Children’s Books and Celebrities

The Children’s Column in BookBrunch is always a pleasure -

Particularly good piece last Friday about celebrities and children’s books

There is a general assumption by publishers that celebrity influences children. The results showed that it was a long way down the list of reasons for reading anything.

Only 5% of children said they were attracted to a book if someone famous said they liked it, or if someone famous (eg, Madonna or David Walliams) wrote it. Which goes to show that the deals these books command are based not on what children want to read, but on what parents buy.