Children's: World Book Day makes its mark

Hey Duggee! The World Book Day Badge has squirrelled away with the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, leading the pack for the World Book Day 2022 line-up. With World Book Day itself still a week away, the latest tranche thundered up the chart, with 10 WBD titles in the overall top 20. Peter Curtis’ Dinosaur Roar and Friends!, Joanna Nadin and Rikin Parekh’s The Worst Class in the World in Danger!, Nadia Shireen’s Grimwood and Matt Lucas and Sarah Horne’s My Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Silly Book of True or False bounced into the top. Sharna Jackson’s Peak Peril, Sophie McKenzie’s Boy, Missing and Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Adam Hayes’ non-fiction title Think Like a Boss made their debuts in the Top 50, as the Children’s market soared 14.8% in volume week on week. Value was a slightly less buoyant 10.8% up, given the £1 price of the WBD titles. 

Kids’ books, and especially picture books, have seen sales balloon over the last two years—if the 2010s were a golden age for children’s book sales, they are now in their platinum period. Last week, the category was 22% up in volume on the week before World Book Day 2020, and 26% up in value. The market as a whole jumped to its highest volume since the first week of 2022, with the kids’ sector a whopping 41% of the 3.8 million books sold last week. With print at such a healthy level so far in 2022, could next week surpass four million books sold? The week after World Book Day 2018 hit this milestone, as the Beast from the East closed bookshops and schools for the event itself. Sales of the 2018 line-up rocketed a week later to 4.05 million books sold, for the best March week since 2010. With 2020’s World Book Day a muted affair, with parents practising social distancing in the final few weeks before the first lockdown, and World Book Day 2021 taking place while schools were closed under Lockdown 3.0 restrictions, surely 2022 is going to be a record-breaker. 

As a result of World Book Day’s dominance, average selling price slipped to its lowest, at £7.94, since pre-lockdown March 2020—although partly because Nielsen was unable to report sales figures over the late winter and early spring of 2021. However, this also indicates value’s strength in the last few years. Before 2016, it was common for March weeks to drop below an a.s.p. of £7, but the market hasn’t fallen that low for the last seven years. In fact, excluding lockdown weeks, it’s only fallen below £8 for five separate weeks since the start of 2019. 

Adult Fiction also had a bumper week, with Ann Cleeves’ The Heron’s Cry fluttering into the Mass-Market Fiction number one. At 16,662 copies sold, the second title in the Two Rivers series surged to the author’s biggest single-week volume. Ashley Audrain’s The Push and Mel Giedroyc’s The Best Things made their débuts in the category chart, hitting 15th and 18th respectively. 

Marian Keyes’ Again, Rachel has leapfrogged Sarah J Maas’ previous number one, House of Sky and Breath, in Original Fiction. Keyes’ sequel breezed into the category chart top spot for her 11th week in total. 

Pinch of Nom Comfort Food looked immovable from the Hardback Non-Fiction top spot, settling in for a ninth week in total. Critical care nurse Anthea Allen’s Life, Death and Biscuits hobnobbed into the top 20, scoring eighth place in its first week, with Kirsty Gallagher’s Crystals for Self-Care a stone’s throw away in ninth. 

Cathy Glass’ Neglected notched up a second week atop the Paperback Non-Fiction chart, with Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery becoming the highest new entry in sixth place. With Russia launching a large-scale invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, Catherine Belton’s Putin’s People returned to Paperback Non-Fiction, jumping 343% week on week. Similary, Mark Galeotti’s A Short History of Russia rose by over 5,000 places week on week, and both Peter Pomerantsev’s Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia and Luke Harding’s Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West jumped nearly 15,000 places each.