To ask if I'm the only one to be appalled by the general calibure of children's literature in libraries

[AWitchCalledMeg]

I know we are lucky to have libraries. I am grateful and do support our libraries. My four children and I visit five libraries local to us on a regular basis of which span three counties between them (we live on the border of several counties). But over the years I have become more and more saddened by quality of books available. My children are all under 7 so can't comment on books for older children. What is the process on how the books are selected? I would estimate 85% of the books are so so inane, dumbed down and stupid, 12% is the modern generic Julia Donaldson type fodder and then 3% are the rare gems which are actually good. Surely I can't be the only one to have noticed this? So many books they have available there I can't believe they were ever published and surely they would never sell in the shops.. perhaps that's why they are in the library? So many studies show that children are reading less than ever.. how can they hope to change this when so much utter tosh is being put out there?

There aren't many children's books I do encourage dcs to read because I find most of them so sexist!

Our library is pretty good, except I found at the early chapter books very boy-interest biased. Maybe it was because all the fairy/magic/nice talking animal books were out. But it was at times frustrating to see five shelves filled with books that dd1 and dd2 had no interest at all in, pirates, football, dinosaurs etc. and only a couple of dozen books that would be the sort of things they'd enjoy, and they'd read three quarters of them.
When ds came along I thought it would be great as I thought he'd love the football ones (still no interest in pirate though), but he had no interest in those either and spent his time choosing books from the factual books, mostly history.

But these awful repetitive books are what started dd2 on her love of reading for ever more especially when she should be doing something else. She must have read all the Rainbow Fairies and magic kitten and similar books. She'd get through two or three a night even when quite small.

"For he landed a job in a cake shop -
A cake shop - a cake shop -
And they say he still works in the cake shop,
sweeping the cake shop floor".

I can't see how anyone could miss the rhythm in this excerpt. It seems totally obvious to me. I've never even come across the Highway Rat (although I will hunt it down now), although I do know the Highwayman.

I've never even come across the Highway Rat (although I will hunt it down now), although I do know the Highwayman.

You will love it! It's very clever - and all the more so because it actually works on its own terms.

The rhythm in Highway Rat is obvious to me too, but I'm automatically reading it in the same vein as R.L Stevenson's "Windy Nights" which I used to do for elocution comps.
So the repetition of "cake shop" is coming in at the gallop iykwim.

I agree there's a lot of trash written for smaller children, but if it gets them reading, then hurray. I have a lit degree and I read the adult trash equivalent when the mood takes me. I really don't have to display my fabulous high brow taste by turning my nose up at a good old thriller. I'll read what I want and I encourage DD to do the same. To a PP -moving those glittery ballerina books from your DD is a terrible idea. She'll be put off reading because she be too unsure of her own taste and worried you'll turn your nose up at her choices.. Better to let her read the glittery books and also provide her with a range of books with better messages and stronger characters. Reading is like eating - sometimes you want to have lots of chocolate, but after a while you get sick of it and crave soup and a salad instead.

I think books for older children 9-12 are bloody brilliant at the minute. There's so much to choose from, and they've released a lot of older titles in newer editions that modern children find appealing.. DD is 10 and at the minute she loves authors like Eva Ibbotsen and Eloise Williams, and whoever is was who wrote Rooftoppers. I've just bought her a new book for Christmas called "The Girl who Drank the Moon" which looks fab, and she's just finished reading "Letters to the Lighthouse" which she loved. Something else I've noticed is that there's been a small renaissance in illustration - the covers of these books are absolutely beautiful, and visually really attractive. They're really putting the effort in to making the books themselves things of beauty. I suppose that's because they're competing with ebooks.

Anyway, my point is, good, new children's lit is out there, and you can request that the library gets books in!

Also terrible phone = incoherent posts riddled with spelling mistakes!

I'm a children's book illustrator. I'm work with some of the same publishers as Julia Donaldson and Axel Schleifler. I can assure you that both Donaldson and Schleifler work with plenty of other people apart from each other.

Children's book publishing is on the rise (in book sales) and it has been consistently rising for many a year, often bucking the trend of adult printing fiction sales (although that's on the increase too now).
I can assure you that there are some amazing books out there for children of all ages.

Alex T Smith
Caryl Hart
Philip Ardagh
Timothy Knapman
Christopher Edge
Philip Reeve

These are just some off the top of my head. Many authors do 2 colour illustrated 'bridge' books that link between a picture book level and heavier fiction. Some are either stunning author/Illustrators or are paired with amazing artwork.

I know libraries stock new titles. Every year is authors and Illustrators register our books and receive a running royalty where we see what's been borrowed and how many times. It's fascinating. New titles are always there somewhere.

If your library has nothing new then it's been stripped to the bone, which is no fault of the libraries or the children's books.

I love that this has turned into a literary critique of the work of Ms Donaldson!

Rather than complaining about the book selection, why don't you just suggest books for them to purchase? Obviously they might not be able to get everything, but they will be responsive to requests.

Ι'm an adult but read kids books a lot, libraries here are good but I wish more sensory type things were abailable. Same for large print, braille

I think you are probably a little bit spoiled by the amazing books available in the UK. We live just outside of NYC and our library is fab because locally the books available for purchase are mediocre. Local bookstore opened up and few of us European mothers asked them to stock different books like Rohld Dahl and Usborne books as well as Astrix and some other comic books. The book store is one of the best performing book stores in America and our library is now carrying lots of Usborne books as well as comics.

