Casey McCormick has compiled a post on appropriate word counts for picture books based on her knowledge as an agent intern and research (she lists her sources at the end of the post if you want to check them out).
We see a lot of posts on how to write spare or cut down the word count of a novel if the novel is too long, but I tend to write spare to begin with and often fall short on word count. This post has some tips on bolstering your word count (without padding it out with unnecessary words).
Five Fun and Easy Ways to Lengthen Word Count
While some writers write long novels that ultimately need to be trimmed, if you’re anything like me and tend to write spare, sometimes you may find you fall short in the word count department. I have this problem with my current WIP and I found this post to be quite helpful. It suggests ways to lengthen your word count without adding unnecessary fluff or padding.
Counting Chickens: A Few Words About Word Counts
For anyone writing any form of kidlit (from picture books to young adult novels), Hope Vestergaard’s post is handy to bookmark as a reminder on appropriate word counts for kidlit.
Literary agent Jennifer Laughran (aka literaticat) has put together a very comprhensive post on word counts in kidlit (PBs through YA) including examples of published books.
Jo Hart - Author 
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