[elissacruz Posts: 753 Status: Offline]

I was chatting with my kids' school librarian yesterday, and she was lamenting about how she can't find many good books on certain subjects that the kids are always asking for.  The one my librarian mentioned specifically was Atlantis (either NF books about it or fictionalized stories set there), but she says there are many more she thinks about in passing each day. Since she's a writer, too, she mentioned that she often finds inspiration for a new idea when she comes across these voids in the literary marketplace, and has thought of keeping a running log of subjects that need more books.

I like her idea of an ongoing list of these subjects that are sparse on titles, so let's start one.  Please add to this list if you come across a subject or idea that seems underrepresented (or the teachers/librarians around you mention a void that needs to be filled), and feel free to pillage this list if you need an idea to spark the next picture book, novel, or NF title.

[Amanda Coppedge Posts: 462 Status: Offline WWW]

I believe there is a column in the SCBWI newsletter each month on this topic, too.

In my library, I could use:
More collections of scary stories (a la "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark")
New Year's Eve/Day (Jan. 1, not Chinese New Year)
Phonics/Learning to Read (not Beginning Readers, not textbooks, something in-between)
The human brain, reflecting new research findings
Food chains and life cycles
Biomes besides the rain forest
More iterations of new baby books (parents usually want it to reflect their specific situation, aka big sister getting ready for new baby sister)
More iterations of death in the family books (same reason as baby books--aka boy experiencing death of grandma, etc.)
More research books for science projects (aka we'll have lots of books on chemistry science experiments for grades 4-6, but few books with plain chemistry information these experimenters could use as resources)
Robots
Building stuff with Legos--model diagrams
More ancient civilizations besides Egypt, Rome and Greece (such as China, Japan, the Aztecs)

Just a few!

[CarrieF Posts: 269 Status: Offline WWW]

This is great information. Thanks Elissa and Amanda!