![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dreamstime_xs_40943064-1.jpg\")
\u00a9 Leung Cho Pan | Dreamstime.com<\/p><\/div> A book with something for adults AND babies.<\/p><\/div> When choosing which books to turn into board books, publishers seem to be forgetting how young toddlers really are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLast week<\/a>, I argued for breaking down the artificial and rigid age barricades we erect around picture books. This week, I am pleading\u00a0to bring back some sanity surrounding the\u00a0age-appropriateness\u00a0of board books, those thick-paged little books that used to be\u00a0created with our very youngest readers in mind, but are now becoming a strange land where books meant for ages 4-7 are suddenly in toddler format.
\nIncreasingly, publishers are\u00a0turning\u00a0popular picture books\u00a0into board books whether or not the content, style, complexity, or topic is appropriate for children under the age of three.\u00a0It’s as though folks have decided to ignore Piaget altogether, or have never read a board book with an actual toddler.
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\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/81oxfPda8XL.jpg\")
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\nI’m not talking about tongue-in-cheek books like\u00a0Urban Babies Wear Black<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Quantum\u00a0Physics for Babies<\/a>, <\/em>or Libby Babbott-Klein and Jessica Walker’s\u00a0Baby Feminists <\/em><\/a>(a personal favorite). These\u00a0titles telegraph the fact that they are really intended\u00a0as gifts for parents, and if they are good books, like the ones mentioned above, the illustrations and text\u00a0offer something fun for baby, too, like Baby Feminists<\/em>‘ lift-the-flaps activity.
\n[Side note: while I get a kick out of the hard-science concept\u00a0board books, I do question this year’s\u00a0Neural Networks for Babies<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(!).]
\nRecently, I’ve been seeing so many picture books written for ages 4-7 now squished into the board book\u00a0format. Either the text is abridged, which really should be a sign that\u00a0the story isn’t\u00a0right for a board book, or the text is\u00a0unabridged but the font is\u00a0very small to accommodate all those words.\u00a0My main quarrel with these titles isn’t the length; it’s that the stories just don’t connect with the children whom board books aim to serve.
\n![](\"https:\/\/images.booksense.com\/images\/859\/301\/9780374301859.jpg\")
<\/a>For example, take Amy Young’s charming A Unicorn Named Sparkle<\/em>. No one is a bigger fan of Sparkle<\/em> than I am\u2014I read it to pretty much every picture book shopper who comes to the store\u2014but it’s definitely best with readers aged 4-7. The adorable art is\u00a0toddler-friendly, but experience shows that the story is not too successful with\u00a0children younger than five. A regular paperback edition would have been so much more welcome at our store, and would sell\u00a0brilliantly for us.
\nI think publishers\u00a0might be bypassing paperback editions of picture books because board books sell\u00a0so well, but I don’t think this serves long-term viability for books that are simply too old for toddlers. Excellent picture books that find their true audience will go on and on, but aimed wrong, they\u00a0might miss their mark\u2014and their most ardent readers.
\nI also have trouble with\u00a0the\u00a0uptick in\u00a0biographical\u00a0board book series featuring inspiring current and historical role models.\u00a0For instance, I love the idea behind the recent “I Look Up To” board book series, which introduces children to meaningful achievers like Malala\u00a0Yousafzai and Serena\u00a0Williams. But I admit I got stuck on the first pages of I Look Up to… Serena Williams<\/em>:
\n“Serena is driven.
\n“Serena and her older sister Venus love and respect each other, even though they compete with each other at the highest level of the sport.”
\nI’m a huge\u00a0admirer of the phenomenal Williams sisters, but I have a hard time imagining that a two- or three-year-old would be able to connect to that opener. Even if they understood the words, they lack the contextual experience to appreciate the complex set of emotions encompassed in those sentences.
\nWhile\u00a0children should be introduced to real role models as early and often as possible, often the stories we share mean zippity-doo-dah to a two-year-old. How can we explain Serena’s incredible achievements without also discussing\u00a0her battles against racism and sexism? How can we introduce Malala’s heroism without sharing the traumatic event that brought her story to the outside world? Wouldn’t it be better to wait just a few years until\u00a0young children can\u00a0truly appreciate these admirable heroes? Or work a little harder to marry the delivery of the information to the age of the listener?
\nMaybe I’m being rigid here, exactly the way I was complaining about people last week, who define picture book audiences too narrowly. But I do think we are rushing children ever faster out of\u00a0age-appropriate books, and to what end?
\nNot every board book needs to be Yummy! Yucky!<\/em> or More, More, More, Said the Baby<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0We’re Going on a Bear Hunt<\/em> or Jamberry<\/em> (although, why not?), but seriously,\u00a0let’s not forget the end user in these marketing meetings. Sure, many of these books will sell well in the short-term, but they won’t endure if toddlers don’t want to hear them again and again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"