Kids’ booksellers prepare for festive frenzy

Children’s booksellers are gearing up for Christmas, with several events lined up and “positive” sales pointing to a “strong festive period” for the sector.

Retailers’ tips for festive kids’ bestsellers include Jessica Courtney-Tickle’s The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books), Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage (David Fickling Books/Penguin Random House Children’s) and Chris Wormell and Lily Murray’s Dinosaurium (Big Picture Press).

Pickled Pepper Books in London’s Crouch End pictured is hosting an event “practically every weekend” in the run-up to Christmas, with visits from illustrators Steven Lenton and Jane Ray, children’s author Dianne Hofmeyr and actress-turned-author Alison Steadman planned. It is also hosting a Christmas party.

Pickled Pepper Books

Button & Bear Children’s Bookshop in Shrewsbury has several upcoming events, including: a visit from author Jon Blake; a Winter Solstice event with award-winning storyteller Jake Evans; and around 20 Christmas storytime and craft workshops for families. It is also running two campaigns: #abookineverystocking, to encourage parents to buy a book as a Christmas present for their children; and #giveabook, which enables customers to buy a book which will be donated to a children’s charity and distributed to a child in time for Christmas.

Chicken and Frog Bookshop in Brentwood, Essex is also participating in the #giveabook campaign, for which it has teamed up with Children First Fostering Agency. The shop is also hosting a grotto in store and will run its annual Santa Hunt—where local independent shops “hide” Santa—as well as author events, a writing workshop with Ross Montgomery and a late-night shopping event.

Former children’s laureate Chris Riddell will be visiting The Book Nook in Hove, followed by a special storytime with Father Christmas. The bookshop is also hosting its annual pantomime and Christmas craft sessions.

Waterstones Piccadilly's children's floor © Mike Massaro

Urmi Merchant, director and owner of Pickled Pepper Books, said she was already seeing “increased sales” in the shop, while The Book Nook’s owner Vanessa Lewis also noted “an increased footfall, especially over the last couple of weekends”. Chicken and Frog owner Natasha Radford reported a “steady increase” in sales since the summer, with a “steeper increase” from Halloween onwards.

Louise Chadwick, owner of Button & Bear, which recently celebrated its first birthday, said there has been “a steady flow of people who have bought books in readiness for Christmas”. Florentyna Martin, children’s buyer for Waterstones, said the chain’s children’s book sales are “positive so far and lining up for a strong festive period”.

In terms of the titles that booksellers are predicting will sell well ahead of Christmas, Merchant and Lewis both picked out The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker and La Belle Sauvage. Lewis said the latter was “still selling very well, which is reassuring when we can’t compete with slashed supermarket prices”. She also said that Survivors by David Long and Kerry Hyndman (Faber Children’s) and The Explorer by Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury) are both selling strongly. She added: “We always think carefully about our displays this time of year, with more gift items and beautiful editions of books taking prominence.”

Merchant said: “I think we’ll sell a lot of gift titles and less paperback fiction”, highlighting Dinosaurium. Chadwick echoed this, saying: “We are doing well with large, gift-format information books such as Matt Sewell’s Dinosaurs [Pavilion Children’s] and the special edition of Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski [Big Picture Press], as well as Katherine Rundell and Emily Sutton’s One Christmas Wish [Bloomsbury] and Jackie Morris’ books.”

Radford said that “a range of Christmas-themed titles are already doing well” and that Chicken & Frog’s festive window would be themed around Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s The Jolly Christmas Postman (Puffin).

Booksellers generally reported a “very positive 2017” in terms of sales, with Lewis naming Oi Cat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field (Hodder Children’s Books), You Choose in Space by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt (Puffin) and My Name is Not Refugee by Kate Milner (The Bucket List) as highlights. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books’ Little People, Big Dreams series has been flying off the shelves at both Pickled Pepper and Button & Bear. Merchant said La Belle Sauvage and Peter Bunzl’s Moonlocket (Usborne) were other standout titles this year, while Chadwick selected The Book of Bees by Piotr Socha, The Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer and Barbara Taylor (both Thames & Hudson) and The Book of Beasts by Angela Rizza and Jonny Marx (Buster Books).

Radford said Ink by Alice Broadway (Scholastic) was a “personal favourite” this year—and that she is looking forward to the sequel in 2018—as well as Abi Elphinstone’s Sky Song (S&S Children’s) and Lisa Thompson’s The Light Jar (Scholastic).

Martin called 2017 “another exciting year for children’s bookselling”. She added that the fact that four of the titles on the Waterstones Book of the Year shortlist are children’s books was proof of “an outstanding year for the development and publication of children’s books”. She added: “Next year will be interesting for publications that further explore women’s history, including the centenary of women’s suffrage. We’re also looking forward to seeing how the children’s reference market shapes into new areas, and how publishers will continue to build their début authors and illustrators.”

Heading into the Christmas season, the print market through Nielsen’s Total Consumer Market is up 0.73% for the year to date in value terms compared to 2016, with sales totalling £1.21bn.