World Book Day!

Happy World Book Day everyone!  We don't need much encouragement to celebrate books, but it's nice that the rest of the world has hopped on board too.  Before I hand you over to the company guest-posting for World Book Day, don't forget to go to the Book Aid International website and see how World Book Day is benefiting people in sub-Saharan African, sending over 500,000 new books to 2,000 libraries.

I don't normally do guest posts from companies, but a mixture of my busyness and their bookish enthusiasm means that today I'm handing over All Fancy Dress (who also provided the images), to talk to you about...

5 trends to look out for in children’s books for 2013

World Book Day is the perfect time of year for kids to try something new and immerse themselves in an exciting children’s book that captures their imagination and broadens their horizons.

With this in mind, one of the UK’s leading online World Book Day fancy dress retailers, allfancydress.com went in search of the latest publishing trends for children’s books in 2013. In many cases book trends are driven by word of mouth, with its community of readers talking about their favourite books to friends and family, but we thought we would try and predict what’s going to be hot over the next 12 months.

Popular non-fiction

This year sees the publishing of a number of long-awaited biographical books that are designed with young readers in mind. Many focus on some of the most influential historical figures of the past, with Kadir Nelson’s Nelson Mandela expected to prove very popular. In terms of literary figures, Michael Rosen’s biography on successful children’s author, Roald Dahl is also expected to clear up at UK awards ceremonies in 2013.

Children’s bullying

An issue that many children are forced to encounter or witness at some point in their young development is bullying. Many children’s storybook writers appear to have pinpointed this as a big concern and are becoming increasingly clever at introducing bullying themes into their storylines for books as basic as picture-based through to young adult novels.

The ‘novel-in-cartoon’ genre

Perfectly suited to young or reluctant readers to engage them with reading and stories that are fun, the novel-in-cartoon genre is a fast-growing niche that offers genuine entertainment value. For parents looking for short reads to keep youngsters interested up-and-coming releases such as Chickenhare by Chris Grine and Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers are sure to catch the eye.

War
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War and this is almost certain to fuel an influx of historical titles for youngsters to read and learn. Teachers may also be able to take advantage of some of the many war-themed titles in 2013 as a supplement to classroom lesson topics.


Diversity

Children enjoy being able to picture themselves in the situations and stories they read and publishers are readily seeking to encourage their readers to embrace individuality. Books that focus on cultural diversity will continue to be a hot topic particularly in the school classrooms with Kristin Levine’s The Lions of Little Rock likely to provoke plenty of discussion.

A home with plentiful fun reading materials is very important for youngsters to improve their vocabulary and reading comprehension. You never know, some of these new releases may just turn out to be their favourites that they will re-read and treasure for years!