Get your bets in! We're continuing our series of holiday perennials with a look at Juvenile titles. (Since Juvenile is such a large category, this year we decided to give YA titles their own list, so stay tuned for that next week.) Before we share the list of Juvenile perennials: quick, how many of the top 10 do you think are Robert Munsch books?
To discover the top 10 perennial Juvenile titles, we looked in BNC SalesData (SalesData tracks sales in the Canadian, English-language trade market for print books only; sales for formats like ebooks and digital audiobooks are not included) for Juvenile titles that have sold consistently well during the last eight weeks of the year from 2015 to 2017. We sorted that compiled list by units sold in 2017 to make sure the rankings reflected the current relevance of each title. Though the sales for some of these titles may have diminished or increased over the course of the three years, they remained high enough to be considered perennial bestsellers. We removed titles with the "Classics" BISAC subject as those titles sell consistently all year round. Our final top 10 titles were all published in 2015 or prior and have sold well over the holiday period.
All right, let's get to the list!
The top 10 perennial Juvenile favourites over the holidays
Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Random House Children's Books, 9780375869020)
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 9781408856772)
Pyjama Day! by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko 🇨🇦 (Scholastic Canada, 9781443139175)
Just One Goal! by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko 🇨🇦 (Scholastic Canada, 9780545990356)
Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories by R. J. Palacio (Random House Children's Books, 9781101934852)
Patrol Pals (Paw Patrol) by Random House (Random House Children's Books, 9780553507966)
Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic, 9780545326995)
Pokemon: Deluxe Essential Handbook by Cris Silvestri (Scholastic, 9780545795661)
Moose! by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko 🇨🇦 (Scholastic Canada, 9781443107181)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 9781408855652)
There's a broad range of Juvenile subjects in the list, like School & Education, Fantasy & Magic, Sports & Recreation, and Humorous Stories. While no titles in the top 10 are holiday-themed (in title or subject), there is one cold weather-themed book: Just One Goal!.
Robert Munsch has three titles in the top 10 (did you guess right?) and J. K. Rowling and R. J. Palacio each have two titles on the list.
Find out more about this year's favourites in our Holiday Perennials 2018 – Juvenile catalogue.
As noted earlier, titles with the BISAC subject "Classics" were filtered out from the top 10 list. For Juvenile perennials, only one title, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw, was removed based on this criteria. It was a perennial favourite last year.
Last up in our holiday perennial bestsellers series will be the Young Adult category.
Highlights from The State of Publishing in Canada 2023.