#CoverKidsBooks – One Year On

One year ago, #CoverKidsBooks launched a campaign to get more media coverage for children's books.  We presented research that showed children's books were getting just 3% of all book review space in national newspapers, despite accounting for over 30% of the UK book market.

Since then, their market share has continued to grow.  Children's literature – by which we mean the entire range of books for young readers, from the youngest picture book to the oldest YA, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry – now accounts for 34% of all print books sold in the UK, according to The Bookseller.

What about media coverage?  One year on, has that grown too?

For our first #CoverKidsBooks blog, Imogen Russell Williams counted the number of reviews and column inches given to children's books in UK national newspapers in August 2015.  Isabel Popple and Naomi Burt have done the same for August 2016.  Here are their findings.

Weekend Newspapers, August 2016

Newspaper	All Book reviews	Children's Book Reviews	Percentage Children's Book Reviews	All Book Reviews (inches)	Children's Book Reviews (inches)	Percentage Children's Book Inches
Times	79	4	5	909	31.5	3.7
Sunday Times	57	5	8.8	725.5	18	2.5
Guardian	70	14	20	954.5	37.5	4
Observer	44	0	0	627	0	0
FT	38	2	5.2	601	8.5	1.4
Telegraph	44	5	11.4	630	48.5	7.7
Sunday Telegraph	33	3	9.1	210	6	2.9
Sunday Express	29	0	0	110	0	0
Mail On Sunday	36	1	2.8	250	11.5	4.6
Sunday Mirror	12	0	0	18	0	0
TOTAL	442	34	7.7	5035	161.5	3.2

For comparison, here is the bottom line of the August 2015 data; the full table can be seen in the original blog:

TOTAL

752

37

4.9

8034.2

250.5

3.1

The good news is that children's books now account for 7.7% of all book reviews, an increase on 4.9% last year. 

The bad news is that they still receive only 3.2% of all book review space, virtually unchanged from 3.1% last year.

Quantity

Children's books now account for 7.7% of all book reviews.  This is heartening given the shrinking number of book reviews as a whole.  Every newspaper we surveyed reviewed fewer books in 2016 than in 2015, and in every newspaper we surveyed, the column inches given to books as a whole shrank as well.  Many newspapers announced cuts to books staff and space, while The Independent and The Independent On Sunday ceased to exist at all as physical entities.  But while it is a step in the right direction, 7.7% remains a massive under-representation for over a field that accounts for 34% of the market.

Frequency

#CoverKidsBooks wrote an open letter to national newspapers last year, printed in The Bookseller, calling on them to commit to covering at least one children's book a week.  Back in August 2015, only two newspapers averaged one children's book review a week or more, and only one actually published a children's book review every single week.

By August 2016, the numbers had doubled.  Four newspapers now averaged one children's book review a week or more (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph), while two of them (The Times and The Daily Telegraph) had a dependable slot every single week.  These are very welcome developments, and the editors of those newspapers deserve great credit for them. 

It should also be said that The Observer has just changed its policy, introducing a new Children's Book Of The Week slot on January 29 2017 – another hugely welcome development that should encourage all who care about children's literature.  #CoverKidsBooks would like to thank and applaud The Observer New Review's editor Jane Ferguson, its literary editor Lisa O'Kelly, and its arts editor Sarah Donaldson, and we urge all remaining national newspapers who have yet to commit to covering at least one children's book a week to follow their example. 

Space

Despite these improvements, children's books are still receiving the same proportion of space, getting just 3.2% of all book review column inches.  Children's book reviews remain shorter than other book reviews, which is why the figure for column inches is smaller than that for the number of reviews.  For example, look at The Guardian's figures across the two years:

Year	All Book reviews	Children's Book reviews	Percentage Children's Book Reviews	All Book Reviews (inches)	Children's Book Reviews (inches)	Percentage Children's Book Inches
2015	104	4	3.8	1645.5	58	3.5
2016	70	14	20	954.5	37.5	4

14 children's books were reviewed in August 2016, a huge increase from 4 in 2015 – yet the space devoted to children's books has actually shrunk from 58 inches in 2015 to 37.5 inches in 2016.  This is because The Guardian has moved from printing a long review every week to just one long review a month, along with a monthly roundup.  The roundup has greatly increased the range of children's books covered by The Guardian.  But 13 of the 14 books reviewed received a mention in the roundup, rather than a full review of their own.  

