By Leslie Grant, Graduate Assistant, McLure Education Library
(image from School Library Journal)
In the January 2015 edition, School Library Journal published the article “What’s Trending? Hot themes in kidlit and what we want to see” by Elizabeth Bird. In it, Bird summarizes her observations about trends in books for youth during the previous year, as well as adding her own expectations for the coming year. You can read the entire article on their website, but here’s a quick summary of some literary trends:
2014
Kid’s Fantasy Getting Darker
Examples: The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, The Thickety by J.A. White, The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove
Relationship between Lies and Storytelling
Examples: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier, West of the Moon by Margi Preus, Greenglass House by Kate Milford, The Riverman by Aaron Starmer
2015
Pranking
Examples: Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John, The Tapper Twins Go to War (With Each Other) by Geoff Rodkey
Post-apocalyptic Dogs
Examples: Apocalypse Bow Wow by James Proimos, Vacancy by Jen Lee
Liars and Unreliable Narrators
Examples: Lies I Told by Michelle Zink, Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes, Twisted Fate by Norah Olson, Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Beyond
Bird ends with trends she’d like to see in the future. The biggest of these is a continued increase in diversity. She lists several categories of particular interest and includes recent books within each one.
Disability as Incidental to Story
Examples: El Deafo by Cece Bell, Dragons Beware by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado
Realistic Depictions of Poverty
Examples: Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt and Vin Vogel, Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
African American Male Characters
Examples: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth, The Madman of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis, The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson, Eddie Red, Undercover: Mystery in Mayan Mexico by Marcia Wells, Public School Superhero by James Patterson
Latino Characters
Examples: Ambassador by William Alexander, Saving Baby Doe by Danette Vigilante, Sophia Martinez: My Family Adventure by Jacqueline Jules, Gum Luck by Rhode Montijo