Go take a peek at part 1 then come back.
If you didn’t take a peek, basically, I read 1000 picture books in 2016, and took lots of notes.
Today I’ll take a look at the characters in the books. What types of characters are making their ways into picture books the most? Let’s see who (and what) made it into the books I read. If you see ‘MC’, is is a shortened version of ‘Main Character.’ Remember that all of the numbers you see are out of 1000.
Human, Animal, Inanimate, or Creature:
499 – Human
312 – Animal
45 – Inanimate
55 – Creature
88 – None, either not recorded, or a concept book
One Main Character, or Multiple Main Characters:
883 – One MC
41 – Two MCs share the spotlight.
9 – Three MCs
3 – Four MCs
5 – Five MCs
1 – Ten MCs
58 – Many MCs
I was surprised at how many books focused on more than one character.
Male or Female:
482 – Male
302 – Female
66 – At least one of each
204 – Unsure – sometimes with a cat, or a dragon, or a crayon, you just can’t tell without asking a few inappropriate questions.
Let’s get that male to female ratio a bit more even.
Age:
566 – Child (55 were babies or preschool)
172 – Adult (8 were elderly)
4 – At least one of each
257 – Unsure – I was raised to never ask a talking doughnut its age.
I was surprised by the large percentage of adult MCs.
Ethnicity: From the 499 MCs that were human.
340 – White
60 – Black
30 – Asian
23 – Hispanic
3 – American Indian
1 – Middle Eastern
30 – A mix of MCs
12 – Could not be determined
I think it is pretty clear who is and who isn’t represented.
Most popular humans:
13 – Artists (visual or performing)
9 – Royalty
6 – Writers
5 – Activists
Most popular animals:
43 – Birds
9 were chickens, 7 were penguins, 5 were owls
33 – Bears
29 – Dogs
23 – Cats
16 – Mice
15 – Rabbits (or hares, or bunnies)
11 – Elephants
11 – Monkeys or gorillas
8 – Pigs
4 to 6 – Insects, Frogs, Foxes, Pandas, Alligators/Crocodiles
Most popular inanimate objects:
9 – Foods
6 – Vehicles
6 – Trees
4 – Books
4 – Shapes
4 – Toys
Most popular creatures:
7 – Monsters
5 – Dragons
5 – Dinosaurs
4 – Aliens
4 – Witches
Most popular secondary characters:
28 – Birds (4 were Chickens)
27 – Mothers
24 – Dogs
21 – Fathers
15 – Bears, Cats
13 – Grandmothers
11 – Brothers, Both parents, Sisters
10 – Grandfathers
8 – Dragons, Mice, Dinosaurs
7 – Wales, Robots
6 – Royalty, Wolves
5 – Monsters, Turtles
4 – Lions, Dark/Night,
So, that’s the breakdown of who is populating the pages of current picture books. There’s a huge mix (there were hundreds of characters I didn’t have room to mention), but there are definitely some types that show up more often than others.
For those of you who are writers and illustrator, we can use this to see where there are opportunities to make some positive changes.
Any questions? Please ask. If there is any information you think could help with a story you’re creating, I’m happy to help.
Very interesting, David, thank you for taking all these notes and sharing them.
A few surprises. The best part was getting to read all of these great books!
What an interesting project! Some of these ratios are surprising while others aren’t.
Agreed. But I hope some of the ratios start changing.
This is really interesting, David. Thanks so much for sharing the results of all of your hard work!
I’m glad you enjoyed this. It was a labor of love.
Super interesting! What surprised me the most was the number of adult main characters (even though my own published book has two adult MCs).
I found that very surprising also. I too have an adult MC here and there.
WOW…this is fabulous, David…now I really need to hop over and read the first part of your survey. What a lot of work you did…and a lot of reading…and I really appreciate that you shared this all with us!
It was too much information to keep to myself.
What an interesting survey! Thank you for sharing. I wondered if you kept track of the types of stories. Were they all stories with a discernible arc? Were some concept books? Did some rhyme? How about settings? Thanks for any additional info you can give me.
There is definitely more to come within the next few days. I will cover most of what you are asking about. I’m already disappointed with a few things I missed, but this end result of sharing this information was not in my original plan. I just wanted to read a few books.
So interesting! Thanks for taking the time to do and share this!
Thanks, I’m happy to share.
Fascinating break-down of characters – surprised that birds were the most common animal MC and secondary character! Great food for thought and inspiration for Storystorm.
Yes, Birds are super popular. They seem to show up everywhere.
Thanks so much for posting this info. I, too, am surprised at the number of adult protagonists. And the male to female ratio is surprising as well; I would have guessed it to be more even.
I think people go with the thought that girls will read about boys, but boys won’t read about girls. I would love to see a study to see if this is true.
You’ve captured a view that’s good to know. Fewer princess books perhaps, but how quickly the market seems to fluctuate. I saw Beauty and the Beast is remade film soon.
Thank you for reporting your numbers.
You’re welcome, Pam. I expected more princess books too. It’s funny how characters travel in waves.
These are fascinating results, David. Thanks so much for sharing your hard work with us!
Thanks so much, Jen. And luckily, it never felt like hard work.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your research with us.
I’m glad I could.