This is the paragraph to skip if you have already been following this series. In 2016 I decided to learn more about current trends in picture book market by reading 1000 books. As I did, book by book, this monster of statistics, began to grow into what you see before you. In case you missed any of the previous parts, click here: Part 1 – Picture book makers; or Part 2 – Characters; or Part 3 – Genre.
Now, we continue with point of view and settings.
Tense:
442 – Past
430 – Present
34 – Future
5 – Multiple
25 – Wordless
I’m surprised that past and present are nearly equal. I felt like I read so many more written in past tense.
Person:
583 – Third
174 – First
53 – Second
88 – Conversation
8 – Lists
5 – Letters
2 – Questions
6 – Multiple
25 – Wordless
Rhyme:
820 – Not in rhyme
161 – Rhyming
10 – Some rhyme, some not
We’ve all heard it – don’t write in rhyme. I do all the time, I love it. Maybe, I’m a glutton for punishment, and as we can see here, not nearly as many rhymers are making it onto the page. I would be interested to see statistics from a publishing house on the percentage of rhyming picture book manuscripts they receive. Of the books I read, 16% were in rhyme. If the percentage of rhyming books being submitted is smaller than 16% then it would be an advantage to write in rhyme. I’m guessing the opposite is true.
Time Period:
852 – Contemporary
96 – Past
5 – Prehistoric
2 – Future
2 – Multiple
Weather/Time of day/Seasons:
824 – Weather was not important to the story.
74 – Night or Dark
43 – Winter or Snow
27 – Across the 4 seasons
14 – Rain
10 – Summer
6 – Wind
5 – Storm
4 – Spring
4 – Autumn
Setting:
158 – Multiple locations
151 – Home
81 – No clear location
78 – Woods
61 – Traveling around town
56 – School
51 – City
43 – Specifically, not is the USA (most popular not-USA locations: 8-Africa; 7-France; 5-Middle East; 4-Mexico)
34 – Ocean
28 – Yard
27 – Farm
25 – Jungle
20 – Kingdom
15 – Space
14 – Zoo
13 – Park
10 – Library
7 – Stage
6 – Around the world
6 – Book
5 – Garden
And some other stuff:
51 – Books with back matter
1 – Board books
2 – Comic Book Style
15 – Books that could be manipulated (flaps, pop-ups, turning book, etc.)
Phew! That’s it for the stats. Well, that was quick and easy.
I’ll write one more blog post to wrap everything up. Part 5 is right here.
Another very informative post. You’ve given me further avenues to explore in my own study. Thank you.
Thanks, Bev. There are so many parts to a picture book to consider.
I have LOVED reading these posts. David. Thanks so much for sharing (yes, the past vs. present tense split is surprising!).
Thanks, Lori. That stat feels wrong to me too, but those were the notes I took. I know this is just my sampling, so I would be curious to see what the actual percentages are.
I am impressed, David! You compiled a list of seriously interesting facts. I would never have guessed that the number of past tense stories would nearly equal those written in present tense. (I suddenly feel compelled to play with some of my WIP manuscripts to see how they sound.) My surprise also goes to the number of first person stories. It would be interesting to read 1000 picture books written ten years ago, twenty years ago, etc… to see how the numbers change. Thanks for sharing your research. I’m going to keep notes on the picture books I read this year and see what numbers I discover.
I am with you, Leslie, I bet there were less first person in the past. and I too, wish those stats were available. In ten years, someone will be able to compare theirs to these.
Thanks, again!
Anytime!