How do YOU choose your children's books?

Recently, I conducted a survey online about people's favourite books and what they'd buy their children (or any child). I only posted this survey to parenting forums, and got 32 responses.

I firstly asked whether or not they had children, and this was the response. Well over three quarters either had children or were expecting, which was pretty predictable thinking about where I posted it.

The next question really shocked me. I asked what they look for when they buy a children's book (whether their own or someone else's), and expected to see a variety. However, 100% of responses ticked 'the story itself'. Artwork was also popular with 71.9% of people, and the least popular was the size of the letters, at 15.6%.  This told me that artwork was as important as I previously thought from my other research, but everyone also cared about the story - which makes sense it being a printed story.

This leads me to my next question where I asked, what's the most important factor of a book? No one at ALL chose the size of the letters. But, in fact, 68.8% of people find the story the most important factor of buying a children's book. This would led me to making certain adjustments to my book, like the quality of writing and the clarity of the story itself. I wanted adults to understand what was happening int he book, and for children's to be able to read it without confusion. A quarter of people found the artwork the most important, making it less of a priority to me, but a priority nonetheless.

I also put up two illustrations: one of The Little Prince, and one of The Red Tree. I asked people to decide what artwork they thought was best. The majority liked The Little Prince (62.5%), for reasons such as 'It's a bit more simple for kids and I guess they'll understand it better', 'Simple and brighter colours for younger children' and 'looks more appealing for children'. The same percentage of people with 15.6% either like the Red Tree more, or both artworks. One quote said: 'They are very different but equally as good as each other'.

Finally, I asked for people's favourite books from their childhoods. As you can imagine, I got a lot of variation in answers, but the three at top being: Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and J. Wilson. Biff and Chip, Spot and the Very Hungry Caterpillar were also mentioned a couple of times.

This research was great for my project, and helped me to adjust my project slightly. For instance, with the amount of story and focus on my story I had, and using my illustrations, but so that they didn't cover an entire spread so there was room for enough words. So, at the end of this survey I decided to change the amount of text I had in my book, the quality of my story and accepting the fact that even though my illustrations were simple, in a kids book sometimes that's preferred.

If I had to critique the survey, it would be the amount of responses I had. I did post it on parenting forums and sites, but I didn't put much up on Facebook as I wanted more parents to answer the survey, however, if I had put it on Facebook it may have had more responses.

https://goo.gl/forms/rMhwXWGgEYONqvaq1