Hi,
I've had great experiences and mediocre experiences with critique groups. I write picture books as well as other children's and adult lit, and am published in fiction under a pseudonym in adult lit.
For years I was part of a critique group called The Storytellers with some truly wonderful writers and many awesome critiquers who offered helpful critiques. The time it took out of my writing, though, became too much to handle.
However, I was also in what I call "soft" critique groups where the ethos was, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Needless to say, these groups weren't very helpful.
I've been in long-term individual critiquing exchanges, which are fabulous if you can find them. You find one person who shares your vision--a writer is best, though a reader is great if he or she can tell you exactly what's working and what's not (general comments like "I really liked it!" or "I didn't like that character!" are not as helpful) and you develop a great dynamic.
As for the big critiquing communities, I found the quality varies enormously. For the time output in returning critiques, it stopped being worth it for me.
On the other hand, when you do any critiquing at all, you are bound to learn things about your writing, and learn them faster than you would if you were just looking at your own work. That's because the critiquer may not know what's wrong with the piece, or why, but she or he knows something's wrong. Quite often, at the very least it's a heads-up that something needs work.
Lori, you said: "And I have read them to kids who seem to like them a lot. But I realize that my stories lack a few of the devices that other great children's literature employs: Alliteration, repetition, etc."
In itself, this is not a problem. There are no, absolutely no rules in fiction that can't be broken. There are no "must includes" in children's lit. If your reader doesn't know what he's missing because your story is so enthralling, then you've done your job.
