Kathleen T. Pelley sets an incredibly high bar when it comes to children’s story writing if you wish to include these three points:
… I think good stories are a lot like journeys:
They involve movement – a movement of your heart – that’s what the word emotion means. So a good story can move our hearts to feel, love or joy or hope or wonder.
They involve discovery – listeners should discover something about themselves, about the world, or both.
They involve souvenirs – I like to think of story “souvenirs” as those universal truths that linger with us long after that last word is uttered – some bolt of beauty or some whiff of wonder.