Scholastic Editors Forecast Top 10 Trends in Children’s Books for 2013
From the Scholastic Media Room:
The editors at Scholastic have been publishing, curating and distributing award-winning books for children for decades, and have become experts at predicting exactly where kids’ book interests will go next. Today, the editors of Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs, along with editors in the Trade Publishing group, present their list of top ten trends in children’s books for the coming year.
. . . .
Bullying is THE Timely Topic in Kids’ Books.
The fact is nearly every child will face or witness the effects of bullying at some point in their lives. Children’s authors recognize this as a major concern for kids and have become more adept at weaving bullying themes into storylines, from picture books to young adult titles. In 2013 look for: The Meanest Birthday Girl by Josh Schneider (May 2013/Clarion), and The Call of the Bully: A Rodney Rathbone Novel - the sequel to How to Beat the Bully Without Really Trying by Scott Starkey (January 2013/Simon & Schuster).
’13 Will be a Lucky Number for Science Fiction Fans.
While the end of dystopian novels is no-where in sight, fans can expect to see a new theme uncovered, bringing some stellar new titles with a “true” science- fiction edge. Books to watch for in the New Year include Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles: Scarlet (February 2013/Feiwel & Friends), and Pulse by Patrick Carman (February 2013/HarperCollins).
. . . .
War.
Whenever we reach a historical anniversary, there is an increased interest in books related to the topic. 2013 marks the second year of the American Civil War Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), so history buffs will see an influx of Civil War titles to read. Wars in general will be making their way on to the bookshelves in 2013, which is great news for teachers looking for great non-fiction to supplement classroom learning and help kids meet the Common Core State Standards. Look for a broad selection of Civil War books including: I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg by Lauren Tarshis (January 2013/Scholastic) and What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? Jim O’Connor, John Mantha and James Bennett (February 2013/Grosset & Dunlap).
Link to the rest at Scholastic Media Room
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With the YA fantasy that I wrote and hope to release in Sept. I’m going to enter into new territory. My main characters are bisexual and the love triangle is between the main character who is a guy and another guy and a girl. The main characters best friend is transgender.
I hope my story will be accepted and enjoyed by all.
You certainly don’t see to many main characters that are gay, bisexual or transgender out there and I think they need a voice.
I love how they act like they’re so amazing at forecasting, when actually, they’ve *decided* the way trends will go by accepting books in those sub-genres they’ve forecasted as the next big thing and rejecting others that aren’t. Violà, a trend is born.
I think a more accurate measure of future ‘trends’ will be the readers telling us what they like and want – voting with their dollars and downloads – not editors saying, “This sub-genre will be hot this year.”
Publish good stories, no matter the sub-genre, and the engaging stuff will rise to the top regardless of what the publishers are claiming or forecasting.
Trends in literature have been forced on the public by the decision-making editors and publishers for years, just like in fashion with the fashion houses. The Devil Wears Prada comes to mind. But times are changing (at least in publising), and I’m excited about the fact that I can write whatever the heck I want, and if it’s well-done, there will be an audience for it out there.
Exacly, Elle, *excatly*!
That should say “Exactly, Elle, *exactly*!”
(I really need to run *everything* past a proofreader . . . )
I, too, am weary of trends. These gatekeepers, these so-called curators of culture, have with their incessant posturing on “what’s hot and what’s not” have, in my estimation, hobbled true creativity. By making literature no more unique and engaging than a Top 10 list in a fashion magazine, publishers have disengaged themselves from the fact that readers are real human beings who desire so much more than the Next Big Thing.
So my query letter to Scholastic should start with “Besides being harassed by the class bully…” and then go on to state the plot summary?
Exactly. Suck up but act like you’re not sucking up.
Vera, there’s been an explosion of LGBT books for young people going on in the past couple of decades and it’s getting more prevalent as we change with the times. You might start here in your reading: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2012/11/09/the-invisible-minority-lgbtq-teens-and-their-literature/
Good luck with your book.
You know… this irritates the snob out of me. Over a year ago, I couldn’t give one of my dystopian, sci-fi/paramedic/future short stories away because it was ‘too dark’ and our readers want ‘uplifting sci-fi’ and now (at least for Scholastic) they’re all about their ‘prediction’ of the 2013 trend of dystopian sci-fi. Oh brother. I should get an award too for being a visionary that just couldn’t sell a story because I was ahead of the curve.
Just goes to show, once again, it’s less about quality and more about timing/who you know.
While I don’t necessarily disagree with them on point #1, I find that my own kids shy away from books that deal with bullying. It’s too touchy a subject for them. They read to get away from that stuff.
I think this has always been the case: so often a “hot” topic (as declared by parents, teachers and publishers) totally turns off kids from anything overtly related to it.
Dealing with bullies in a story will always be a common theme, but when it’s the subject of the story, it feels like something that should be assigned reading. (Which in turn feels like an invasion of privacy, even when they discover the book on a shelf by themselves.)
My hero has to deal with a bully, but it’s a minor subplot, more like what happens in school. Who knew, though, that I was ahead of the curve?
The decisions about which books will published in 2013 were all made over a year ago. What makes this a forecast?
It’s what they already have bought and scheduled for 2013. Forecasting is much easier when you rig the table.
+1
These editors are talking about the books they are about to publish, not what children want. Editors tend to have no more (or even less) idea of that than authors do. I’ve been writing children’s books for over 20 years and can remember a time when editors and publishers said “modern children can’t cope with books of more than 25,000 words”, “modern children don’t relate to books set in boarding schools” and “modern children aren’t interested in magic”. Then along came Harry Potter and proved them all wrong.
Hah!
+1