Age Ranges and Corresponding Types of Children's Books

    Age ranges are important for writers who are interested in developing and writing children's books. The word count and corresponding types of books for each age range are important variables in the publishing industry and both are quite standard across all categories and genres of children's books in Africa, and elsewhere. 

    Below are the age ranges and corresponding types of children's books in each range: 

    1.     0 - 3 years: Board and / or plastic books are durable, specially designed books for non-reading toddlers. The books are made with thick board stock, have ten (10) or less pages, include a maximum of ten (10) - thirty (30) single or double syllable words, are 90% illustrated, and cover early learning concepts such as letters of the alphabet, colours, and numbers, among others.  

    2.     2 - 7 years: Illustrated flats and picture books have cardboard covers and thinner, relatively thick pages, thirty-two (32) are standard, up to forty (40) pages, illustrated for clarification, and include 500 - 600 words arranged in simple sentences.  

    3.     3 - 8 years: Activity and colouring books

    4.     3 - 8 years: Interactive books (lift-the-flap, pop-ups, buttons, and other interactive features)

    5.     6 - 8 years: Beginner reader, or early reader books are written for children who are learning to read on their own. The word count for early readers books is typically between 750 - 1,500, on 32 - 64 pages, in repetitive text arranged in simple sentences, and between two (2) to five (5) sentences per illustrated page.   

    6.     7 - 10 years: First chapter books are typically not longer than 96 pages, have a word count between 4,000 - 8,000, sometimes 10,000, featuring an age appropriate protagonist, a plot with a subplot detailing an adventure, or event, accompanied by few illustrations, in three (3) to four (4) line paragraphs.

    7.     8 - 12 years: Middle-grade (MG) reading books (including graphic novels) are typically longer than 160 pages, up to 200, typically not illustrated (except graphic novels), have definite entitled chapters, a word count between 20,000 - 40,000, in categories covering adventure, mystery, crime, history, humour, and fantasy, among others.  

    8.     13 - 18 years: Young adult (YA) novellas resemble adult fiction (AF) books in appearance and layout, with attractive front and back covers, but the word count is less at 50,000 - 70,000, only. Typical themes explored in YA novellas are identity, friendship, sexuality, values, morals, education (adventures at school), coming-of-age stories, sports, and some adult fiction categories such as fantasy, horror, romance, and crime, among others. 

    The accompanying illustration is by Lucy Fleming, @illustrateLucy. For more information about this topic, contact Anya, publisher at Nossob Press (NP): nossobpress@gmail.com, or call +264 81 719 2545.