Thread: What's a good "young readers" wordcount?
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Old 08-13-2011, 06:24 AM   #12
Eisengoth
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Harper Kingsley View Post
Here's the guide I found--

manuscript page = 250 words

picture books - age 4-8 = up to 1500 words, with 1000 being average

early/easy readers - age 6-8 = 32-64 pages long, with 200-1500 words of text, occasionally going up to 2000.

transition books - early chapters for age 6-9 = about 30 manuscript pages broken into 2-3 chapters
Chapter books for ages 7-10 are about 45-60 manuscript pages broken into 3-4 page chapters

middle grade - age 8-12 = 100-150 manuscript pages

young adult - age 12+ = 130-200 manuscript pages

books for kids 9-12 = acceptable length is about 40,000 words.
Matilda = 40,009
Double Fudge = 38,860
Hoot = 61,113

Hope that helps
That is really an excellent guideline! I know a couple of people who have worked on children's books in the past, so it's great information to have put so concretely.

Thanks for finding that! I'm going to copy that down and put it somewhere so that I can remember it later.
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