The Guardian's current policy means that no more than 12 children's books can receive a full review each year.  Only 12 children's books are considered worthy of the space and critical attention given to other kinds of books. 

The field of children's literature is going from strength to strength, constantly expanding in size and increasing in quality.  The bestseller lists are full of children's books, with Harry Potter & The Cursed Child topping the 2016 list. 

Meanwhile, in libraries, the PLR figures are dominated by children's books.  65% of the top 20 most borrowed authors are children's authors.  The success of the field is snowballing, as more and more new writers are attracted to it, as the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and Brandford Boase lists demonstrate each year. 

There is every indication that the field will continue to grow in commercial and cultural significance.  Philip Pullman has just announced that his long-awaited follow-up to His Dark Materials, The Book Of Dust, will publish its first volume this year.  James Daunt of Waterstones estimated that this book alone would have a 2% impact on Waterstones' entire revenues, worth around £8 million. 

As Pullman himself told #CoverKidsBooks, in our writers & illustrators blog:  "There ought to be a space in the mainstream media, in the book pages, for coverage of children's books.  It's important that the general reader sees children's books being discussed intelligently."

Books cannot be discussed intelligently without space.  3% of space for over 30% of the market is simply not enough.  There is of course a lot of excellent children's books coverage online.  But print coverage remains vital.  Huge numbers of newspaper-reading adults need to know about children's literature: parents, teachers, booksellers, librarians, and all the other buyers and recommenders of children's books, as well as adults who read them for their own enjoyment.   

So while we are encouraged by the progress we've seen in the last year, and while we understand that space for books coverage in print as a whole is shrinking, we would like to see newspapers give children's books a fairer proportion of whatever space there is.  

#CoverKidsBooks calls on all national newspapers to make a clear statement that children's books matter as much as any other books.  We urge them to give children's literature a proportion of space that reflects its significance as the most dynamic part of the publishing industry, and a vital part of the nation's cultural life.  

#CoverKidsBooks – The Facts 

#CoverKidsBooks – Booksellers

#CoverKidsBooks – Librarians

#CoverKidsBooks – Teachers

#CoverKidsBooks – Parents
#CoverKidsBooks – Experts
#CoverKidsBooks – Writers & Illustrators

#CoverKidsBooks invites you to join in a public conversation about children's books.  Leave a comment, write a blog of your own, or tweet about it using the hashtag.  Tell us why children's books matter to you, and what you'd like to see the media do to #CoverKidsBooks! 

#CoverKidsBooks – Writers & Illustrators

In the first #CoverKidsBooks blog, we learned that children's books get just 3% of newspaper review space, despite accounting for over 30% of the market.  We then interviewed booksellers, librarians, teachers, parents and experts about this situation, and found overwhelming support for more media coverage.  Now, in our final interview blog, we hear from writers and illustrators.

We spoke to Chris Riddell, the Children's Laureate; Malorie Blackman, former Children's Laureate; Philip Pullman, winner of the overall Whitbread Book Of The Year; Frances Hardinge, winner of the overall Costa Book Of The Year; Francesca Simon, one of the UK's most popular authors; and Sarah McIntyre, one of the UK's most popular illustrators.

Why is it important for the media to cover children's books?

Malorie Blackman: It is so important to bring books to our children and our children to books.  A child who loves reading grows up to be an adult who loves reading.  If we want our book industry to not just survive but thrive then we have to ensure our children are switched on to reading.  Children's book reviews are an important way to let parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians and YAs know what's out there.

Francesca Simon: It's very important that children's books be part of our cultural discussion.  It shouldn't be treated as a specialist interest.  I think anyone with an interest in books should have a very strong interest in children's books – especially at the moment, when there's so many incredible books being published.

Philip Pullman: There ought to be a space in the mainstream media, in the book pages, for coverage of children's books.  It's important that the general reader sees children's books being discussed intelligently, and not by children.  You need to have a fairly good backlog of reading experience before you can criticise a book justly, and say what its merits and its flaws are.  Children don't have that.

