in 2026

Word count in kid-lit can be confusing. Authors often ask me how many pages a children’s book should have. Or what the expected word count for a certain age range might look like. What are the real ages meant for each category? Here’s a graph that I hope is helpful in answering those questions.

This is based on what I’m seeing this and last year.

Pages and Words

The numbers might be smaller than what you’ve seen before. Why? Attention spans are continuing to shrink and word count continues to therefore decrease. Check this out: back in the 1940s, hardcover Curious George books had about 1,500 words. [1, 2] The latest Curious George: Wash Your Hands, in 2021, had a word count of 133 words! Sure, a lot of years have passed and times have changed. But wow.

You can also look to the higher cost of book production for lower word count, at least in the YA arena. Publishers are calling it “shrinkflation.” No one seems to be complaining. (See earlier reference to shorter attention spans!) (If you’re still reading…)

Categories

Age ranges haven’t changed much, that I know of, but we’ve got a few new categories added in. There’s NA, New Adult, for the grown-up or advanced 16+ year old that enjoys reading books with a high schooler/college student age main character (including those much, much older than 16.) It became officially recognized by the book industry with its own BISAC code in 2013. There’s older and younger categories of chapter books, that change vocabulary, word count, and chapter size accordingly. And there’s upper- and lower-middle grade. They give the word choice, topics, and voice of the main character much more flexibility than the typical MG would. And we can’t forget “Hi-Lo,” High interest-Lower reading level. That’s for kids who need text written at a lower grade level, but the topics and world-building in their age range. (It can do a wonderful job keeping a slow reader engaged in reading.)

At least that’s what I’m seeing. What are you seeing? Let me know in the comments.

And please feel free to share the graphic with fellow kid-lit writers.