Almost 70% of Parents look for books that include Racial Diversity to read with their Children

The Ellie Sparkles Show has analyzed Google search data across 700+ popular books, children’s films and fictional characters to determine America’s favorites.

The children’s entertainment show also surveyed 1,000 parents of 5-8 year olds across the U.S. to discover how often we read with our children, how much we spend on reading materials and parental attitudes towards finding the perfect story.

Parents are reading to their children an average of six times per week, but 77% wish they read to them more

The Ellie Sparkles Show’s survey reveals that parents in the US are reading to their child an average of six times per week, however 77% wish they could do this more often.

Whilst one in three parents read to their child every day, 48% find it challenging to fit this into their daily schedule. In order to factor this quality time in, 39% of parents have set reading times, whilst 55% put subtitles on when their child is watching TV to encourage reading as much as possible

Almost 70% of parents look for books that include racial diversity to read with their children

Children are extremely receptive to their surroundings, and reading stories which include different cultures, lifestyles and perspectives is a great way to promote ideas of inclusion and acceptance from an early age.

They asked parents what they prioritize when choosing a story to read with their children, with 69% of respondents revealing they look for books that include racial diversity. 56% look at books that include religious diversity, 48% look to include gender diversity and 42% look to include diverse sexual orientations.

Almost seven in 10 parents (67%) also give their child freedom to choose the books they read, allowing them to explore their interests and encourage them to read more.

61% of parents in the US would also be happy to read books to their child that were a higher age rating than their child’s actual age, while only 57% of parents would allow their children to watch a film with a higher age rating. Dad’s were more likely to allow their kids to watch films more suited to an older audience at 72%, compared to 52% of mums.

7 in 10 parents have noticed that reading with their child helps to stimulate their imagination and creativity

From helping you sleep to increasing vocabulary, there are countless benefits reading can have on both you and your child. In fact, 7 in 10 parents have noticed that reading has helped stimulate their child’s imagination and creativity, whilst 46% have seen their children’s attention span improve as a result.

The Ellie Sparkles Show spoke to Camilla Mazetto, a Post-Doctoral Psychologist at Williamsburg Therapy Group who revealed some of the key benefits storytelling can have on your child and the value of setting aside reading time each day:

“The habit of storytelling has been shown to benefit children in various areas, touching on cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of development.

It has even been shown to positively impact physiological and psychological functions, increasing oxytocin and positive emotions and decreasing cortisol levels and pain in hospitalized children (Brockington et al., 2021).

Most studies have focused on benefits regarding literacy, and there is strong evidence that storytelling can enrich language experiences, help children improve their vocabulary mastery, and enhance interest in reading and writing.

Storytelling is also very low-cost, simple, and practical. It relies on a complex interaction between language and imagination, creating a state of cognitive and emotional immersion that is profoundly engaging for both the storyteller and the audience.

The benefits of storytelling may change throughout a child’s different developmental stages. For younger kids, it promotes expressive and receptive language development allowing for greater emotional connection with grown-ups. As children get older, storytelling may be used to practice logical and critical thinking and explore values and problem-solving skills. This is possible because stories facilitate the creation of mental simulations that represent social realities.

Such narratives offer a model of the social world through abstraction and simplification that allow for the vicarious learning of social realities through the experience of fictional characters. In other words, stories can help reframe personal experiences by broadening perspectives, deepening emotional processing abilities, and increasing empathy and self-regulation.”

Parents across the US invest an average of $319 on books and reading materials each year

From a monthly library card to buying the latest book from your child’s favorite author, parents are spending an average of $26.61 on books and reading materials.

The top five states spending the most include:

Washington D.C. is the state spending the most at $58.88, adding up to around $706.56. California follows in second spending $43.88 on average each month and Vermont in third spending $43.67.

The Ellie Sparkles Show also wanted to find out how much families are spending on TV and Film subscriptions, with the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus becoming staple family household features. The average American parent spends $36.11 per month (or $433 a year) on these, with Nebraska topping the list as the state spending the most.

Dog Man by Dav Pilkey comes out on top as America’s favorite children’s book

From a tale of four sisters to a half-man half canine cop fighting crime, they’ve analyzed monthly searches across 388 books to determine America’s favorite.

Dog Man by Dav Pilkey comes out on top as America’s favorite children’s book. The 4.15/5 star-rated graphic novel series is Googled ​​49,500 times on average each month in the US.

After Dog Man, the second most popular book is Wonder by R.J. Palacio, which is searched for an average of 33,100 times each month. Despite being released over 150 years ago, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is still the third most popular children’s book, with an average of 27,100 searches on Google each month.

Ratatouille, The Lego Movie and Cars rank as America’s most popular children’s films

There’s nothing better than getting together as a family to watch a movie. With a mixture of household favorites and new releases to choose from, they analyzed monthly search volume across 241 movies to determine the nation’s favorites.

The top 10 most popular children’s movies based on search volume:

A tale of a Parisian rat with a passion for cooking, Ratatouille interestingly comes out as America’s most popular kids movie. Despite being released over 15 years ago in 2007, the movie has an impressive 165,000 searches each month, over 30,000 more than any other film.

The Lego Movie and Cars rank in second and third, whilst Elf and The Santa Clause both feature in the top 10, averaging an impressive 110,000 and 49,500 searches each month despite being Christmas movies.

Spiderman, SpongeBob SquarePants and Harry Potter crowned America’s most beloved fictional characters

With iconic films come iconic and beloved fictional characters that many of us have treasured for decades. From superheroes to wizards, they’ve analyzed monthly search volume for over 100 fictional characters to determine America’s most popular.

With the latest movie released in 2021, Spiderman: No Way Home, which made a staggering 1.9 billion at the box office worldwide, it comes as no surprise that this fictional character ranks as America’s most popular with a staggering 1.8 million searches each month. In one year, Americans’ searches for Spiderman reach nearly 22 million (21,960,000).

In joint second place is the fun-loving sea-sponge SpongeBob SquarePants, and Harry Potter, also known as ‘The Boy Who Lived. Both of these fictional characters receive an average of 1.2 million searches each month in America and have both been around for over 20 years, with SpongeBob debuting in 1999 on Nickelodeon and the first Harry Potter book released in 2001.

Find the full research here.