What do you want to see more of in children’s books?

[sazcmurphy]

Hi everyone! No children of my own but former nanny here looking for your help 😊

While I love my current job in media, there has always been a part of me that misses being in childcare and working with children. So to keep the spark alive I’ve decide to write a children’s book 📚

Parents, guardians, childcare workers, teachers and anyone else with a special kid in their life, I want to know what you want to see in your children’s literature. What books do you like? What books do your children like (often a different answer)? What themes did you wish pop up more? What keeps them engaged? I want to hear it all !!

My book will likely be either a picture book or for early readers so please feel free to answer no matter your child’s age.

Thank you all and I hope one day my book ends up on your shelves one day!!

I feel that too many books are written for what children “might like” and far too few for what YOU want to show them….

What do you find fascinating or funny? What delights you? If you had an afternoon free with a child, what would tell them, teach them, play with them…

It is a saturated market and there is so much dull predictable drivel out there. in my opinion There are wayyyyy too many ‘bear needs a hug’ type story books that are impossibly dull

You have some unique experiences, ideas, likes, dislikes, fears, dreams… channel those into your book. Let it be mad! Let it be tricky, weird, sad, wild… children LOVE all of that as you know…

Good luck!

Single mums. I feel so marginalised and I'm actually thinking of writing my own book/show because it is ridiculous how little representation there is on TV and in books. Rafi and Vida the Vet have two gay dads which is just ridiculous that one channel shows this twice but no mention of a mum or even two mums (completely tokenistic) the bloody hype Bandit gets for being a dad with adhd and don't get me starting on Daddy Pig. Single mums doing it all, absent dads, mums doing it all in relationships in general and dads just getting on with their lives, second families, if we are making children believe in dog and pig families we also need to show what other families look like without 'dad's' -we are families too.. Jacqueline Wilson had some good books but it felt vague and didn't quite sit right as a young child, it often left me with more questions than answers.

Agree with this!

‘Tee and mo’ about a monkey mum and kid was a lovely TV series voiced by Lauren Laverne, but I don’t think it took off in the merch/book leagues…

There is definitely big appetite for thoughtful representations of different types of families, and I imagine they market well too

Manners and how to act as part of a community