Put all your books in this basket: Top 10 Easter Books

What are the 10 top-selling Easter-related books?

To hunt down these 10 good eggs, BookNet Canada-style, we looked for bestselling books in 2018 with any Easter & Lent BISAC subject codes as reported in BNC SalesData (which tracks print sales in the Canadian English-language trade book market), removing books with prices of $5.99 or under. While we included both Juvenile Fiction and Juvenile Non-Fiction books in our search, none of the books in the top 10 happen to be Non-Fiction.

But first, let's talk about our basket. (Yes, we're enjoying ourselves.)

How do these categories sell leading up to Easter? To find this out, we looked at the market shares for Easter & Lent BISAC subject codes for Juvenile Fiction and Juvenile Non-Fiction in 2018. We discovered that these two categories do peak in March leading up to Easter. While we also see this trend for all subjects combined, the Easter & Lent subject categories for Juvenile Fiction and Juvenile Non-Fiction don't peak during the December holiday season, showing us that yes, these titles sell — a lot! — at Easter.

Juvenile Fiction / Easter & Lent BISAC subject codes represented 0.01-0.02% of the overall market in 2018; their share increased to 0.19% in February and peaked at 0.99% in March. The share of Juvenile Non-Fiction / Easter & Lent titles was approximately 0.01% of the market last year, increasing to 0.01% in February and peaking in March at 0.09%. Peaks in March can be attributed to Easter falling on April 1 in 2018.

And now on to our eggs (titles)!

Top 10 Easter Books

1. Little Blue Truck's Springtime by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 9780544938090)

2. Easter Surprise (Peppa Pig) by Eone (Scholastic, 9781338210286)

3. Five Bouncing Bunnies by Lily Karr (Scholastic Canada, 9780545458252)

4. My Easter Egg: a Sparkly Peek-Through Story by Megan E. Bryant (Scholastic Canada, 9780545921800)

5. Disney Princess Flutter & Bloom by Parragon Books staff (Parragon Book Service, 9781527007741)

6. Babies Love Easter by R. I. Redd (Cottage Door Press, 9781680522860)

7. Happy Easter, Curious George by H. A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 9780547048253)

8. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick! by Lucille Colandro (Scholastic Canada, 9781338210385)

9. Time for Easter by Daniela Massironi (Rainstorm Press, 9781527001190)

10. God Gave Us Easter by Lisa Tawn Bergren (Crown Publishing Group, 9780307730725)

Looking at our basket of eggs (we're not done with the metaphor yet), we discovered that a few books from last year remain favourites for Easter-time: Five Bouncing Bunnies; Happy Easter, Curious George; and God Gave Us Easter. 

Six of the top 10 for 2018 are board books. One book in the top 10 is a trade paperback (Disney Princess Flutter & Bloom) and one book is a novelty book (My Easter Egg: a Sparkly Peek-Through Story). None are by a Canadian contributor. Half of the top 10 were published in December and four were published in January. All 10 have publication dates that range between 2010 and 2018. The average current list price of the titles hovers at around $11, with titles ranging from $7 to $18. Books with prices of $5.99 or under were removed from the top 10, like Peppa's Easter Egg Hunt by Scholastic Staff.

Find out more about these books in our Top 10 Easter Juvenile Bestsellers 2018 catalogue, or should we say our basket?

Happy hunting! (We're done with the metaphor now.)