents of human beings in the act of becoming.