Imagine getting to read books and share your opinion for money. Now to make this even better, what if those books you were reading were children’s books? That’s right! You can become a children's book reviewer and make money from writing children's book reviews right from your couch.
I hope that you are as excited to talk about this job as I am. Personally, I think that this sounds like a dream job. So, if you can see yourself reading children’s books for your next rent payment then keep reading.
How To Become A Children's Book Reviewer
Contents
Want to work from home as a children's book reviewer and read children's books for money?
If you are a stay-at-home mom or parent who wants to spend more time with your kids while making extra money, why not become a children's book reviewer!
As a parent, you will have a unique perspective about what makes a good children's book, the educational value of a children's book, as well as how your child or children enjoyed a particular book.
As a children's book reviewer, your critical review helps teachers, librarians, parents, and childcare providers make appropriate literary choices for children. The types of books you will be reviewing include:
- Toddler Books
- Parent Literature
- Nonfiction juvenile books
- Kids' activity and craft books
- Audio/visual materials for children
Some websites only hire book authors, librarians, teachers and editors to write reviews. However, if you possess any of the qualities below, becoming a children's book reviewer is a good side hustle or way to make money from home.
- You love children and have a passion for children's literature
- The ability to separate personal opinion from your book reviewing task
- Able to provide information with evidence to analyze a book's strengths and weaknesses
How much money does a book reviewer make?
According to ZipRecruiter, the annual salary of a book reviewer is about $62,000 annually in the United States. It works out to be about $30 an hour if you are doing book reviewing full-time. On average, you can make up to $4887 per month as a children's book reviewer or general book reviewer.
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How Do I Become A Children's Book Reviewer?
Are you ready to start your children's book reviewer side hustle? This guide shows you how to get paid to read children's book from home with a step-by-step formula.
Step one: Get familiar with children's books
Before you get started, you need to get familiar with children's books you will be reviewing. Here are a few tips to make your venture as a children’s books reviewer successful.
1. Be Informed
The books that need reviews are likely going to be new releases. To be a successful reviewer it is a good idea to be proactive and stay up-to-date with new releases. Being familiar with new books saves time if you are assigned a new book to review. If you have already read the book’s description, know the target demographic, and are familiar with the author then you will start the project informed.
2. Display Your Knowledge
Being familiar with new releases can also help you land more jobs. It is impressive to project managers if you already have a baseline knowledge of the books needing reviews. That shows that you are willing to put careful detail into your work. Having this knowledge of a book before the assignment will also make you look like an experienced professional who actually knows about the products.
3. Create a List of Resources
I know that seems like a lot of time and to do as pre-research. However, it is actually easy to keep up with new books as they are released.
That is why you should be checking websites like Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, local book shops, and other online bookstores every week for new releases. These websites are frequently updated with new book releases and are great resources for book reviewers. The book listings on these websites will have the targeted age and book details that will help you create a trustworthy review.
Step two: Know the children's Book Audience
A children’s book isn’t exactly a tough read with a complex plot, and they usually include important skill development lessons. When reviewing children’s books, it is important to accurately mention the skills the book is trying to teach.
To say the book teaches math to young children isn’t as specific as a children’s book review needs to be. When parents and teachers are looking for books to read to their kids, it is important for them to know what the books are specifically about.
Children’s books are almost always going to have a special lesson involved in the plot. Sometimes, that lesson may be easy to identify and other times it may not.
Noticing that the book is teaching kids addition is going to be more obvious than recognizing the book is teaching creativity or friendship values.
If a teacher is looking for a new book to read to her 4th grade class, she is going to look for a review that has the suggested age group included. It is important to be able to look at the grammar and sentence structure and decide what age group the book is targeted to. You may have that information for certain projects, however, if it isn’t then you will need to address it on your own.
With that being said, it is helpful to be familiar with common standards for students and at what grade level is it taught. It makes it easier to understand the lesson and the age the story is aimed towards.
