Children's Picture Books 'Have Lost the Plot'

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As sales fall by Pounds 3m, their first drop in a decade, publishers and bookshops want to play it safe with tried-and- trusted classics

Once upon a time, picture books made publishers very happy. They inspired and delighted millions of children around the world to love books long before they could actually read them. But now they are under threat. From Kate Greenaway's delicate 19th-century watercolours of children in smocks to Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo, Britain's reputation as a market leader for these elaborately illustrated creations is in peril.

Sales of picture books fell for the first time in almost a decade last year, by 3m, about 8 per cent on the figure …