I’m sure all of you can remember your favourite book as a child- the one that you read until the pages were torn; the characters that you imagined leaping out from the page in front of you and joining the real world in a colourful and exciting adventure. These books are often the ones we credit with instilling our love of all things literary – so can it really be true that the children’s book market is declining and children would now rather text on their smartphones and play on their shiny new tablets? Surely not!
Last week was the 2013Bookseller’s Children’s Conference where all of these issues and concerns were discussed. Graphs and statistics were bandied about, showing how many children were reading, what genres they enjoyed and in what new forms. However, what quickly emerged was not the doom- and- gloom reports that we are so often faced with, but a positive resolve that children’s publishing is in one of its most exciting transitions for recent years – and here at Turnaround, we wholeheartedly agree!
2013 is undoubtedly the year of digital in publishing, but whilst new online reading initiatives, literary apps and the explosion of e-books will definitely play a large role in the industry, books and bedtime still remain firm friends from early childhood, as was evident in the huge success of the Cozy Classics series (Simply Read).


Many would argue however that younger children are not the real problem, and it’s actually the teens of today and their fading thirst for literature that remains the biggest worry. Yet, one only has to look at the global book successes that have gone on to spawn blockbuster films to see that this is not the case.


Cozy Classics by Jack and Holman Wang (all £6.99, h/b) Emma 9781927018378, Oliver Twist 9781927018323 and Emma 9781927018378
Murilla Gorilla and the Lost Parasol by Jennifer Lloyd (Simply Read, £6.99, h/b, 9781927018231)
BETA By Rachel Cohn (Hyperion, £7.99, p/b, 9781423157342)
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton (Disney, £12.99, h/b, 9781423178699)