Reading for early critics

I picked an easy audience: my kids. I've squeezed in two nights of reading so far. A total of four chapters. They seem to like it. I told them that the book was just all over the place and needed some serious editing before it was ready to be read aloud, but they didn't care.

I find myself correcting grammar, skipped and incorrect words as I read. Still, it doesn't roll off the tongue too badly, which seems to be a pretty good test of how it is going. At 8.5 x 11, double spaced 10 pt. font the book is about 150 pages long. It's about 340 pages long when reformatted for a typical kids paperback size. I want to get the book down to about 200 pages long, which might mean some re-ordering of the chapters and points of action, as well as some serious trimming.

At the moment, the second book ends right smack in the middle of the action where the third book starts. I have not been able to bring myself to begin the third book just yet. I am letting some of the ideas sort themselves out in my mind.