Educational Children's Writing

Nonfiction for children outsells fiction.

IMHO I believe that educational books for youngsters, middle grade, and young adults, while strong and growing right now, will become increasing stronger each year in the foreseeable future. Better education for children is a hot button issue and I can't imaging it won't continue to be so for many, many years. Also, right now, there is a dramatic need for such books on a slew of subjects.

Education is moving towards a more 'child centered' philosophy. Learning takes place through exploration and discovery, which is guided by the teacher. I think books are starting to reflect that. Instead of books with pictures of little ducks lined up and counted, you may find books that may be about making a meal. (ie. Jane adds three eggs to the bowl, she cuts a pie into quarters so now she can feed her four friends... etc..) The same could be said for language development. There is a movement towards learning language through phonetic and visual experiences. Books can take advantage of this by using alliterations, rhyming, and visual queues. (Ex. Jake can bake the cake.)

Hope this helps.

I'm an elementary school teacher, so I feel like I should have a really great answer to this question, but....

What exactly do you want to know? I'm not at all certain I understand your question. Are you interested in genres, topics, general market trends?

One thing I can tell you is that the past 8 years have been dominated by No Child Left Behind politics. There are schools where teachers are not allowed to use ANY book or piece of literature that is not part of the state-adopted textbook series. I hope and pray that the upcoming election will bring a change in administration and we will return some of the control to parents and educators, the people who have the most stake in helping children succeed and enjoy learning.

I could say a whole lot more on that subject, but I'll bite my tongue.

One trend that I think will continue to be very important is the demand for diversity and multicultural sensitivity. It simply isn't okay these days to have a class library or curriculum where all the kids are white, all the parents are married and the boys do all the fun stuff while the girls watch. Authors and photographers who aren't sensitive to that won't find much market for their work. And authors who have an area of expertise--Asia, Islam, fluency in Spanish, etc.--have a distinct advantage in getting their work included in educational programs.