Recent Trends Julianne Persons Kate Bender Rachael Smith

Number of Books Published per Year An enormous growth of children’s books published began in the late 1980’s Between the number of books published more than doubled This graph does not account for the large number of books going out of print each year Many of these sales are from series books

What Books Comprise These Sales? Rise of celebrity authors in the best seller list– does not necessarily correspond to quality of writing Celebrity author’s include: Madonna, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jay Leno “None of the 88 front-list best-selling titles listed by Publisher’s Weekly was by or about a person of color.

You’ve Got Big Business Large chain stores now own a majority of the market including schools and libraries Books are produced in mass quantity Similarly, fewer independently owned publishing companies exist today

Picture storybook formats are declining and hardcover fiction rising Especially fantasy books (Harry Potter series) Realistic fiction contains characters that are less prone to despair than those from a decade or two ago Sober themes still remain, but authors have moved away from ‘problem novels’ and having a narrow focus (Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson; No Laughter Here, by Rita Williams Garcia) Publishing Emphases Shifts

Emphasis on the Visual Rise of graphic novels and interactive books (Maus: A Survivor’s Tale and In the Shadows of No Towers, by Art Speigellman) Multimodal interweaving of image and word as illustrators create a more complex interaction between pictures and print Computer-generated (The Muffin Fiend, by Daniel Pinkwater) Almost any medium, including plastacine and man- made materials (The Subway Mouse, by Barbara Reid; Home, by Jeannie Baker)

Style and Format More freedom to experiment Point-of-view First person gives a sense of immediacy and intimate participation in the story (Meet the Austins, by Madeleine L’Engle) Shifting between various points-of-view serves to heighten the suspense Experimenting with language (The Music of Dolphins, by Karen Hesse) Using poetry Harder to classify books according to traditional definitions of genre (The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen) Crossing and recrossing boundaries between fact and fiction to create a playful approach to draw readers into the topic (Magic School Bus series)

Recent Trends in Schools and the Community Growing use of trade books in classrooms Citizenship schools encourage literacy through the community and training up good readers Community literacy programs to combat illiteracy Including reading’s importance in well-baby checkups Trying to reach young children and their caregivers through good books to create a culture of reading worldwide

Moving Towards a Multi-literate Society Modern technology has affected literature and the arts Interactive fiction Computer programs which generate poetry, pictures, and music The International Children’s Digital Library Authors have their own websites Children can discuss books on chat rooms and give book reviews Reading will still be needed for a wide range of skills, but books will still be needed for pleasure

Recent Trends Timeline -1980s the beginning of the Standards Movement -1980s ALSO the growth in publishing of children’s books -1990s the internet explosion begins Persian Gulf War NCLB Ready to Read, Ready to Learn September US Allies invade Iraq

TREND Big Business Shifting in Publishing Emphasis Changes in Writing and Illustration Children’s Literature in the School Community Multiliterate Society