With kids stuff it's often the feel rather than the subject

Look at the gruffalo - then at other stuff Julia's done that hasn't sold as well. Read Spot,Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Princess series, Seuss (originals NOT the other batch of stuff which came out under the name which was shockingly bad, didn't even scan), stuff your local library tells you gets borrowed loads, children's best sellers. Understand what They want to read. Then take your story but put it in that context. Have an age range in mind. Emergent readers or parents reading to their kids? They're written differently.

My standard tip for any aspiring writer is to read lots. But don't let that stop you writing. Get a draft down. Then rewrite it. Then rewrite that. Read other stuff in between rewriting but don't be consciously moulded by it - just let it influence you more or less as you rewrite. What you finish with needs to be your voice, with an understanding of what They want. It's a very imprecise thing. It's well know Harry Potter was turned down by everyone before Bloomsbury took a small punt (?x more - and I do know the value of x - they could have had world rights not just EU and made all the money Scholastic (the U.S. Publisher) made. However for every ten books you sign up fewer than half make any money at all and you never know which half until the market has spoken...

Apologies for wild digression. I'm mid prep for a launch (not my book, not my publishing house) so maybe a sheet or two more to the wind than is wise;-)

Posted By: Old Man, Jul 1, 18:41:17