What do you look for when choosing to buy a book for your child?

It has always been a dream of mine to write childrens book. I studied childrens literature along with my degree and am wanting to explore this further now that I am on leave from work.

I am hoping I could get an idea of what you look for when buying a book for a child...

Also what sort of books do your children enjoy? (ie. funny books, books with mostly illustrations and not much text, etc).
If you can include their age for me that would be great.

TIA...I think this if I can figure out the market then I might be on the right track.

My DD (2yrs) at the moment like to look at the pictures in a book and talk about them, and doesn't have much time for the story if there is too many words on the page.

However my niece (3yrs) is through that stage, and will now sit still to read a full story where there is lots of words on each page.

When I buy books for any kids, I look for good pictures that have a lot of colour, so you can talk about it easily, or a character that is fun. If it is a book without many words, if they are repeated or rhymed, I find it makes it easier for the kids to get into it...

Good luck!

ds loves books. i find books without too many words, and that rhymes is perfect. his favourite book is called 'who's a cheeky baby'. i know the bloody thing off by heart... he also loves picture books where he can tell more what everything is. for me, when i'm looking for a book, i get one with good illustrations, and that preferably has a nice message to it, that a child will appreciate later on.
my favourites are:
the lion who wanted to love
you're all my favourites
love
pocketful of kisses
oh god, there's so many, but i'm too tired to think...

As both my kids are still very small we go for books with:

- simple concepts
- repetitive text
- bold pictures with bold colours

Examples are the Jeanette Rowe 'Whose nose?' 'Whose Belly?' etc books and the 'That's Not My . . .' books - they also incorporate textures in their concepts. 'Where is the Green Sheep?' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' are also BIG favourites in our house.

My kids love books about animals and familiar characters. Books that have counting are also great. We are also getting up to the stage where DD can find certain things on a page such as a hidden mouse on every page of the book.

We also love books that reflect something we are trying to learn about - 'There's a House Inside my Mummy' is a new favourite because I am having a baby so it is a good way to talk about what is happening to grow our baby in a way that DD can understand without being too overwhelming for her.

We avoid books that are pop-ups or with more than a few words on every page. I also have to be able to tolerate it to a certain degree - I can read the same book over and over and over again every day so if I can't stand it because it is too complex or badly written, I hide it till I think I can stand it again ;)

If you want to write a kids' book I would suggest going to the local library to the kids' section and reading a whole variety of children's books to see what you think works and what doesn't. If you can, talk to kids in the age group of the books you want to write and see what they like and why they like it.

Good luck :)

Hmmm, you know after I thought about it I realized the books I like are ridiculous, funny and sort of uplifting for the kids. But not uplifting in a w@nky sorta moral high horse politically correct way.

We have hundred and hundreds of books and when I look at the ones the kids are drawn to - Pamela Allen for example. When you look at what she has done, you can see she...well she can't sort of help being so wonderful. You can tell she writes from her bones or something - its HER that make the story so delicious. And as a parent I know any book she writes I will love for lots of reasons.

SO what I am trying to say is although researching the market is a good move, don't let that dictate too much. Write from your heart, apprentice yourself to your own child and see things through her eyes as she grows. Go to book childrens book readings and launches (advertised in the weekend papers) and suck in the feelings the room generates. A good childrens writer is an artist first and foremost, I think the 'brand' (for want of a better word) will follow from that. xoxoxoxoxo

Just my 200 cents! Its just my kids were given quite a few books recently and some of them are total crap. They are sort of clinical somehow and all moral and correct, it really feels like 'story lite', they have no guts, really hollow. I didn't think it would be easy to get kids books wrong until now!

DD1 adored the ones like Where is the Green Sheep and The Very Hungry Caterpiller when she was younger - she is now getting into the Dr Seuss and some more complex books. She loves the ones that she can memorise and "read along" with mummy so if she can predict the words from the pictures and/or the rhyme she enjoys them more.

So I guess
- an interesting/funny story or one that she can relate to
- simple words with or without a rhyme depending on the pictures
- pictures that relate to the story

Hi! we LOVE books in this house!!!

Theo turned 3 in march and has always had the patience to sit through a long story (probably from me reading my mills and blooms out loud to hi whilst BFing heehee)

He loves Rhyming books (Fox in Sox and Cat in Hat 1&2 are his FAVOURITE!!!) and he loves excietment and sillyness (like Lulu we like rediculous ones lacking any boring Moral message, thats just not imprtant to us).

For me as a parent i look for bright contrasting pictures and ones that really tell the story or the action being described so that as Theo learns to read he can make up the story from the pictures first (like he is doing now with We're going on a Bear Hunt). Repetitiveness is also really good for him (again with Bear Hunt)

And i recently borrowed a book from the library and of course i can't remember what its called but it was in the learn to read sectoin so it had small clear sentences but one thing i loved about the publishing was that the key/hard words like FRIENDLY or JUMPING/SKIPPING/RUNNING were all done in a larger font to stand out on the page.

Really depends who and what you want to write for? but also like lulu said i really think you can tell when someone has written from their heart.....and for us silliness reigns supremem when it comes to books!

DD loves books too since we introduced her to books when she was only a few months old. She loves the touch and feel ones and the pop-up ones (she's 13mths now and still love those most)

She doesnt like books with lots of words because she only spends like a few secs on each page.

DS is a book worm! He likes funny ones or books that are very far fetched. Some of his favorites are:

Horton hears a who
Peter Pan
Possum Magic
Horton hatches the egg

He will sit through a whole story with a lot of words and one main picture.
When buying a book, i look for quality, like i think about how my son will throw it around and things like that. Whether it will last or not. I also like books that have a meaning behind the story.

You girls are all so wonderful, thankyou for your suggestions and advice.

I have started writing. :hooray:

I have ideas for two boks, both completely different to each other.

Without giving to much away, one book is about a mother and their child. I am aiming this to be a feel good bedtime book between mother and baby/small child. (Sort of the same market that the book "Guess how much I love you" is aimed at). So what I am wondering is, do you think it best to use animals as characters or people? If animals I am open to suggestions.

Thanks for all your help. It is great to run things by people and get other great opinions :)

Hmm, I like animals because then you don't wander into the 'stereotype' territory IYKWIM... a panda is a panda, theres no mistaking it, and a child can relate to the mum-child relationship instead of possible being drawn to the differences between themselves and that child (I'm talking ethnicity etc).

Leash- totally agree. I want to try and appeal to as wide an audience as I can so that is a great suggestion. Thanks hun

I love rhymes, easier to read and memorize. (sometimes its hard to see the words i Jas is holding the book and Im bf. I love books that don't really rhyme but have a great rhythm to them iykwim?
I avoid popup/pull tabs as they just get torn and it upsets dd1
I look for something that won't drive me up the wall as if it becomes a favourite I might read it 10+ times a week
Animal books are a favourite here also.

good luck

Repetitive rhyming is great as the child can larn the words and feel like they are "reading".
Sadly as they get older its all about marketing! Erin loves those Rainbow magic fairy books which from a literary POV are pretty crappy but they have a girl's name in each title eg Holly the Christmas Fairy etc so every girl wants the one with their name. (Sadly no Erin yet) Every book follows the same pattern/story type but 6-9 yr olds love them, Erin has about 20 of th wretched things! Bu as I say to parents as long as the kids are reading thats the main thing.