Children's Book Research

Emma Crampton

Dear Zoo- Rod Campbell

This book has very bright illustrations that are made up from clear block colors, this makes the pictures very clear and easy to see. They are set out very clear and the text is big which makes it a good book for children that are new to reading it also has a serif font which is what most children's books are written in because it makes them easy to follow. It looks like the images have been hand drawn as they have that sort of look to it. Dear Zoo was published in 1982 then re-published by Little Simon in 2007. the products dimensions are 6.1 x 0.5 x 6.2 inches, the book doesn’t need to be too big as it just has enough space to fit the text in a large font, it is also a ‘lift the flap’ board book, meaning it is printed on thick paperboard. There is 18 pages and half of those are filled with a picture and the other half have a small amount of text. The age range for the book is 1-4 years old. The author Rod Campbell is famous for his extremely popular children’s books and Dear Zoo is one of the most popular selling over 2 million copies. Enormously popular among the under 5s in Britain, it has been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Persian, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Panjabi, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese, as well as being published in a number of formats and alongside various merchandise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Campbell

The First Thanksgiving- Nancy Davis

This book by Nancy Davis is a lift-the-flap board book written to give children a small introduction and insight on the thanksgiving holiday which is why it is for a higher age range. It was published in 2010 by Little Simon which is the same publisher as Dear Zoo. The book has 14 pages that are all illustrated, they have pictures covering the full page with a small amount of text on some pages, the text isn’t as large as some other children’s books and is a sans serif font which is uncommon. The text is also short and has no detail to it which is good if a small child was just learning to read and it means that parents can add in their own detail to make sure their children understand if they read it to them. By having a small amount of writing the child may become curious of something that is not explained and they will ask about it, their parents will be able to explain things to them in a way that they understand. The books dimensions are 6 x 0.5 x 6 inches making it just about the same size as Dear Zoo. The illustrations in this book look like they have been done in Photoshop as all the lines are straight and everything seems to have a very neat look to it. They are block colors with no shading or shadows giving the book simplistic look. Nancy Davis is an award winning children’s book writer and graphic designer.

The Little Christmas Elf- Nikki Shannon Smith

This book is aimed at ages 3-7 years old, this would be because of the larger amounts of text found on each page which is also in a smaller font. This book was published by Golden Books in 2011 and is written by Nikki Shannon Smith who is a mother and primary school head teacher while also have taught there for 18 years. The Little Christmas Elf is her first book and has been featured in ‘Favorite Little Golden Books For Christmas’ which is a book full of Christmas stories published by Golden Books. There is 24 pages in this book which is more than the last two books and its dimensions are 6.8 x 0.2 x 8 inches which is close to the same size. Illustrations are by Susan Mitchell and look hand drawn, they have lots of color and are on every page including the front and back. The text in this book is smaller than other children’s books and has more as some books only have a sentence or even just a few words whereas this one is a few sentences up to a paragraph. It is a good book for adults to read to their children because of the large amount of text and will be good for a child who is confident with reading as it could become a struggle otherwise.

Who’s Hiding- Weldon Swanson

This is a very bright book that has lots of color and clear neat images. Weldon Swanson is the illustrator of the book based on a series of child toys and Scholastic published it in 2012. He illustrates many other children’s books based on the same series of toys. Scholastic publish many books for children, some that are a fun story to read and some that children basic things like the alphabet and how to count. The product dimensions are 0.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches which is similar to the rest of the books I have found. The book has 12 pages which is a good amount for a children’s book and they include lift-the-flap pages too. The illustrations done by Swanson look like they have been done in Photoshop because of the clear lines and it also looks very neat. The colors are not all block as some have gradient effects to give them detail but they are all very neat. The text in the book is large and is in a serif font to make it easy read. The text stays the same size all the way through which can make it easy for a child to follow.

All of the books I have found are all around the same size, I have also found out that most young children’s books seem to be square, this could be what shape I make mine as it seems to be very common, they are also commonly lift-the-flap books too. I will consider the dimensions of the books I have found and use that to decide on dimensions for my own. The majority of the books I have researched all had a small amount of text on each page and it was a large font, I will use large text in my book because it makes it easier for a child to read. In the books aimed at younger children (around 3 years old or younger) I have found that they have little text on each page. Most books use a serif font because it is easy to follow but the book ‘The First Thanksgiving’ uses a sans serif font which I think actually looks neat and goes well with the simple illustrations. The text in this book seems to be quite small and would be better if it was larger and as it is over the illustrations it may be hard for the children to read because the illustrations are bright and eye catching whereas in the book ‘Dear Zoo’ the text is over a plain white page and illustrations are on a different page making it easy to follow and read. In the books I researched they use different illustration techniques which helps me to be able to compare them. I prefer the illustrations in ‘The First Thanksgiving’. I like them because they look very neat and good for a children's book because of the lack of detail and clear block color images. I had also been considering using either the shape task or rotoscope in my final work as I like the look at it and now I know what it looks like in a child's book I can make a decision easier.