Children's: World Book Day titles thunder into the chart
Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker Book (Ebury) narrowly held the overall number one against an onslaught of débuting World Book Day titles, led by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt’s You Choose Your Adventure (Puffin), which missed out on the top spot by just 517 copies.
In recent years, the World Book Day tranche’s release has been a few weeks ahead of the event itself, with the February half-term holiday a particularly good time for kids’ book sales. While You Choose Your Adventure may get another shot at the overall number one in the run-up to 2nd March, last year saw Peter Curtis and Jeanne Willis’ Dinosaur Roar and Friends! (Macmillan Children’s) take the lead for launch week, before Hey Duggee: The World Book Day Badge (BBC) overtook it to claim the 2022 World Book Day top spot and lead the line-up in sales in total.
Adam Kay and Henry Paker’s Kay’s Brilliant Brains (Puffin) débuted in third in the Top 50, joining You Choose Your Adventure alongside seven other World Book Day titles in the overall top 20. Kay’s Brilliant Brains claimed the Children’s Non-Fiction pole, while Catherine Saunders’ Marvel Spider-Man Pocket Guide (DK Children’s) and Sophy Henn’s Lifesize Creepy Crawlies (Red Shed) joined it in second and third.
L D Lapinski’s The Strangeworlds Travel Agency: Adventure in the Floating Mountains (Orion Children’s) stuck a flag in the Children’s and YA Fiction top spot. Katie and Kevin Tsang’s A Dragon Realm Adventure (S&S) and Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey’s Dave Pigeon Bookshop Mayhem! (Faber) spread their wings into the category chart top three. You Choose Your Adventure swiped both the Children’s top spot and the Pre-School and Picture Books number one, with Tom Percival’s Billy’s Bravery (Bloomsbury Children’s) and Joe Wicks and Paul Howard’s Bedtime for the Burpee Bears (HarperCollins) just behind it.
It was a sign of how strong the print market’s value currently is that, despite a barrage of £1 titles into the very top of the chart, it still grew 4% year on year. However, for the first time since the first week of January, volume jumped higher than value against the week before, rising 5.8% to value’s 2.4%. Average selling price was finally softened after a string of weeks around the £9 mark, to a still pretty eye-watering £8.58.