Another problem in the UK is the way they stock libraries. They used to have a librarian for each section, so the children's area had their own librarian with adults having their own. Today they have one librarian for the whole library who is often not formally trained. Our local library here in America has a children's librarian for the county and they coordinate with the head of curriculum at each of the school districts to decide on what books and activities to offer. Our preK program is coordinated with the library so when they teach through play about families, the library has extra copies of those books on display and story time reads supplemental books on families. This method works really well.

Our local library is very well funded by the town and local residents who volunteer and/or donate money. The adult book section is sparse because the majority of the money goes on under 18s plus they now have shared books between libraries in the whole state. I was able to get all of my academic books for my accounting credits from the library and they came from a library at the other end of the state. It was amazing to be able to not spend $200 on each book. Now these academic books are online so everyone who wants to can borrow them.

I think the quality of books for 3-5 year olds is fantastic. I must admit that I rather relished reading our latest loans with the children at that age.

In contrast, I do feel rather convinced that modern fiction for 7-10 age bracket crop of children's fiction isn't a patch on what I used to read back then, but feelings aren't fact. I clearly recall parental sniffs of disapproval over my reading material at that age, and dark mutterings about the demise of literature. Actually, now I think about it, the mutterings about Sweet Valley Twins books were probably as justified as my black thoughts on the Rainbow Fairies today. Meh...

julie8008 I am surprised any one ever goes to the library anymore. They give away children's books for 49p at charity shops. Such a waste of tax payers money paying for a library.

As it happens, that was very much my childhood without a library card. I wouldn't recommend it. Some charity shops did have books for 49p, but not necessarily the next one in the series I wanted! Ah, the suspense of wanting to find out what happened next, and combing charity shops for book 3. I have not inflicted that on my own children- I take them to the library regularly, and reserve books for them on what seems like a weekly basis.

There is so much brilliant children's literature out there today! I've met Julia Donaldson and she's lovely. Stickman also makes me well up too (and has anyone spotted the buffalo toy in the book?!)

I source my dcs books from charity shops rather than libraries.

Then I don't have to worry about damage loss or fines for not returning on time. I've got enough things to remember without more wife work!

Stickman also makes me well up too (and has anyone spotted the buffalo toy in the book

I love Stickman and his stick lady love! I'm sure there is a Stickman in the fire grate in Tabby McTatt too.

How is sourcing books from charity shops not wife work, seven? Just make it daddy's Saturday morning treat to take the kids to the library after their swimming lessons while you have a lie in. It's only wife work if you make it that way.

I meant Gruffalo not buffalo, obvs!

I love to read and assumed all my kids would be avid readers from an early age - not so unfortunately.
I used to be very snobby about my DD's choices in books - Rainbow fairies, kitten books etc. I bought all the Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton books, Anne of Green Gables, Secret Garden etc and she wont read them. In the end I realised it was better that she was reading something she enjoyed and I hope she will eventually move onto a better class of book! She adores all those cute kitten books and looks forward to getting a new one and sure that's what reading is all about.

There's a gruffalo fish in Tiddler too. DS loves to point it out.

There's a Gruffalo toy on the rubbish dump in superworm, there are Gruffalo biscuits in the cake shop in the highway rat, and I think a child wears a Gruffalo badge in tabby McTat . The Griffalo's child holds a stickman toy, there are a few more but I can't remember them off the top of my head

Gruffalo drawn in the sand in Snail and the Whale

They should be living in fear of the Gruffalo threat coming true.

The threat to fox, owl and snake from the Gruffalo was actually fabricated by the mouse. As far as they are concerned, the "Legend of the Mouse" is keeping them safe from the Gruffalo, why would they not sustain the myth with another Gruffalo if it keeps the Gruffalo away from their part of the deep, dark wood?

I work in a school library, it's fab. When I look at the books available for teens and compare it to what was around when I was that age, today's books have the edge - there is so much more choice.
There are times when I wish that the Wimpy Kid style books were not so popular, but I've been in this job a long time and have seen many reading fashions come and go.
The cost of books is high, especially when the DoE change the curriculum and all the class sets have to be replaced. Class sizes are huge now, teachers are thin on the ground, so I hold no hopes of getting a book buying budget any time soon.

Paper Dolls is just brilliant. Can we stop dissing JD now we've established she's a genius in the world of Children's books, please?

The joy of children's fiction is often the wry grin I have, as an adult, when I see the way authors like Julia Donaldson take something like 'The Highwaymen' and turn it into an entertaining children's book. It's amusing for me and a bridge to 'real' fiction for my child.

Favourite JD books are The Paper Dolls, Jack and the Flum Flum Tree and The Troll.

I think the quality of picture books for my children is significantly better than was for me in the 70s/80s. The Ahlbergs showed the way with books like Cops & Robbers and The Jolly Postman.

I think there is a formulaic nature to early chapter books...'twas ever though. From Enid Blyton in the 50s/60s to Sweet Valley Twins and The Babysitter Club in the 80s/90s on to Magic Fairies, etc. today. It's a stage where repetition seems to appeal.

The parenting skill is to move them on to 'real' chapter books with substance like Pullman and Morpurgo.

My Dad read me a bedtime story until I was about 12/13. It was 'turn about' as to who chose the book. It meant I was exposed to 'real' literature I wouldn't have chosen BUT loved after he chose and read it.