They're not merely little adults. You can't take something suitable for adults and make it shorter and shinier and shove it at them. But they're going to become adults one day. So you also can't keep them in a protective bubble with no idea of what the world is like. They need something on their level - something just right for them.
Fairy tales are a great compromise - a fabulous middle path. Years ago, when my two oldest girls were tiny, I read a book called A Landscape with Dragons, which talked about the value of fairy tales in teaching children what is right and teaching them that they have the power to do what is right. You can use the symbols in fairy tales to stand for some pretty bad things without going into the details. Kids come up with enough detail about witches and ogres and dragons and hags all by themselves. You've heard before that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, so is a symbol.
And the great thing is that, because the reader supplies the details, the symbol speaks to him where he is. It acts in a way like a mirror, helping him see truth not only about the world but also about himself. So kids see kid-sized truths. And adults see adult-sized truths. As long as the symbol rings true in the work, it rings true in the reader.
My three-year-old daughter Jane just walked in and saw pictures of dragons on my screen as I searched for one scary enough to insert above.
"What are those - dragons? I don't like dragons," she said. "They scare me."
"They scare me, too," I said absently, copying the image I had decided to use and only half listening.
"So I will be great big, and I will beat up that dragon. And I will stomp him and kill him, and I will save you," she said.
I nearly stopped breathing. I definitely stopped writing. I took her hands and looked her in the eye.
"Yes, you will," I told her. "Thank you."
Buy your copy of Dawn Hyperdrive and the Galactic Handbag of Death at Amazon or at Smashwords, or try the first chapter at my website.
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