[teresa-klepinger Posts: 71 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I subscribe to Publishers Weekly, and lately I've noticed the majority of picture books are NOT 32 pages. This week there are 13 reviews for picture books for 3-8 year olds. Three are 32 pgs, on is 34 pgs, five are 40 pgs, and four are 48 pgs. Is this a new trend?

[Vijaya Posts: 6,890 Status: Offline Encourage WWW]

Nonfiction PBs can be on the longer side, but the pages will still be multiples of 8 because of the way they're folded and gathered. The 34-pg book is an anomaly but it could be because of the way the pages were counted. In the educational market you'll also see 16 and 24-pg PBs. 

[teresa-klepinger Posts: 71 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

These were almost all fiction. The nf was narrative, and all for the 4-8 age range.  I've been noticing it for a few months now.

[christripp Posts: 1,147 Status: Offline WWW]

Hard to imagine Publishers starting to make books that cost them MORE money to produce. Were they perhaps ones written/Illustrated by well known creators, ensuring sales?

[teresa-klepinger Posts: 71 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I looked up several of the authors, and while I didn't recognize their names, they mostly have quite a few books under their belts. So maybe that's part of it.

[Anne Marie Posts: 2,854 Status: Offline VAMPIRINA season 3 is on Disney Junior now! WWW]

My first hardcover was 40 pages. My most recent was 24.

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 6,225 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

I've also seen a four page book and eight pagers in the educational market. I find the 34 pager odd, but not the rest. Although this is a large number of books. Did you check if the publishers were educational markets? I know Capstone has had a couple reviewed recently. Here's hoping the count is becoming looser.

[teresa-klepinger Posts: 71 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

This was fiction picture book reviews in Publishers Weekly. The one nonfiction I didn't include. I understand the multiples of 8 principle, but I'm just finding it odd that so many aren't the standard 32 pages.

[HaroldU Posts: 744 Status: Offline WWW]

It may be how they are counting pages. Endpapers can be printed, and if they are, they may be included in the page count. If you really want to get a feel for how picture books are being put together today, you could go into a bookstore, pull a large selection of picture books, and take notes on how they are laid out. Is there art on the endpapers? Is there a half-title as well as a title page? Is there backmatter? How many pages are actually dedicated to the story?

I would not conclude from the fact that longer picture books do get published that you should, for example, plan for more page breaks...

[teresa-klepinger Posts: 71 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Good point! I'll try to find a "new books" section and see if there's a new trend in layout, and not necessarily more page breaks in the story.

Thanks!