This Week's Bestsellers: August 31, 2015

Homecoming Court

It’s a big week on PW’s children’s book lists, with three new titles that reacquaint young readers with beloved characters and worlds.

At #1 on the picture book list, and at #5 overall, The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, sold 32K print units. It’s the sequel to 2013’s The Day the Crayons Quit, which has sold 827K print units since its release. This week, with 8,155 units sold, Quit is up 35% over last week and is the #7 picture book.

Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan, illustrated by John Rocco, sold 14K print units, landing at #2 in children’s frontlist fiction. The book follows 2014’s Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, which has sold almost 197K print units. All told, print unit sales for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, and other Riordan series, top 22 million.

And at #4 in children’s frontlist fiction is Auggie & Me by R.J. Palacio, which debuts with 9,058 print units sold. The hardcover title packages three e-story prequels to 2012’s Wonder, which has sold more than 1.2 million print units.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Blazing to the Top

At #1 in trade paperback, and #2 overall, is It Is About Islam by nationally syndicated talk-show host Glenn Beck, which sold more than 44K print units this week. Beck’s hardcovers have seen plenty of success, with print units sales of more than 4 million. S&S/Threshold also publishes a number of his titles as trade paper originals, including the books in the Control series, which began with the 2013 book of the same name; 2014’s Conform followed, and Islam is the third. Together, the first two books have sold more than 295K print units.

Hatmaker Makes Good

Christian blogger Jen Hatmaker has the #1 hardcover nonfiction title this week (and the #4 title overall), with almost 34K print units sold: For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards. Hatmaker is the author of several faith-based books, including 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, which has sold about 86K print units since its 2012 publication. The self-described “hashtag-abusing Jesus girl” maintains a strong social media presence—98K Instagram followers, 76K Twitter followers—and in 2014 starred with her husband (a pastor) and their five children on an HGTV reality show, My Big Family Renovation.

Notable Debuts

The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep
by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin
#2 Children’s Picture Books
#6 Overall
29K print units sold

This self-published, self-purported sleep-guarantee has garnered plenty of media attention; here's PW's take.

Last Bus to Wisdom
by Ivan Doig
#14 Hardcover Fiction
3,325 print units

The final novel from Doig, who died in April, follows an 11-year-old narrator on a road trip through the post-WWII American West, the setting for much of Doig’s work.

Everybody Rise
by Stephanie Clifford
#18 in Hardcover Fiction
2,715 print units

Clifford’s debut novel, set among the young and glamorous of Manhattan circa 2006, was acquired in a high-profile seven-figure deal; Fox 2000 bought the film rights.

Top 10 Overall

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the title of R.J. Palacio's Auggie & Me.