Group Presentation

MAIN TRENDS IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

• Lessons in kindness - alot of children's books explore life lessons and subtly give indication towards being kind and helping others

"For younger children, look for titles that teach the importance of empathy, openness and sharing. For older children, discover titles that showcase the power of unexpected friendships."

• Introducing classics through book anniversaries. - Through book anniversaries, classics can be remade and re designed in order to appeal to whole new generations. This is an exciting way to include the older generations and allow them to experience the old favourites with their children. 

• Reinventing modern classics - classic fairy tales such as red riding hood and Cinderella can be recreated and redesigned in a method that can apply to he younger generations. The books can be modernised and characters can be reinvented to appeal to the 21st century and become more relateable to the younger audience. 

• The use of fantasy and make believe is a theme that's frequently used in children's books. The idea of taking children to another world is something that encourages imagination and creativity so is an exciting and reliable theme used within children's books.

• The use of illustrated type is often used within childrens books. The hand drawn nature of the type can be seen as more inviting and friendly, almost in the way of a hand written letter. Sometimes graphic text can come across as too official and 'adult' which takes away from the child's book. However, for a very young audience, type text might be better in terms of learning the letters or learning how to read due to legibility.

FACTS ABOUT CHILDREN'S BOOK

• "2015 was notable for being the first year in a long time in which the UK book trade experienced an increase in physical book sales. "However, it was also the year in which digital sales growth finally went into reverse, following the slow-down in 2014."
• Value sales in the UK Children’s market hit an all-time high of £309m in 2015.
• 1 in every 3 books sold is a children's book. 

MERCHANDISE

• It is commonly seen that merchandise is sold alongside the children's books creating an exciting prospect for children to play and learn alongside their favourite story or character.
• Not only toys but lunchboxes, bags and stationary are also sold based on the themes and characters in the books, this is a real opening in the market for a whole new franchise of toys and books.

CHILDREN'S MAGAZINES

•  The children's magazine "Anorak" which is released quarterly is an exciting magazine full of images, games, quizzes and other activities aimed at children's learning and growth. The imagery is bold and exciting so appeals to the younger audience. Compared to some other books and magazines for children, it seems alot more contemporary and exciting and most importantly, modern! 
• I'd like to explore similar imagery and methods of creating and making imagery in terms of appealing to the younger audience.

Overall I found the research through children's books really helpful, I feel like i have a broad knowledge of the children's book industry and that I could potentially create a really effective and exciting piece that could appeal and excite and spark creativity in the younger audience of publishing.
My next step is further research and begin to think about and nail down what i actually want to create for this project.
My initial thoughts are a poetry zine book for children with bright and kooky illustrations however, this idea needs refining. Posters and other merchandise could be sold alongside this.