Sarah McIntyre: Children's books are a huge part of the book market.  You can see the shift in bookshops: children's book areas used to be at the back and now they're in front-of-shop displays.  I can only assume the media aren't as interested in reporting on children's books because they don't see the majority of their viewers and readers as children.  But many will be parents, people looking to buy books for friends' children, teachers, and adults who genuinely love children's books for themselves.

Frances Hardinge: It matters because younger readers have as much right to find the books that are perfect for them as older readers do – in fact, possibly slightly more right. 

Chris Riddell:

What is your experience of media coverage?  Have reviews made a difference to you?

PP: One important one that I still regard with great gratitude was Amanda Craig's review of The Subtle Knife.  It was something special.  She said something like: "Once in a generation…" and I thought, "Ah, that's the way to talk about my books!"  It made a big difference to me, and it's quoted on all the paperbacks.  The thing that made the biggest difference, without a doubt, was winning the Whitbread.  Suddenly, I was being talked about on the grown-up pages, and that made a huge difference. 

FH: It definitely does make a difference.  Like a lot of authors, I do the neurotic thing of watching my Amazon sales ranking and hitting 'refresh' a lot.  And whenever a review comes up, there's a spike in sales.  It obviously and immediately results in sales.  The media coverage after The Lie Tree won the Costa Book Of The Year made a huge difference.  But I remember my second book was Children's Book Of The Week in The Sunday Times, and that gave me the biggest sales spike I'd had at that point.  Nicolette Jones is a wonderful champion of children's books, because not only is she passionate, she's so erudite.  She has an acute literary intelligence which I don't think anybody can debate, and therefore her judgement has a lot of weight. 

FS: I remember when I started out, there was no way you could get any kind of press as a children's author.  There was just so little coverage.  So when people asked me, "Do you feel JK Rowling has taken all the publicity?" I said, "What publicity?  There was no publicity to take!"  There's been mega progress.  But still, someone like Julia Donaldson, who is one of the greatest and most successful writers – does Julia get asked to do Front Row?  I have done Front Row, but mainly because I had a maternity cover publicist who came from adult books, and didn't know that children's authors were never put up for it!

What are the consequences of the media not covering children's books?

SM: Only a few writers are earning almost all the money, and the media is encouraging this by only bigging up a few of them.  This makes it difficult for other writers and illustrators to build names for themselves and develop enough of a career to do the job for a living.  So this makes getting published the realm of the already-wealthy.  People from poorer backgrounds will have an extremely hard time getting a foot in the door, and not only will these people miss out on amazing careers, but readers will miss out on getting books from diverse backgrounds.

MB: Placing books into the hands of our children and teens has long term benefits which perhaps cannot be immediately measured, but as Einstein said, "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts."

FH: It depends how long it goes on for.  Children's literature is thriving enough that hopefully it won't result in a loss of variety.  It's likely to result in some interesting young authors who don't get reviewed finding it hard to make ends meet.  And then there's all the tiny tragedies of children not finding books they would've loved.  There isn't a single right book for all 10 year olds, any more than there is a single right book for all 30 year olds.  A wide range of reviews means each child has a better chance of getting that one book that's right for them.

PP: It is probably felt by children's book reviewers and editors that we have so little space, we should use that space celebrating the ones that are good.  So you don't often see a children's book taken to pieces and revealed as a steaming heap of crap – though some of them are.  We regularly see that sort of thing with adult books, but in justice, we ought to see negative criticism occasionally. 

"There isn't a single right book for all 10 year olds"

Our research shows that children's books typically get 3% of newspaper review space, despite accounting for over 30% of the market.  How do you feel about this under-representation?

PP: It does sound wrong, doesn't it?  To up the content of the book pages from 3% to 30% children's books would be great for children's books and great for children's authors.  There might be room for these negative reviews, which I'm so keen on seeing!  I wonder how adult readers who haven't got a child or aren't particularly involved in children would feel about it?  I don't think many would read the latest Allan Ahlberg unless they had children.  They would love it if they did.  The greatest picture books could well win – or should well win – things like Nobel Prizes.  Why not?  Where The Wild Things Are is well worthy of a Nobel Prize, in my view. 

SM: They tend to talk about a very narrow range of books.  Can you imagine the book review sections having such a narrow range of authors for adults?

