In the field of children’s literature studies much attention has been devoted to analysing differences between children’s and adult literature. Works by crosswriters, authors who write for both readerships in different works, are an excellent source for this research. This article adds to the debate by building upon previous studies which have used digital tools to track differences between literature for children and for adults. Using the oeuvre of Dutch crosswriter Joke van Leeuwen as a case study, it analyses formal and ideological aspects of each book. Although Van Leeuwen states that she does not see a difference in writing for either readership, this study finds formal differences in word and sentence length, lexical diversity and the ratio between dialogue and narrative. At the ideological level pertaining to perceptions of age, two recurrent themes are identified; imaging of the elderly and power relations between children and adults.