If you’ve ever been to a writing conference or in a serious writing program you know that chasing trends is not only a big no-no, but near impossible.

Consider for a moment how long it takes to write a book, then query it, then edit it, then have it published. By the time you’ve finished everything, years have passed and the trend is over.

In children’s lit this is especially hard because books are gatekept for the audience.

Kid’s don’t buy their own books. Parents, Teachers, and Librarians buy their books. They tell them what to read, they keep them from reading things that don’t align with their worldview, or they pick things with an educational value.

The current #1 book on the New York Times Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover bestsellers list is Wonder by RJ Palacio. It was published twelve years ago in 2012.

It has been on the list for 442 weeks.

Eight years.

I’m not denying it’s a great book, but I can’t put it on a bibliography at this point because it’s older than 5 years. As a student of the craft of writing, it’s no longer a book for me to study in order to further my craft.

The next book is a cookbook, the next was published in 2017.

The very last title on the list was actually published this year, 2024.

Now, my problem is not the length of time that these books stay on the list. My problem is that they don’t get there using input from their target audience.

When I was in middle school (just after the earth’s crust cooled), I had all manner of books I hated thrust into my lap. Books about boys lost in the woods, and a bus full of teens who got kidnapped, and books that were written decades before I was born that featured a child protagonist whom I had no interest in.

But these were bestselling books. So we had to read them.

I guess my point is that it’s frustrating from the creative point of view. I know my sense of humor is juvenile. Farts are hilarious. Kids think farts are hilarious.

Parents, teachers, and librarians don’t.

But then, just one age category up in Young Adult–you can assume teens bought those books and so you should be reading those to study them and your audience. The very first book on the list was published just last year.

I’m not sure I have a solution beyond more Kids’ Choice Awards, but I hope that some day the list reflects what kids want and not just what the adults in their lives think they should.