MB: I'd love to see children's books getting far more media coverage than they currently do.  YA book bloggers in particular have proven that there is an eager and receptive market for these book reviews.  There is of course a wider context to this – the proven benefits that accompany reading for pleasure as far as our children and teens are concerned.  Also, more and more adults are now reading books written for the YA market, so it seems to me to make sense that this growing reading market is taken more seriously.

FS: I think it's terrible.  Newspapers are really missing a trick.  If they're worried about declining readership, having a strong children's book section is important.  Readers are interested!

What would you like to see the media doing?

FS: I think they should have at least one or two long reviews every week.  Children's books deserve it, and it's harsh if you only give them a couple of lines.  They need to understand that you can write about children's books for an adult audience.  The main thing is having expert people writing well and authoritatively about it, in the same way that you'd have knowledgeable literary critics.  And I think it is important to do it regularly, because then you look for it.

MB: I'd love to see more in-depth interviews with children's authors and illustrators about their lives and their work and regular, frequent children's book reviews which don't feel like an afterthought or an adjunct to reviews of adult books.  Children's books and books for young adults are not the poor relation of book publishing.  More mainstream media outlets need to recognise this fact.

SM: Mentioning illustrator names would be an obvious and simple start!  And interviewing illustrators as well as writers (Pictures Mean Business).  I don't think the media has really twigged that it's often the pictures selling the book.  If they want to talk about, say, Stick Man, they'll get on Julia Donaldson, not Axel Scheffler. And the media don't really know how to talk about illustration, either; there's no vocabulary.  If they do feature Axel, they'll ask very inane questions such as "Why do people like books with pictures?"

FH: I think it's important to celebrate the people who are doing something, and hold them up as a commendable example for those who are doing a little less.  It's great news that CBBC have their book club; more of that would be very nice.  Maybe other newspapers emulating The Guardian's children's book website.  Maybe people emulating The Sunday Times's decision to expand Nicolette Jones's column.  Just a little more space wouldn't hurt!

PP:  We don't have enough coverage of books per se.  There is no coverage of books at all on the television, which is an absolute disgrace.  From the point of view of the economic importance of the book trade, the vast number of people who read, the growing importance of book clubs and so on, there really ought to be a television programme on a mainstream channel.  And then children's books would be part of it.

"You can write about children's books for an adult audience"

Some people say children's literature isn't literature.  What do you think?

FH: I think a lot of adults don't realise how experimental children's fiction is.  For example, at the moment, I'm reading Sarah Crossan's One, which is a verse novel about Siamese twins, and very funny, and very sensitive, and human and brave and wide-ranging – and also very easy to read.  But I think that's part of the issue.  There's a lurking idea that if something is easy to read, it's somehow worthless, or worth less.  And I don't think that's true.  Writing something that does complicated things but is still readable is very much an art. 

FS: As Philip Pullman says, it's literature for an audience that includes children.  I think Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat is a work of absolute genius.  Does that mean I'm infantile?  No, it means I know a good book when I see one.  I chose A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle as my book for the BBC's A Good Read.  Now, I haven't read A Wrinkle In Time for 45 years, and I remember that book chapter for chapter.  It seared itself into my consciousness.  And children's books do that.  Anyone who's interested in literature should be interested in children's literature.

#CoverKidsBooks – The Facts 

#CoverKidsBooks – Booksellers

#CoverKidsBooks – Librarians

#CoverKidsBooks – Teachers

#CoverKidsBooks – Parents
#CoverKidsBooks – Experts
#CoverKidsBooks – New Research, One Year On

#CoverKidsBooks invites you to join in a public conversation about children's books.  Leave a comment, write a blog of your own, or tweet about it using the hashtag.  Tell us why children's books matter to you, and what you'd like to see the media do to #CoverKidsBooks! 

#CoverKidsBooks – Experts

How important is children's literature in the wider culture?  Why should the media be interested in it at all?  #CoverKidsBooks talked to some experts about these questions.

We interviewed Amanda Craig, novelist and children's literature critic for the New Statesman, and former children's literature critic for The Times and The Independent On Sunday; Natasha Harding, books columnist for The Sun; Daniel Hahn, a writer and translator who has edited The Oxford Companion To Children's Literature and The Ultimate Book Guides, and is a former Chair of the Society Of Authors; Charlotte Eyre, Children's Editor of The Bookseller magazine and Chair of the YA Book Prize; and Dr Catherine Butler, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University, specialising in children's literature.

