Easy as ABC by Tony Bradman

When I first became involved in the world of children’s books, way back in the early 1980s, I found myself in the middle of a great controversy. On one side were the proponents of a theory that said the ‘reading schemes’ used in schools to teach children how to read were too dull, too limited, and that kids should be exposed to plenty of what were called ‘real books’ – ie, the kind of books that were written and illustrated outside of educational publishers. On the other side were those who said that kids (and teachers) needed some kind of structure when it came to the difficult business of learning to read. As a parent of school-age children I wasn’t at all surprised by the sound and fury this debate generated – we all worry about our children and literacy is a very sensitive issue. Of course there’s a political aspect to this – at that time the opposing camps tended to fall into Left-leaning (anti-reading schemes) and Right-Leaning (pro-reading-schemes), although things weren’t always that clear-cut. Indeed, I count myself as a liberal leftie, but I could see that a structured reading scheme might be a real boon to some teachers and kids. I could also see at the time that most reading schemes were pretty dull. If only they were as good as the great books that were being produced by writers and illustrators outside the reading schemes...

Then an interesting thing happened. During the 1980s the mainstream ‘trade’ publishers saw an opportunity, a gap in the market for the provision of bright, funny, contemporary books aimed at children who were learning to read – the ‘5-8’ market. Suddenly they all seemed to be devising series for that age range, and encouraging writers of older fiction to try writing for younger children, and picture book authors to go in the opposite direction. The big new chains of bookshops – Waterstones, Ottakars, Borders – suddenly all had special sections for 5-8 books, and some of us made what felt like a whole career out of writing this sort of young fiction. I know I did – I made my name in that market, particularly with Dilly the Dinosaur. Meanwhile, educational publishers seemed to realise that they needed to raise their game, and set about asking ‘trade’ authors to write for reading schemes. They worked hard at making those schemes more exciting too, both in terms of the kind of stories they included, and the way the books looked. Of course reading schemes did still have to work under many constraints trade publishers could ignore – limited vocabulary, levelling, concerns about what kind of material schools would or wouldn’t take – but for a while it looked as if the two streams of children’s publishing might be coming together to make a powerful river.

Then another interesting thing happened, as it tends to do in the world of books – Harry Potter arrived and changed everything. The rise of big-ticket, movie-franchise children’s fiction meant that publishers’ attention was drawn increasingly to that area and the huge revenue it could generate, to the detriment of books for younger children. For a while it looked as if picture books were doomed. They had flowered in the 1980s too, but by the late 1990s fewer and fewer were being published. That trend seems to have slowed down (thanks to Julia Donaldson and a few others!), and although anyone who works in the picture book field will tell you it’s still not easy, it’s better than it was. The same happened to trade books for 5-8s. Suddenly it seemed as if trade publishers were pulling out of that market as fast as they could. Series for 5-8s came to a juddering halt, books went out of print, and anyone who had relied on that market to make a living found themselves struggling. None of this was helped by the rise of digital publishing and online bookselling, and the corresponding decline of High Street bookshops, either the chains or independents. It’s easier to sell older fiction online, and the same might be said of picture books. Books for 5-8s are a much harder sell – and increasingly there are fewer anyway.

To a large extent this means that mainstream publishers have pretty much abandoned the field of books for the 5-8s to the educational publishers. There are a few exceptions – Egmont still keep their Banana books going (self-promotion alert: I’ve written quite a few for them!), but their design does help to make them look a little educational. Educational publishers have also continued to raise their game, and many of their books really are very good indeed. That’s why many people who did write for trade publishers are now happy to write for reading schemes (another self-promotion alert: I’ve written loads for OUP, particularly for the amazing Project X series). There’s also a sense in a lot of reading scheme publishing that the books have to be more than just ways of teaching kids how to ‘de-code’ words on the page. They need to be stimulating and engaging and make kids feel that reading is fun.

Even so, I can’t help feeling that it’s not good for the future of our business – and for the future of children’s reading – to have trade publishers fixated on the glamour of big advances and large marketing budgets. I have a feeling that some publishers themselves might be disappointed with the returns on a lot of Young Adult/Teen/Crossover fiction that they paid a lot for. I know that several times in the last year I’ve heard agents and editors say that ‘the real gap’ is in books for younger children, that we need some great stories for beginner and young readers. Plus ça change, you might say, and you’d be right. It has to be that way, though – for how can we create the readers of the future if we don’t offer them a bridge from picture books to older fiction? However good modern reading schemes are, we need trade publishers to do their bit as well. This isn’t rocket science, after all – it’s as easy as ABC...