Why you aren’t reading books as long as Dr. Seuss to your kids anymore.

9/5/2014

If you’re at all plugged into the #kidlit world, I’m sure by now you’ve heard someone lament about the state of shrinking word counts. They’ll blame shorter attention spans, the effect of two working parents, the eternal onslaught of ‘devices’ or simply lack of time. Is it true that in our fast paced, internet saturated lives, we can’t stop and read our kids books with more that 500 words?

I thought it would be fun to dig into some numbers and compare some classic picture book word counts with some contemporary ones.

Lets compare:

Horton Hears a Who
Word Count - 2008

One Fish. Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Word Count - 1308

Love You Forever
Word Count - 772 words

Where The Wild Things Are
Word Count - 336

Contemporary:

Don’t let The Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Word Count - 161

Kittens First Full Moon
Word Count - 264

Children Make Terrible Pets
Word Count - 372

Skippyjon Jones
Word Count - 1073

As you can see the 500 word rule isn’t really strict (those Skippyjon books are freaking long!). Personally, my 2 yr old son loves reading longer stories with a lot of wordplay. We unearthed a treasure trove of older books that belonged to my wife and he would rather read some of the older, longer, stuff. But that's just us. What do you think? What do your kids prefer to read? Do you wish contemporary books were longer? Shorter?

-Jorge

2 Comments

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Renee Lute link

9/5/2014 04:21:50 am

My two-year-old is also really into longer books, as the longer books often mean a later bedtime or more one-on-one attention time. I like them, too. Those are precious minutes where I don't need to rescue her from climbing onto our kitchen table or sitting on her infant brother. Those are minutes where everyone is getting along, and it's silent (except for the reading).

Elizabeth Rose Stanton link

9/22/2014 04:30:46 am

I am a firm believer that words are as important as the illustrations in picture books. While there is a certain beauty to a well-crafted wordless book, I think children's brains really light up when there is meaningful interplay between words and pictures. As for *more* words--yes! --assuming they are "artful" and carefully chosen. --ERS