Why are children's books important?

Amanda Craig: You fall in love with reading through children's books.  They are an art form; they're fantastically sophisticated artefacts.  And your personality is formed by them.  When you find a great book that speaks to you, you're never the same.  These are life-changing experiences and they should be part of every civilised culture's gift to every child.   

Catherine Butler: There are two main reasons.  The first is the intrinsic quality of many children's books; it's a form that has attracted some of our best writers.  The second is that they are fundamental in nurturing an interest in reading and in shaping our sense of language, story and character – all of which are prerequisite to an enjoyment of literature for adults.  In the edifice of literature, children's books are the cornerstone.

Natasha Harding: My son is a voracious reader, and I've seen how far ahead he is because of it, on every level.  Equally, I've got friends whose children don't read, and they're not doing as well.  So I think it's important to try and get the message across about all the wonderful children's books that are out there.

Charlotte Eyre: If you catch a child with the right book at the right age, you'll have a reader for life.  And Britain is one of the best countries in the world at children's books.  If you look at the classics – Roald Dahl, JK Rowling – these are loved all over the world.  When Chinese publishers buy children's books from other countries, the number one country they go to is the UK.  It's an amazing cultural product that we have.  It's also a huge part of the books industry in general: 33% of sales.  And yet there seems to be this attitude of, "Oh, it's just children's books" – which is totally daft, really.

Daniel Hahn: I don't think people should indiscriminately read children's books, but I think people who like good books should recognise that some of the good ones are not in fact written by Jonathan Franzen.  I don't understand how you can be interested in the kind of graphic novel that is sold for adults and not think that Where The Wild Things Are is possibly the best piece of storytelling you have ever seen, because it says it's for children and doesn't have many words in it. 

"In the edifice of literature, children's books are the cornerstone"

Can children's literature be literature?  Can it be of interest to adults?

DH: I review them in the same way I would review any piece of fiction.  When the Oxford Companion came out, I kept being asked, "What makes a good children's book?"  And I kept saying, "It's what makes a good book!  It has to have the right words in it, and they have to be in the right order, and there is nothing more mysterious than that." 

AC: I treat it as seriously as I treat literary fiction or biography or any other form.

NH: Absolutely it's literature!  It's all writing.  Actually, I think it's harder to write for children, because you have to be succinct; you don't have 50 pages to draw your reader in.  And children's books can be really enjoyable for adults too.  I love reading them myself.  I mean, how phenomenal was Wonder?

Why is media coverage of children's books important?

CB: Most children's books are bought by adults, and for this reason alone it's important that children's books are reviewed and more generally covered in adult media outlets such as newspapers.  Even if children's books were only read by children – which is assuredly not the case! – adults would need the resources to be able to choose wisely.

CE: At the moment, only a very few books get talked about, and all the rest get ignored.  Bookshops are closing down, libraries are closing down, so children don't have as many options there.  A really good newspaper article can help guide parents in the right direction.  They can find this stuff online, of course, but newspapers are read by people who don't know that they're looking for children's book reviews, and I think that's really crucial.  Children's books need to be talked about where they're going to reach people who weren't necessarily looking.

DH: I think probably we have the right book for anyone out there, but how they find it if we only ever review the same few books is slightly problematic.  I think Julia Donaldson is wonderful, but I don't think she is in fact the only person writing picture books.  With more space, there's space for more range. 

NH: I'm not necessarily saying 7 year olds are reading The Sun, but their parents might be, their aunts, uncles, grandparents.  And as much as there are amazing blogs out there, would a 70 year old know how to find a blog about books?  No, they probably wouldn't.  So that's why it has to be in the newspaper, and as a newspaper, I think we actually have a responsibility to cover children's books.  I don't think we can go, "Oh well, maybe next week…"

AC: I think the problem with a number of national newspapers is that they're edited by middle-aged men who have studied history and politics at university, and they've gone into newspapers because that is their passion, and the only books they are interested in are history and political biography.  Those can be perfectly interesting – but what this overlooks is that there is a whole huge audience for newspapers which consists of people who have children or grandchildren, and people who read the books pages are particularly interested in finding books for them.

"As a newspaper, I think we actually have a responsibility to cover children's books"

Can you think of an example of coverage making a difference?

