Welcome, Robot Overlord

Picture book author-illustrator and Caldecott Honoree Peter Brown made his middle grade debut with 2016’s The Wild Robot, which our starred review called “simultaneously unsentimental and saturated with feeling.” The Wild Robot Escapes followed in 2018, and now, The Wild Robot Protects lands at #2 on our children’s fiction list. If this is what the impending AI takeover looks like, bring it on.

Epic Growth

The oldest author on our hardcover fiction list (or any of our lists), Homer, takes the #9 spot with The Iliad, translated from the ancient Greek by Emily Wilson, a classical studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania. A heroic amount of press attention preceded and accompanied the book’s release, including in the Guardian, the New Yorker, and the Washington Post. Wilson previously earned acclaim for her 2017 translation of The Odyssey, which has sold 65K hardcover and 191K trade paperback. It took the Odyssey hardcover five weeks and the trade paperback eight weeks to top what The Iliad sold in its first.

Dory's Glory

A new entry in Abby Hanlon’s Dory Fantasmagory series is cause for celebration among fans of the impish protagonist, including novelist and bookseller Emma Straub. “The humor in these books—there is nothing like it,” Straub told PW in a prepub interview. “The appeal is that Abby is not afraid to be silly and ridiculous, but also to take ridiculous and silly things very, very seriously, in the way that all children do.” Good thing six-year-olds are also known for their patience: it’s been four years, but Dory’s back for a sixth adventure in Can’t Live Without You, #8 on our children’s fiction list.

NEW & NOTABLE

The Chalice of the Gods
Rick Riordan
#1 Children’s Fiction, #1 overall
After writing spin-off series, delving into Norse mythology, launching an eponymous imprint, and more, Riordan returns to his roots with the first new Percy Jackson and the Olympians series title since 2009’s The Last Olympian. Percy’s on his way to college—if he can complete the three quests necessary to secure his letters of recommendation.

Enough
Cassidy Hutchinson
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #2 overall
“The celebrated White House aide recalls Donald Trump’s desperate attempt to cling to power in this dramatic debut memoir,” per our review. Set against the backdrop of Hutchinson’s relationship with her Trump supporter father, “this is a colorful and disturbing account of the unhinged narcissism and chaos of Trump’s presidency.”

All print unit sales per circana bookscan except where noted.