Penguin Random House’s domination of PW’s two weekly children’s bestseller lists (frontlist fiction and picture books) increased in 2015, but its hold on the fiction list lessened a bit compared to 2014. PRH had 62 titles on our picture book bestseller list in 2015; the list includes 25 titles per week, and of the 1,300 available bestseller slots over the course of the year, PRH’s books occupied 597 spots, or 45.9% In 2014, the company had a 41.5% share of picture book bestseller slots. However, the publisher’s share of the fiction list slipped in 2015. Although it placed more titles on our fiction list in 2015 compared to 2014 (39 vs. 34), its titles did not stay in the top 25 for as long as in 2014. So PRH’s share of fiction bestseller slots fell to 19.8%, from 24.8% in 2014.

HarperCollins improved its standing on our fiction bestseller list in 2015 and came in a close second to PRH, grabbing 18% of available slots. HC had three frontlist titles among the 10 books that spent the longest time on the fiction bestseller list, including The One and Only Ivan, which was on the list for 49 weeks, tying it with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul for the longest stay on the chart. The Long Haul was one of two titles published by Abrams that had staying power on the bestseller list last year, as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl remained on the chart for 27 weeks. Those long hauls for Abrams gave the company a 8.1% share of fiction bestseller spots last year, allowing the publisher to finish slightly ahead of Simon & Schuster.

PRH’s huge lead in the picture book category was led by the Random House division, which had 29 titles on our bestseller list in 2015. Of those titles, 19 were written by Dr. Seuss. Two Seuss titles—Dr. Seuss’s ABC and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!—were among the 11 longest-running picture book bestsellers last year, and the PRH family had a total of five books in the top 11.

Macmillan finished second to PRH in terms of its share of picture book bestseller slots, posting a 11.2% share. Although Macmillan only had nine books that made the picture book bestseller list, three of those titles had long bestseller stays: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (44 weeks), First 100 Words (40 weeks), and On the Night You Were Born (35 weeks). In third place, HarperCollins had 17 titles hit the picture book list, but Goodnight Moon was the only one among the top 11 longest-running within the category.

Children's Bestsellers by Publisher

Frontlist Fiction

Company Bks Wks 2015 Share* 2014 Share*
Penguin Random House 39 258 19.8% 24.8%
HarperCollins 25 234 18.0% 12.9%
Hachette Book Group 26 148 11.4% 9.3%
Disney 18 122 9.4% 7.0%
Abrams 7 105 8.1% 5.2%
Simon & Schuster 22 104 8.0% 13.3%
Scholastic 21 94 7.3% 11.4%
Quirk 2 55 4.2% 4.3%
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 3 32 2.5% 3.5%
Macmillan 15 52 4.0% 2.0%
Skyhorse 5 40 3.1% 1.4%
Andrew McMeel 4 31 2.4%

Picture Books

Company Bks Wks 2015 Share* 2014 Share*
Penguin Random House 62 597 45.9% 41.5%
Macmillan 9 146 11.2% 9.5%
HarperCollins 17 131 10.0% 13.9%
Simon & Schuster 9 79 6.0% 7.4%
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 15 75 5.8% 7.5%
Laurence King 2 63 4.8%
Scholastic 7 59 4.5% 5.5%
Candlewick 3 36 2.8% 3.1%

# of weeks on 2015 top 25 list Frontlist Fiction
49 The Long Haul
(Diary of a Wimpy Kid #9)
Jeff Kinney
Abrams/Amulet
49 The One and Only Ivan
Katherine Applegate
HarperCollins
42 Hollow City
Ransom Riggs
Quirk
39 The 5th Wave
Rick Yancey
Penguin/Speak
34 Divergent
Veronica Roth
HarperCollins/Tegen
32 The Isle of the Lost
Melissa de la Cruz
Disney-Hyperion
30 The Giver
Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
29 Tales from a Not So Dorky
Drama Queen
(Dork Diaries #9)
Rachel Renée Russell
S&S/Aladdin
28 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jesse Andrews
Abrams/Amulet
27 Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine.
Boaz Yakin
HarperCollins

# of weeks on 2015 top 25 list Picture Books
48 Goodnight Moon
(board book)
Brown/Hurd
HarperFestival
47 The Very Hungry
Caterpillar
Eric Carle
Penguin/Philomel
44 Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
What Do You See?
(board book)
Martin/Carle
Holt
43 Dr. Seuss’s ABC
Dr. Seuss
Random House
42 The Day the Crayons Quit
Daywalt/Jeffers
Penguin/Philomel
40 Love You Forever
Robert Munch
Firefly
40 First 100 Words
Roger Priddy
Priddy Books
35 On the Night You Were Born
(board book)
Nancy Tillman
Feiwel and Friends
34 Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Dr. Seuss
Random House
33 Guess How Much I Love You
McBratney/Jeram
Candlewick
33 The Book with No Pictures
B.J. Novak
Dial

* This figure represents the publisher’s share of the 1,300 bestseller positions on the list in question during the year indicated (there are 25 positions on each weekly list).

Note: Our 2015 children’s bestsellers-by-house rankings are determined using data from our two weekly children’s bestseller lists: frontlist fiction and picture books. These lists are based on print unit sales at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks roughly 80% of the print market.