A Guide to Children’s Book Categories

Natalia Méndez explains the different categories used for children’s books in the world of publishing

When it comes to illustrating or publishing a children’s book, understanding its category will help you to plan your project, not only in terms of content but also the format, illustration style, typography, as well as other factors relating to the editing process. All of this will help define what type of book you want to publish.

Categories are also useful when choosing books and deciding on the direction in which you want to take the project. On the publishing side, you’re thinking not just about the content, but also more technical questions to do with the physical object itself–the shape of the book, the front cover, the design, and more. These steps may seem like a small part of the process but, in the world of publishing, they are vital.

To better understand the differences, Natalia Méndez (@natumendez)–a children’s book editor and writer–talks us through the main categories for children’s book:

Books for babies and young infants: Small books that can be explored by small hands with little mobility. The pages might be made from card or some other thick material that can be easily turned or even put in the reader’s mouth or bitten or sucked.

Collections for schoolchildren: These publications are different from textbooks. Usually, they are titles the teacher has selected for the students’ literature class. Most of them are affordably priced, written by contemporary authors, and rarely have color illustrations inside. They always indicate the age group the book is recommended for.

Photo-books: These are more luxury publications–they are bigger and usually hardback. The illustrations are the main feature–the narrative complements them.

Commercial fiction: This format can seem similar to the collections for schoolchildren; however, they’re not aimed at a particular age group–they don’t come with a recommendation for teachers or parents. They are short novels that place a lot of importance on the characters so that the children become infatuated by them and want to keep reading the rest of the series.

Novels for youngsters: These are more commercial because they won’t be read at school. These books are likely to be a spontaneous purchase at a bookshop or have something to do with a new film or trend. They need to have covers and images that instantly attract the reader.

Comics: This is perhaps the fastest-growing category right now. They are both classic and contemporary publications covering a variety of subjects, the key feature of which is the illustrations.

Educational non-fiction: These aren’t necessarily schoolbooks. They aren’t planned or designed to fit a curriculum and nor do they have a narrative. They are books that appeal to a child’s curiosity and their specific interests, whether that be technology, philosophy, or history.

Activity books: These aren’t narrative publications, but neither can they be classed as non-fiction. They focus on promoting different activities–such as following recipes and drawing classes–and maybe they’ll include stickers. For these books, the visual elements are what make the content stand out.

Fiction books that look like non-fiction books: These books tell made-up information while seeming informative. This is achieved both with the images and design, as well as the actual content. This is done to tell an impactful story. These books play with genre in a very effective way.

Natalia Méndez teaches the Domestic course, Narrative Techniques for Children’s Books. In it, she will give you an insight into the world of publishing and teach you about narrative structures and devices used in children’s books so that you can turn great ideas into stories for little ones.

You may also like:

Introduction to Children’s Illustration, a course by Adolfo Serra.
Children’s Illustration for Editorial Publications, a course by Pamela Barbieri.
Illustration and Design of Children’s Books, a course by Carlos Higuera.