A single story can mean two different things to two different children, and that duality sits at the center of how author Greg Soros approaches his craft. One reader might open a Soros book and recognize their own family. Another might open the same book and meet a family unlike anything they have known. Soros builds both possibilities into every project on purpose.
Two Functions, One Story
Soros describes children’s literature as needing to work as both mirror and window at once. “Children’s books should serve as both mirrors and windows,” he says, “helping young readers see themselves reflected in stories while also opening their minds to different perspectives and experiences.” He does not treat these as competing goals. Instead, he builds characters detailed enough that one child’s recognition does not cancel out another child’s discovery.
Greg Soros has developed a character creation process grounded in observation and continuous testing, as described in an interview with The Future of Things. His approach begins with studying children’s natural behavior, capturing gestures and expressions through quick sketches.
That balance shows up most clearly in how Soros writes about difference. “When a child reads about someone from a different culture, someone with different abilities, or someone facing challenges they’ve never encountered, it expands their understanding of what it means to be human,” he explains. For a reader who shares that background, the same passage becomes a mirror instead of a window, and Soros writes with both readers in mind at the same time.
Built on Sixteen Years of Practice
Achieving that balance takes more than instinct. Greg Soros draws on more than sixteen years of writing experience along with a background in child development and educational psychology, testing early drafts against feedback from teachers, child development specialists, and sensitivity readers before anything reaches print. Greg Soros treats each revision as a chance to check whether a scene still lands as a mirror for one reader while opening as a window for another.
Through his ongoing writing projects and community work, Soros keeps refining this dual approach, arguing that the next generation of readers deserves books built to do both jobs well rather than settling for one. See related link for more information.
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