By Jan Pease
“Retrospection: in retrospect: thinking about or
reviewing the past, especially from a new perspective or with new information.”
(Encarta Dictionary: English) I will now use the word in a sentence: I
hereby declare an end to retrospection because we live life forward, not
backward.
What’s ahead in 2020?
Well, prepare for a lot of puns about perfect vision.
Please notice that I wrote the year out, as suggested by
friends on the Internet. It’s too easy
to alter a date written as 01/08/20. I
doubt it was an issue on January 8, 1920.
The teens are behind us, and now it’s time for the twenties. Will we look back on these years as the
roaring twenties?
Children’s picture books and chapter books emphasized kindness and friendship in 2019. Betsy Bird, writing in School Library Journal, mentioned this trend. Books about children dealing with grief, empathy and friendship were a trend in 2019 that I hope will continue. In her article, she quotes author Celia Perez as saying “often adults just want to sit back and wait for the kids of today to grow up and save the world.”
I’ve seen a lot of unicorn hats this winter. The staff at giant book publisher Scholastic predicts that unicorns will also show up in children’s literature this year. Katie Carella, an executive editor at Scholastic also suggested that more slightly scary books will be popular, because children learn to process their feelings by experiencing scary things in a safe way.
Video games are more
popular than ever, and they are showing up in books and as books. At Litchfield, Minecraft books and Lego books
are very popular. Also, expect to see
more strong female and diverse characters in books.
Pugs. Yes, pugs are trending and will continue to be popular. Are you familiar with something on Instagram called the Pugdashians? I wasn’t, until now. There are some funny books featuring pugs;
my favorite is probably “Pugs of the North,” by Philip Reeve.
Ms. Carella also sees a trickle-down effect in children’s books caused by the still popular “Game ofThrones.” Stories about dragons are always in demand in Litchfield!
Over the decades (!) I’ve worked here at the library, I’ve noticed an interesting change in the nonfiction section of the children’s department. Nonfiction titles are not just published for children to use in writing reports, but are designed to entice children to read about real persons, places, and things. They are colorful and attractive and about all sorts of interesting things. Expect to see even more books about making things, and learning about sports.
