[ellie-fortune Posts: 4 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of doing market research. I'm looking for books published within the last 5 years that are early readers or easy chapter books with lots of illustrations.

My book, that I had originally intended to make into a PB has too many words for PB, so I'm curious about making it into a bridge book. It's a fantasy book, a retelling of the ugly duckling but with a twist in that the ugly duckling is a dragon, it's written in a similar style to Hans Christian Anderson and Beatrix Potter.

So I'm curious about any books that have a fantasy theme, or have that "classic" fairy tale feel.

I live in a small town and unfortunately the books stores and libraries are limited. Many of the books they carry were published in the 80's or 90's. I'm a fan of Junie B Jones and Roald Dahl as much as the next person but that doesn't help me right now lol.

Do you have any recommendations of books I should look at? Thank you so much!

[JodyJS Posts: 1,316 Status: Offline Who you gonna call? EMERGENCY KITTENS! WWW]

Hi Ellie,

If your story has more words than a PB (less than 500), you're probably talking about early chapter books/transitional chapter books vs. early readers, which can have as few as 20-80 words and are for those just beginning to read. Is your audience 2nd-3rd graders?

Can you borrow books via WorldCat through your library? I do that when my library doesn't have a particular title. You might look into Diary of a Wimpy Kid (not fantasy), Princess in Black (love), Dragon Masters (Scholastic), Dragon Slayers' Academy, or Big, Bad Detective Agency.

Good luck!

Jody

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,004 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

I'm not sure what you mean by a bridge book. Can you clarify the age group and whether you intend the child to read or be read to?

[Vijaya Posts: 7,168 Status: Offline Encourage WWW]

Ellie, word count is just one aspect of categorizing books for children. For instance, a PB is meant to be read out loud by a parent or teacher to the child so you can have rich language and play on words, etc. But when children are learning to read, the vocabulary is controlled. Many publishers have series with their own guidelines for leveled readers and some, like Scholastic and Charlesbridge have specific "bridge" books that span the range. Very few publishers are publishing the kind of classic fairytale you refer to. A recent one that I've loved is the story of Silent Night by Brigitte Weninger (sp?). An older book is The Weight of a Mass by Josephine Nobisso. Lovely writing and art. 

Joan Holub has quite a few series of fairytale books. Here's a goodreads list you might find useful: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/86534.fairy_tale_books_for_kids