Tuesday, 7 October 2025   Books+Publishing @booksandpublishing

BookUp’s inaugural research day was held on 8 August this year. As part of this full day dedicated to book industry research, Emily Baulch shared some of her findings on the impact of franchises in children’s publishing, in particular through a look at the constantly high-selling Bluey series. Baulch writes on her research for Books+Publishing readers in this feature. 

Children’s literacy in Australia is in crisis. One in three students are not reading at the level expected for their age. The Grattan Institute estimates this will cost the economy more than $40 billion over time. Behind those numbers are children who risk losing confidence and falling behind in subjects that depend on reading – which is to say every subject. 

Yet at the same time, we undervalue many of the materials children actually read. Research by Lynne E F McKechnie two decades ago found that boys’ reading lives included comics, manga, magazines, sticker books, puzzle books, catalogues, pop-ups and colouring books. Yet these materials were consistently dismissed by adults as ‘not real reading’. McKechnie concluded that part of the so-called ‘boys and reading problem’ stemmed not from the children themselves but from what adults chose to count as reading. 

That oversight persists. Colouring books, sticker books and novelty titles are still seen as lightweight, designed to entertain rather than educate. But if we flip the perspective, these formats look less like distractions and more like overlooked literacy tools that engage children on their own terms and quietly teach the very skills they need to become readers. 

Franchises and formats that sell  

Interactive publishing has long been part of children’s culture. Beatrix Potter’s 1903 patent for a Peter Rabbit toy marked an early example of characters moving from page to product. Since then, merchandising has been a staple of Anglo‑American children’s culture, from Raggedy Ann and Paddington Bear to Thomas the Tank Engine, Winnie-the-Pooh, Babar, and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. More recently, books The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! have carried this tradition forward. 

Franchised children’s book brands are everywhere, from picture books to tie-in novels – and perhaps most prolifically, in colouring, sticker, activity, craft and novelty formats. And these latter books sell. They sell consistently, across age ranges and retail channels, because they engage children in ways traditional texts cannot. Yet, despite their commercial success, the literacy value of these interactive formats is often under-recognised. 

As Naomi Hamer observes about franchise tie‑in books, ‘The nature of these low-cost commercial texts […] [means they] have often been challenged by librarians and educators who perceive these texts as solely commercial items defined by minimal literary and artistic value for young readers.’

Yet current franchise series such as Bluey, Paw Patrol and Frozen dominate sales not only with storybooks but also with a suite of interactive publishing products. Take Bluey, for instance – alongside its picture and chapter books, it has an increasingly huge range of book formats, including lift-the-flap, magnet, colouring, mix-and-match, puppet, pop-up, nonfiction, sound, bath-time, craft and sticker formats, as well as a graphic novel and cookbooks. The franchise also includes a magazine (which first went on sale in 2021), now with over 50 issues filled with craft activities, stories, colouring activities and games. 

The market is signalling that interactivity sells, while research indicates that interactivity matters for learning. Yet the potential to harness this relationship systematically remains under-explored. 

Following the leader 

Interactive formats are far from trivial. They build foundational literacy skills in ways that feel playful rather than prescriptive. Colouring books have been found to improve reading comprehension and creativity skills; cookbooks in the classroom provide short, predictable texts and promote reading engagement by connecting with pre-existing interests; and craft activities integrated with storytelling build foundational skills like concentration and interest for reading development.

Below are some benefits of engaging with these books.

  • Fun comes first. Unlike text-heavy books, interactive formats offer immediate, playful rewards. They reduce cognitive load while keeping children connected to books, supporting reading confidence and motivation.  
  • Children read without realising it. Following a recipe, placing stickers or completing a craft project requires reading instructions and applying them, making literacy a means to an engaging end. The desire to be able to read for these types of activities can also increase motivation. 
  • Interactive formats promote motor development. Colouring, tracing, folding and manipulating book pieces strengthen hand-eye coordination and build the physical skills children need to write confidently. 
  • Print awareness increases. Handling book components also introduces children to print conventions, including page orientation, sequencing and the spatial layout of text and images. 
  • Interactive formats reduce barriers. For reluctant or less confident readers, these formats provide low-pressure entry points. Achievable success builds self-efficacy, increasing the likelihood of engagement with more complex texts later. 

Literacy comes last 

Evidence shows that interest is not optional in literacy development. Deng Gao and Xing-yu Chen reaffirmed that children must first encounter books, then find ones that genuinely interest them, before higher-order reading skills can develop. 

Activity books, sticker books, colouring books and craft titles are often the materials that capture children’s attention. When children engage with these formats, they are developing comprehension, narrative understanding and confidence, even if it does not look like ‘traditional’ reading. 

Rethinking what counts 

If the goal is to foster lifelong readers, industry and educators need to broaden the definition of legitimate reading. When a child follows instructions in a cookbook, traces shapes in a colouring book, or laughs over sticker-pages, they are learning.  

Offering children a broader range of reading materials gives them more ways to engage, more choice and freedom to follow their interests, and more opportunities to enjoy building reading skills – without the pressure – in an environment where so much other fun media vies for their attention. 

Emily Baulch holds a PhD in publishing studies and cultural studies from the University of Queensland. She studied copyright at Harvard Law School and completed the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford University. Previously, Emily was the producer of publishing at Ludo Studio, managing the global publishing slate for the hit children’s TV show Bluey. She is a New York Times bestselling children’s author and continues to freelance as an editor. Her book on Australian reading cultures, Stories from the Shelf: Everyday Narratives of Home Book Culture, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

 

Category: Features