Young children love to have books read to them, and as they grow they begin to learn how to read early reader books by themselves. As time passes and they develop a love of books, they eventually progress to reading chapter books. While many of the books aimed toward young children have colorful illustrations to keep their attention, chapter books aimed at middle graders can be captivating enough to attract the attention of adults. For example, just consider the wildly popular Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which features main characters in their pre-teens. Whether you write picture books for young children or chapter books for school aged kids, you no doubt have to spend time writing, revising and then rewriting the text of your book. You may also have to get your book edited, proofread and formatted. Most authors hire someone to design their cover and, in the case of picture books, to illustrate the book’s content too. All of this may require a lot of time and money. For an author, however, what may be considered the hardest part comes next, and that is marketing the book. While there are many options available for marketing, the success of your book is largely dependent upon having plenty of positive book reviews, as these are heavily relied upon by customers to determine the quality of your book. Thus, you no doubt wonder “How do I get book reviews? And who are the best reviewers for children’s and middle grade books?”
Book reviews come in various forms. A few examples of the review options available are Amazon customer reviews, Goodreads reviews, book blogger posts and editorial reviews, and sometimes these options overlap. For instance, many book bloggers, in addition to posting their reviews on their blog, will post their reviews on platforms such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or Librarything. Similarly, while most editorial reviewers only post their reviews on their websites, Amazon and other retailers allow authors to prominently share editorial reviews of their books.
Whether your book is a board book, a picture book, an early reader, a chapter book, or any other children’s book genre, you’ll need to discover the best children’s and middle grade book reviewers to submit your book to. At Indies Today, we have taken the time to consider hundreds of book reviewers to identify the top reviewers for these books. Listed below are the current top reviewers for children’s and juvenile books, and in addition to these reviewers, make sure that you search for “children” or “juvenile” in our complete list of indie book reviewers to find dozens of other great options for getting your book reviewed.
TOP CHILDREN’S AND JUVENILE BOOK REVIEWERS
- KidsLitReview.com Kids Lit Review provides honest, thoughtful reviews exclusively for books that are for children and pre-teens, and the majority of their book reviews are of picture books. Their reviews are very thorough and are shared on their blog along with Amazon, Goodreads and Librarything.
- SpookyKidLit.com As their name suggests, Spooky Kid Lit covers kids books that feature ghosts, goblins, witches, zombies, vampires, werewolves, chupacabras… well, you get the idea. Books accepted for review include those for young children up to teens, and the reviews, which are posted on the blog, Amazon and Goodreads, are given a ranking of 1 to 5 coffins.
- StorybookCat.com Storybook Cat provides reviews and a 1 to 5 ranking of picture books and kids chapter books. Reviews are posted on their blog, Goodreads and Librarything.
- IndiesToday.com Okay, listing ourselves may seem like a bit of self-promotion, but it’s true that our reviewers love reading indie authors and many of them also love reading young children’s and juvenile books. Besides that, we offer by far the lowest price in the industry for an editorial review and book award contest entry. Our editorial reviews include quotable phrases that you can add to Amazon or other retailers to influence potential customers.
- BookRoomReviews.com Despite what their name might imply, Book Room Reviews actually reviews many other things besides books. But when they do consider books, many of the ones they review are children’s books. All of their reviews are posted on their blog.
