Cath Pound
Freelance culture journalist
That children are still avid readers in our ever increasing digital age may come as a surprise to those who think youngsters are permanently glued to their screens, but sales are booming. According to a report by the United Kingdom-based market research firm Business Research Company the global children’s and young adult book market has been growing steadily in recent years and is set to increase from US$11.76 billion in 2023 to over US$12 billion in 2024.
The huge, global popularity of the British author J.K. Rowling’ Harry Potter series and fellow Britain Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel series His Dark Materials, both of which began in the 1990s, spearheaded a new renaissance in children’s literature. The past twenty years has seen a massive expansion in the number of titles available which provide children with an unprecedented choice of reading matter.
Traditional tales and best-selling stories, such as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or René Goscinny’s Les Aventures du Petit Nicolas (France), are still very popular. The same can be said for illustrated classics such as the American author Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), whose greedy title character eats his way through a series of beautifully illustrated foodstuffs before turning into a butterfly, or American author Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963).
But over the past three decades, the offer has become incredibly diverse. Talented authors have emerged in many countries, among them Ana Maria Machado (Brazil) and Nahoko Uehashi (Japan), both winners of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize. Meanwhile, a new generation of inventive illustrators is following in the footsteps of famous children’s book makers like Tomi Ungerer (France) and Bruno Munari (Italy), which plays a major role in the renewal of the genre.
In the teenage and young adult (YA) age bracket, romance, romantasy (combining romance and fantasy), crime and thrillers are the big sellers. A rise in audiobook sales is also helping to propel the market. A 2023 report by Bookwire GmbH, a service provider for the delivery of e-books based in Germany, revealed that the sale of audiobooks in Spain and Latin America increased by almost 52 per cent from 2021 to 2022.
