The future's bright. The future's boys.

Posted by Kate on Mar 08, 2010

We’ll be able to tell you about our new series of books that we think will particularly appeal to 6-9 year old boys very soon, but, meanwhile, here are the results of our survey of what boys in that age-group really like.

We had 23 responses, so it’s hardly YouGov, but many, many thanks to those of you who did respond.

Here, in descending order of popularity, is the list of things and places that boys who participated said they thought were cool:

  1. The future
  2. Big zappers (i.e. weapons)
  3. Outer space
  4. Centre of the earth
  5. Sharks
  6. Spies
  7. Sabre-toothed tigers
  8. Roman Soldiers
  9. Knights
  10. Robots
  11. Mars
  12. Deserts
  13. Aliens
  14. Deep sea
  15. Jungles
  16. Detectives
  17. Dinosaurs
  18. Medieval castles
  19. Ancient Egypt
  20. Vampires
  21. Zombies
  22. Skeletons
  23. Ghosts
  24. Gladiators
  25. Cars
  26. Mummies
  27. Vikings
  28. Pirates
  29. Haunted houses
  30. Mammoths
  31. Giant insects
  32. Gorillas
  33. Chimps
  34. Loos/poos

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Comments (13)

  1. That’s exactly the same list I would have come up with at that age :)

    Dave Morris Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  2. Laughing. Another (adult male) friend emailed to say, “But that list … that’s what I like.” When I suggested he might have skewed results by taking the survey himself, he said no … and that sabre-toothed tigers would have ranked higher if he had.

    Kate Wilson Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  3. I love this list – weirdly most of it is stuff I like too. You should sell this list to authors trying to break into the field!

    Liz Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  4. Sounds like all the things my 9 yr old son holds dear although loos/poos would probably rank higher alongside the big zappers.

    TERESA MAJURY Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  5. Is it wrong that at 9 years old that was my top ten, and that at 30 years old it is pretty much still the same?

    Interesting to see what you commission, I look forward to seeing you launch the next big series for boys, “Shark Spies from Outerspace!” I assume the series would be set in the future.

    James McKnight Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  6. James, you are frighteningly prescient …!

    Liz, I agree, having been involved in publishing Captain Underpants and The Day My Bum Went Psycho: I thought loos/poos would rank higher.

    Kate Wilson Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  7. Erm, it was my comment re loving all things scatological. Captain Underpants series has been read and reread as has Wimpy Kid series – now looking forward to Dr Proctor’s Fart Powder by Jo Nesbo which is fortunately the first in a trilogy!

    TERESA MAJURY Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  8. Sorry, Teresa: of course it was. Will look up your top Fart Powder tip, for which thanks.

    Kate Wilson Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  9. It’s interesting how those can be grouped into 3 big “pots”:

    1) Entities with potential for danger eg. spies, gladiators, vikings
    2) “Adventurescapes” (note 1) eg. deep sea, jungles, castles
    3) Nature with a potential for danger eg. sharks, giant insects

    Although, loos/poos needs a category of its own!

    (Note 1 – I’m copyrighting that one … unless someone’s beaten me to it).

    Victoria Corfield Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  10. Our original lists – which we mixed up in the survey, I think, were humans, creatures and places, which absolutely correspond to your entities, adventurescapes (liking that coinage!) and nature. Loos/poos was, as you say, in category of its own.

    Kate Wilson Tuesday March 9, 2010 #

  11. Wow! This list is very cool and helpful. I’m at the start of a children’s book and I can see right away it will not appeal to boys! Ha ha. Time for a slight change of direction. Now how do I integrate a shark and a sabre-toothed tiger into a farm setting? Ponders.

    Jennifer Farley Wednesday March 10, 2010 #

  12. Heh heh. I was with a boy when he did this. he went ‘pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, I like it, pants, pants, pants…ooh. Cool! Pants, pants, pants’ Repeat X4 with coda of I like it, I like it, pants.

    MG Harris Wednesday March 10, 2010 #

  13. Hi Kate and everyone at Nosy Crow,

    Interesting survey. Tried it out at a school I visited and the first comment was, ‘What about football?’ Football then went to the top of most of their lists! Aliens came second. Interesting, I thought, didn’t we do that at Macmillan with football poems followed by aliens stealing underpants!
    Really good to see this new venture and I wish you every success with it. I’ll be visiting the book fair on the Wed pm so will say hello.

    Brian

    Brian Moses Saturday March 27, 2010 #

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