PREVIEWER’S PERSPECTIVE Previewer’s perspective
Every cloud: Books for children bring message of positivity
A number of titles publishing in the coming months for children major on themes of hope and happiness—no surprise perhaps, given the past two years—while climate crisis titles are prominent once again
Fiona Noble Children’s & YA Previews editor
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n 2022, children’s publishing is full of books about hope and happiness, a response no doubt to the huge upheaval children and young people have gone through in the past two years. Look out for non-fiction guides Hope on the Horizon, writen by Onjali Q Rauf (right) and illustrated by Pippa Curnick; Emily Coxhead’s Find Your Happy; and Ant & Dec’s children’s début Propa Happy, illustrated by Katie Abey and with all proceeds going to the NSPCC. In fiction, themes of friendship, empathy and communit are everywhere, particularly well encapsulated in Benjamin Dean’s The Secret Sunshine Project. The importance of hope also feeds into another key theme. Children’s anxiet about the climate crisis has been well documented and children’s authors are faced with the difficult task of giving children the facts without terrifying them. Key titles here include Jess French’s It’s a Wonderful World and, in fiction, Hannah Gold’s The Lost Whale—both will nurture a love of the natural world with the message that small actions can make a difference. For my highlights, I’ve
selected 70 titles published between February and July 2022 from publishers who uploaded their titles to the Buyer’s Guide database. These highlights aim to give you the biggest titles across all children’s categories from publish- ers big and small, along with ones to watch and the key themes I’m seeing for the coming six months. Any sales data is Nielsen Bookscan TCM, unless otherwise stated. I have focused on original publications and will continue to cover paperbacks in my monthly previews in The Bookseller. Judging by my monthly preview submissions, it’s going to be a very busy and competitive spring indeed; March, for example, was
Children’s authors are faced with the difficult task of giving children the facts [about climate change] without terrifying them
my second-biggest preview ever. There may also be more publication date changes than usual, due to ongoing issues with the supply chain. Finally… unicorns, the trend that never goes away. Two
very different books which subvert the stereotpes in clever and surprising ways are Rebecca Paterson’s picture book Four Bad Unicorns and Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A F Steadman, first in an epic new middle-grade series.
Have your say
You can find Fiona on Twitter (@fionanoblebooks), or make contact via email (
fionanoble@btinternet.com)
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The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Children’s
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