For the first post on genre, I will go over children’s literature (or kid lit). We’ll talk about the requirements for each category within this varied genre. Without further ado, let’s talk about genre: children’s literature.
Genre: Children’s Literature
This genre is unique, in that children (not even young adults) don’t determine what they read. There are librarians, teachers and parents who look over each book and decide if it’s appropriate for the audience before they get a chance to read it.
The genre is also broken down by age. We have infants, the books in the case of small babies are for parents to read to their children. Then, we have toddlers and young children who are still read to. It’s only after children begin school that they start reading on their own. Once they are in school, books start out easy and then get more difficult as their reading levels increase. I go into detail for each age below:
Board Books
Board books are designed for infants and toddlers, before they can read. The children at this time are called “pre-readers.” The word count is 300 max, some having 10-20 words. They should have no more than 10 pages. Board books are heavy on illustrations and convey early learning objectives such as colors, or numbers.
Picture Books
Picture books are designed for young children. The children who these books are for are around ages 2-7. They word count expectations are no more than 900, with 500 or fewer being best. 32 pages is standard, but there can be a max of 56. Picture books are also designed to be read to the child. It should one plot, one question to the child, and answer the question and resolve the plot at the end. Most of all, it should be very simple.
Easy/Beginning Readers
Easy readers are for children who are just learning how to read on their own. They are for children between 5 and 8 years old. The word count expectations are from 750-1,500 words. They introduce beginning readers to the concept of chapters, they have slightly more words than a picture book. They present one concept, idea, or theme to a beginning reader. Furthermore, they are usually lighthearted in tone.
Chapter Books
Chapter books in children’s literature are written for children around 7-10 years old, and are meant for children who are becoming fluent readers. The word count expectations are 4-12,000 words. Chapter books are not typically longer than 100 pages. These books begin to get into the more complex world of story, we begin to see setbacks, possibly a subplot. The sentence structures are more complex, but the paragraphs remain short, at two to four sentences long. There are few to no illustrations. The protagonist is normally 8 to 9, as this is the upper limit for children who read these books, and children typically read about children who are older than they are.
Middle Grade
Middle grade books are for children who haven’t yet started middle school yet, typically children 8-12 years old will read these. The word count expectations are 20-40,000, depending on the publisher. They are over 100 pages. Middle grade books have longer chapters than chapter books (above). Will not have any illustrations. The content categories are similar to adult books (mystery, thriller, etc.) Series are very popular with middle grade readers. Any intense content will push the book up into another category (YA comes next).
Young Adult
Young adult books are for ages 12 to adult. Word count expectations are 40-75,000. Content categories are the same as adult books, they read like adult books. Young adult books are often coming-of-age stories. A lot of identity stuff takes place in the young adult literature world, which makes sense. There are books about first loves, first heartbreaks, finding yourself after loss. These things are fantastic to have in this world, because the kids going through these things need a way to identify what is happening to them isn’t unique, and yet it is unique because they are all unique people who need works of fiction to help them through their time.
So, there are all the kid lit categories, in one place. I decided to make this post because I keep seeing people asking if the query for their 100,000 word YA book is any good. Which, yeah, I’m sure that the query is fine. However, the book is too long. I know that there are probably a million of these. But, I just wanted to add my part. Make sure that I am another place where people can get the information they need. Hopefully one day someone will see this, and they will realize that they can’t have a world count of 300 for a Board book or something. And then, my life will be complete.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you would like to see more of this, or if you need different stuff.
