Publisher’s Weekly (1/31/2011) reports on a new study that looks at how kids and teens decide what they read and where they get those recommendations and books from.
“Children’s books are not going anywhere. They’re going to be a very secure category in the marketplace,” said former Association of Booksellers for Children executive director Kristen McLean during a presentation at the ABA’s Winter Institute with Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publishers services at Bowker/PubTrack. Sponsored by Random House, Macmillan, Penguin, Scholastic, and Little, Brown, the survey, which is available from Bowker, examines consumer attitudes toward purchasing children’s books in three categories: adults buying for children ages 0–6, adults buying for children ages 7–12, and teen consumers ages 13–17.
While some of the news came as no surprise—women buy nearly 70% of kids’ books and most purchasers fit solidly in the middle class both in terms of income and education—other findings were more startling. For example, books ranked number one over all other media for the youngest ages. (See chart #1.) Even for teens, books outweigh other media by 57% when it comes to having fun.
Read the entire Publisher’s Weekly article here.