AC: I was always told that when I reviewed a book, it would go up a lot in sales.  I know championing people like Anthony Horowitz, Cressida Cowell, Michelle Paver made a difference.  I picked up The Hunger Games when nobody else was touching it.  It had a terrible jacket, and I made it Book Of The Year, and people were slightly embarrassed.  They said: "Amanda, are you sure this is a serious book?" And I said, "Yes! This is it!"   That happened because I kept pushing it.  When I get passionate about a book, I get very determined that as many people as possible will hear about it.  I was one of the first people to review Harry Potter, and I was told by JK Rowling's agent that she's got that review stuck to her wall! 

NH: I'm always a bit dumbfounded when people say to me, "I've seen a massive surge in sales," but lots of people have said it.  Holly Smale, who writes Geek Girl: I was the first journalist to give her an interview, and she's always said to me it made a massive difference to her career.  Apparently it does really help.  But my thing is, if I make a difference to one child a week – if one child's book is bought on the back of my page – I feel like I'm doing something positive.

Our research shows that children's books typically get 3% of newspaper review space, despite accounting for over 30% of the market.  How do you feel about this under-representation?

CE: It just shows that the media haven't moved with the times.  If you speak to someone like Barry Cunningham, who was the first editor of Harry Potter – he famously told JK Rowling not to give up the day job.  No-one wanted to publish children's books then, because they thought they weren't selling.  But there've been huge developments.  Business is booming.  The industry is growing every year in terms of sales.  This year, already, we're 7% up on the first part of 2015.  So the fact that the media's still got this idea that it's this small, irrelevant industry – they just haven't caught up. 

NH: It's a real pity that it's so low, because the market is so vibrant, and there are so many wonderful books out there.  You could never say, "I couldn't find a children's book this week!"  I do think that all the newspapers and the magazines should have some kind of children's coverage – even if it is just one book a week – but something regular.  I think that's the key: regularity.  Because people then look for it.

AC: I feel absolutely outraged and I think they need their heads examined!  It's heart-breaking, because every parent and grandparent and teacher longs for children to fall in love with books, and how are they going to do that if they don't know what books to get? 

CB: I see an unfortunate tendency on the part of some (perhaps rather insecure) adults to try to prove their own maturity by actively denigrating literature for the young.  I will take the opportunity to quote CS Lewis on the subject, from his 1952 essay, On Three Ways of Writing for Children: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."  That nails it, I think.

"Business is booming.  The industry is growing every year"

What would you like to see the media do in order to #CoverKidsBooks?

AC: I would like to see at least a page every week devoted to children's books. Maybe they should do it on a different day; don't do it on Saturday, do it on Monday, when there's no news.  Why not?  Anything that gets it going, why not?  And also think about the people who write these books.  They're really interesting, they've often got fascinating stories to tell.  They're worthy of being interviewed in their own right. 

DH: The thing I'd most want is for them to treat it the way they treat other things.  And do more!  The more the better.  And everywhere.  Big TV shows!  I would love someone to do a six-part history of British children's literature: Alice In Wonderland to the present.

CE: It'd be nice to have a bit more critical coverage.  All industries need healthy criticism.  I also think the media should pay more attention to children's books as a business.  There's the idea that "It's for children, isn't that sweet?" – whereas actually, there are multi-million pound businesses behind this, with very well-paid publishers flying all over the world selling British children's books, because they're one of our finest cultural exports! 

CB: It's important to acknowledge that there has been some progress.  I don't think we'll ever go back to the days when, for example, children's books were officially ineligible to win the Costa Book Award.  All the same, it would be nice if they were seriously considered for the Man Booker, too!  We all owe it to good books of whatever stripe to recognize their quality.

#CoverKidsBooks – The Facts 

#CoverKidsBooks – Booksellers

#CoverKidsBooks – Librarians

#CoverKidsBooks – Teachers

#CoverKidsBooks – Parents
#CoverKidsBooks – Writers & Illustrators

#CoverKidsBooks – New Research, One Year On

#CoverKidsBooks invites you to join in a public conversation about children's books.  Leave a comment, write a blog of your own, or tweet about it using the hashtag.  Tell us why children's books matter to you, and what you'd like to see the media do to #CoverKidsBooks!