Latest trends in children's publishing

Children's sales have remained steady during 2017 but low literacy levels, the continued closures of public libraries and a steep decline in parents reading to their children are all expected to impact on children's reading.

Figures released during the Nielsen Book UK Children's Summit 2018 at last week's London Book Fair revealed just how much reading time for children has to compete against a host of other activities, another pressure on encouraging children to read. There were many positives to take away from the figures, with 84% of 0-4 year olds and 88+ of 5-10 year olds getting involved in books and reading activities on a weekly basis. However, among 11-17 year olds that percentage dropped dramatically to 53% of teenagers engaged in reading with music (88%), YouTube (84%) and texting (84%) taking up a large part of their time. Steve Bohme, UK Research Director for Nielsen Book Research, said that while last year saw a slight rise in engagement with books among all these groups, the last five years has seen an overall fall in the amount of time children are spending on reading. Among 0-4 year olds, as well as less engagement with books and less time spent playing outside or with toys, young children are spending more time on online activities and audio books. Among 5-10 year olds, time for books, sports and games has made way for YouTube, games apps and watching devices. Unexpectedly perhaps, 11-17 year olds spent more time engaged with books as well as YouTube, games apps and watching devices - but at the expense of time spent on social media - and with friends and family. The figures were drawn from Nielsen's Understanding the Children's Book Consumer survey and Nielsen's Book & Consumers Survey. In terms of what children are reading when they do pick up books, fantasy and humour remained at the top of children's book purchases in 2017 with adventure seeing a slight fall. History and reference book sales also declined. The front cover was the biggest influencer in purchasing books for 0-4 year olds; for 5-10 year olds most books came as gifts; while for 11-17 year olds, following a series was the most important driver for the books they chose to read.