A huge spike in sales of children’s books in the final week before Easter led to a 16.8% increase in unit sales of print books last week over the week ended April 17, 2021. Unit sales soared 64.2% in juvenile fiction and jumped 43.2% in juvenile fiction at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. With the Easter week comparison between 2022 and 2021 now complete, unit sales were down 6.2% through the week ended April 16, 2022, from the comparable period in 2021.
In addition to all subsegments in juvenile fiction increasing—including a 336% leap in sales of holidays/festivals/religion books—sales were aided by the release of Dav Pilkey’s latest Cat Kid Comic Club title, On Purpose, which sold almost 130,000 copies in its first week. In second place was It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler, which sold almost 47,000 copies.
The jump in juvenile nonfiction sales also reflected gains across the board. Easter Eggstravaganza Mad Libs by Roger Price was #1 in the category, selling over 12,000 copies.
Unit sales in adult fiction increased 4.8% over 2021 as Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us returned to the top of the category chart, with sales of more than 32,000 copies. John Sandford’s The Investigator was the top-selling new title, selling over 27,000 copies.
Despite four new releases making the top 10 books on the adult nonfiction list, sales in the category fell 5.4%. The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream was #1 in the category, selling over 30,000 copies. Bill Browder’s Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving the Wrath of Vladimir Putin was the top-selling new release, selling nearly 14,000 copies.
