Author campaigns for more children's book in newspapers

14:26 - 02 February 2016

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S F Said campaigns for more children's book in newspapers

Children’s author S F Said just launched a campaign to encourage newspapers to give more space to children’s book reviews.

Children’s author S F Said just launched a campaign to encourage newspapers to give more space to children’s book reviews.

Said, who writes children fantasy fiction teamed up with Imogen Russell Williams, a children’s literature critic, to monitor a wide range of national newspapers for a month.

They found children's books currently got 3% of all book review space in newspapers, even though they account for 30% of the UK book market.

“I can’t help but feel that there remains a prejudice around children’s literature; a sense that it’s somehow not literature and not a proper subject for reviews,” he told The Bookseller.

“This kind of dismissive attitude has no place in today’s world. Since the 1990s, children’s books have come to occupy a central place in the cultural landscape.”

For the campaign, entitled #CoverKidsBooks, Said will encourage newspapers to give children’s books more space, starting with a series of interviews about this issue with authors, teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents online.

He added: "This is a golden age for children's literature. There are children's books being written today that are in truth books for everyone. Yet they are routinely ignored by national newspapers, who are missing the biggest story in publishing today. Newspapers need to wake up to this golden age, and give children's books the space and coverage they so richly deserve."