“Rare as Hen’s Teeth”? Book Reviews and Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Australia

Abstract Children’s and young adult literature constitutes an important segment of the book market in Australia. Yet there is a widespread perception that children’s and young adult titles do not receive their fair share of book reviews in Australia’s major newspapers and magazines. In this article, we examine the truth of this perception through analysis of data collected for the Stella Count about children’s and young adult book reviews from 2012 to 2024. We find that while children’s and young adult literature does receive an equivalent share of reviews when book sales are accounted for, and adult fiction is reviewed at three times the rate of children’s and young adult fiction. However, it does not receive a proportionate amount of reviews relative to publication rates, in stark contrast to adult nonfiction. Second, we observe that the number of mainstream outlets commissioning reviews of children’s and young adult books is diminishing. The bulk of the reviewing is today taking place in a single trade publication rather than being spread across multiple outlets counted in the data. Finally, we note that the length of children’s and young adult book reviews is decreasing, with almost every professional review of children’s titles being a capsule review.