Big Names Top the Charts

by Diane Roback -- 3/24/2003
Features > Children's Books

Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket score high on the children's lists

The numbers picked up a bit in 2002 from a slower 2001. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events continued to entice millions of new readers, as did a certain bespectacled boy wizard; the lack of a new Harry Potter book didn't seem to hurt sales of the previous titles.

In hardcover fiction, new installments in established, bestselling series were the standouts, specifically: two Lemony Snicket titles; a new book in the If You Give a Mouse series by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond; two Junie B. Jones books; a Fudge title by Judy Blume; plus new titles by such "brand names" as Jamie Lee Curtis and Jan Brett (not to mention a picture book by the Vice-President's wife).

Sales in this category were brisker than the previous year; 21 titles sold more than 200,000 copies last year, compared with 15 in 2001, and there were 103 books (with sales of more than 75,000 copies) on this list, compared to 88 titles in 2001.

In hardcover backlist, Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss were the reigning champs. Four Series of Unfortunate Events titles were in the top 10, along with three Dr. Seuss stalwarts and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. All told, eight Lemony Snicket titles made the backlist rankings (all nine in the series, plus the Unauthorized Biography, sold more than 3.3 million copies combined in 2002).

Two Harry Potter paperbacks were frontlist last year, and took #1 and #2 in their category, selling a combined four million copies (in all, the series sold more than 9.5 million in 2002, excluding boxed sets).

Clocking in at the half-million mark in paperback frontlist was a Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul title, a Captain Underpants spinoff and the newest Magic Tree House entry. In all, there were 152 titles on the paperback frontlist charts last year, compared to 90 in 2001 (an increase of 69%).

However, paperback backlist experienced a bit of a slide, with 129 titles on the list in 2002, compared to 157 in 2001. The books at the top of this list don't change all that much from year to year: Harry Potter titles, The Outsiders, Holes, Love You Forever, Number the Stars. There's a slight sag in Captain Underpants, however: in 2001 the series nabbed four of the top 15 paperback backlist slots, compared to just one in 2002. But Junie B. Jones's backlist numbers continue to grow, an indication that strong frontlist sales (in hardcover and paperback) are giving a boost to the series's older titles as well.

Some sales figures were supplied to Publishers Weekly in confidence, for ranking purposes only.

Hardcover Frontlist

300,000+

1. The Carnivorous Carnival (A Series of Unfortunate Events #9). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins (726,543)

. . .

6. Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (A Series of Unfortunate Events). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins (302,176)

. . .

Hardcover Backlist

500,000+

1. The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 1999 (681,019)

. . .

4. The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events #2). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 1999 (504,964)

300,000+

. . .

8. The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2000 (409,909)

. . .

10. The Miserable Mill (A Series of Unfortunate Events #4). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2000 (396,098)

. . .

12. The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events #6). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2001 (367,395)

13. The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events #5). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2000 (358,301)

. . .

20. The Hostile Hospital (A Series of Unfortunate Events #8). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2001 (324,106)

. . .

22. The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events #7). Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist. HarperCollins, 2001 (302,751)

. . .