For illustrated mg and chapter books, since illustrations can take up a lot of page space, what would the lowest acceptable word count be? Especially considering kids have less attention span these days and some are struggling with reading. Like is 10,000 too low?
MG books and Chapter Books are different species with different norms. If you don't know the difference, I've answered MANY questions about that, look in the pinned FAQ! But basically: MG books are for 8-12 year olds who are fluent independent readers. Chapter books are for about 6-9 year olds who are still gaining confidence with independent reading. MG books can be standalone or series; Chapter books are pretty much always part of a series. 10k words is quite short for a MG novel (whether or not it is illustrated). It's long for a chapter book.
I would suggest you figure out what it is you are trying to write. Then look up popular books that are sorta like the kinda book you are imagining, see how long they are, and aim for something about that length. Really. It's that easy.
So for example, let's say you want to write a MG novel with a lot of illustrations, such as Katherine Applegate's POCKET BEAR. Go to AR Book Find, look it up. It's about 29k words. LAST KIDS ON EARTH is 21k. STUNTBOY is 29k. LOST EVANGELINE is very short for a MG: 14k. There might be some MG books that are 10k words, but that would definitely be quite low for a MG.
IF, on the other hand, you are writing a chapter book such as IVY AND BEAN, that's more like 7,800 words. DORY FANTASMAGORY, likewise, is in the 7k zone. There probably ARE some Chapter Books that are 10k words, but that's definitely on the high side.
Everything I have ever known about Word Count is in my EXHAUSTIVE WordCount post, which I have updated over the years -- most recently JUST NOW. Go forth and read it.