Step three: Be Specific in your children's book reviews
When reading a review a consumer wants to know actual details of the product. Saying “Great story!” or “Loved it” isn’t going to impress a customer or your client. It is important to show that you are an attentive reviewer by taking time to include details and specifics about the book.
If you make your reviews unnecessarily short then it isn’t going to spark product interest or interest in your work. Here are some practical tips to consider:
Provide as much details as possible in terms of your overall experience
Explain why you liked the book and who you would recommend the book to. This makes the review genuine and attracts more attention to the product. Think back to times when you were shopping for something. You obviously looked for the product that had the best reviews.This is especially true for items purchased for family entertainment, such as children’s books.
As a consumer you can tell when a review is genuine and when the product is actually high quality. That is why it is a crucial art of the job to provide details that will create a genuine review.
Step four: Polish up your review by referencing existing ones
When trying to perfect this style of reviewing it helps If you are able to check out some existing reviews for the same type of book. If you are a visual learner, then seeing previous book reviews is going to be even more helpful.
If you are interested in what a children’s book review looks like then I suggest you check out Kids Lit Review. This is a website that constantly reviews new children’s books. Here you are able to see what being specific in a book review looks like.
Step five: try to be as Unbiased as possible
Since you are reading children’s books in order to review them it isn’t likely that you are going to love every book you read. It is extremely important to still give an accurate, well-written review even if that book isn’t one of your favorites.
There are some books that are written for children of different religions, ethnicities, traditions, and even different moral backgrounds than you may have. This is why you must be unbiased as a reviewer.
You may be reading a book that you don’t care for or that doesn’t have any ties to your childhood. That doesn’t make it a bad book. You will have to review some books as if you are the audience it was created for.
The review of a book is going to help someone know if that book is interesting to them. For example, if a book was about a topic that you don’t personally find interesting then you shouldn’t write that it was boring. There will be consumers who find that topic fascinating and are searching for exactly that kind of book.
To create a neutral review, cover what the book was about and what lessons it highlighted. This will help consumers find exactly what they are looking for and it will be a review that your client is looking for. It is perfectly acceptable and normal to not like what you are reviewing. However, it’s important to focus on writing about the product, not your beliefs.
Step six: Get Familiar With Companies That Are Looking For Reviewers
If you are looking for any job you need to know who is hiring. This is especially true for book reviewing because it is not as publicized as other jobs. If you want to start reviewing children’s books then you need to know what companies are looking to hire.
Below are a few websites of companies who hire children’s books reviewers:
- Children's Lit: This website has an email for interested parties to contact for more job information. They also have a general job description listed as sneak peek at the job.
- Kirkus Review: Kirkus Media, the organization behind Kirkus Reviews and Kirkus Indie, seeks passionate readers and book enthusiasts to join its team as book reviewers. Learn more about how to apply to review for Kirkus Review here.
- Children's Book and Media Review: This company has a list of criteria that interested parties must meet. If you meet the listed criteria and have plenty of interest, then there is a link that leads to an application.
- LitPick: LitPick publishes children's book reviews by students, students and other members of the public as long as they are past the age of 18. Learn more about how you get paid to review for LitPick here. Fill up the application form here to become a children's book reviewer with LitPick.
- Reedsy Discovery: Not limited to just children's books, you can earn money with Reedsy Discovery for book reviews via tips from readers. Reedsy Discovery has hundreds of indie publications, and as a book reviewer, you get access to self-published books before anyone else.
- Upwork: This is just one of many freelance websites that are posting jobs for children’s book reviewers. You can use the search fields on these freelance websites to find jobs for book reviewers. Each listing has a job description and information on how to apply.
Final take away
These are businesses that are actively searching for reviewers. It is a good idea to keep their websites bookmarked and frequently check for any new job updates. Sign up for notifications, too. Being proactive about job search will help you be successful as a reviewer. When you are hustling you can’t wait for the job to come to you, sometimes you have to go get it.
Now that I have explained the basics for starting your career as a children’s book reviewer tell me what you think! Comment below if you have any thoughts or questions on this side hustle.