Publishers Weekly 2019 Children’s Bestsellers List

Publishers Weekly has released their list of 2019’s best selling children’s books.

[Publishers Weekly] lists are based on print unit sales at outlets that report to NPD Bookscan, which tracks approximately 85% of the print market. Here we compile the books that sold more than 100,000 copies in four categories: Hardcover Frontlist, Paperback Frontlist, Hardcover Backlist, and Paperback Backlist.

Last year’s overall top-selling book was For Whom the Ball Rolls, book seven in Dav Pilkey’s mega-selling Dog Man series, which sold more than one million copies in hardcover. The middle-grade series had a strong showing across all four categories (see below).

In addition to For Whom the Ball Rolls, hardcover frontlist also features entries in Jeff Kinney’s extremely popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series; Wrecking Ball and Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid hold the second and third slots, respectively.

Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney dominate the Hardcover Frontlist:

Hardcover Frontlist

500,000+

1. For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man #7). Dav Pilkey. Scholastic/Graphix (1,085,519)

2. Wrecking Ball (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #14). Jeff Kinney. Abrams/Amulet (853,626)

3. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal. Jeff Kinney. Abrams/Amulet (720,794)

4. Fetch-22 (Dog Man #8). Dav Pilkey. Scholastic/Graphix (574,227)

Dav Pilkey, counting his Front and Backlist books, sold over 4 million hardcovers last year. Amazing!

 

Of course Raina, far and away, rules the paperback list.

Paperback Frontlist

100,000+

1. Guts. Raina Telgemeier. Scholastic/Graphix (443,738)

 

Standouts for the cartoonist-centric audience include Terri Libenson.

7. Just Jaime. Terri Libenson. HarperTeen/Balzer + Bray (104,093)

 

Hardcover Backlist

400,000+

1. Brawl of the Wild (Dog Man #6). Dav Pilkey. Scholastic/Graphix (785,328)

2. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss. Random House (633,947)

Dr. Seuss, who did comics and editorial cartoons, makes the Backlist numerous times,
while multi-talented Shel Silverstein’s perennial The Giving Tree is still popular.

34. The Giving Tree. Shel Silverstein. HarperCollins (195,370)

Read the Publishers Weekly list here.

 

 

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