In case you’ve missed it, it feels like every celebrity has a kids book. Seriously: from Australian celebrities like Zoe Foster Blake, Andy Lee, and Ed Kavalee to political figures like Barrack Obama and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. From athletes like LeBron James and Serena Williams to singers like Lil Nas X and Madonna. If you’ve got a profile, chances are there’s a publisher that wants you to write a kids book.
This article made us think more about the business of children’s books than we ever have before. Because when you stop and think about them, they are a strange product. They are a product made for kids but pitched at parents (and aunts, uncles, grandparents et. al. looking for gifts).
That is why celebrities dominate the children’s book charts despite these children never hearing of them (and having no ability to remember even if they had). And, as this article unpacks, many children’s books have a “nostalgic or abstract point of view that I’m not convinced children share”.
Even when the book industry faces tough times, it seems like children’s books will be a bedrock for publishers. Parents will go to great lengths to do everything they can to set their child up for success – reading early and often is one of those things. And the books that are chosen often have a performative element to them. So the publishing industry will keep marketing to the parents – with celebrities they like, values they want to instil or nostalgia they hang on to – rather than to the kids.
This is an excerpt from our Thought Starters email. Once a week we send you 5 interesting articles that have caught our attention, to get you thinking. No spam, we guarantee.