Juvenile Titles Push Unit Sales Up 5.9% in Mid-April

Led by big gains in the juvenile categories, total print unit sales rose 5.9% in the week ended Apr. 13, 2019, over the comparable week in 2018, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Juvenile nonfiction had the largest increase among the categories, with unit sales jumping 26.9% and We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines remaining #1 in the category with more than 16,000 copies sold. The rest of the top 10 were mostly a mix of Easter titles and gift books. 5,000 Facts About (Everything) was in second place on the category list, with almost 8,000 copies sold, followed by Baby Touch and Feel: Animals, which sold more than 7,800 copies. Unit sales in juvenile fiction rose 23.6% over the week ended Apr. 14, 2018, and it had the biggest seller of the week: Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney, which sold more than 88,000 copies in its first week. In second place on the category list was Little Blue Truck’s Springtime by Alice Schertle, which sold more than 31,000 copies. With juvenile category sales performing well just ahead of Easter, board books had a 59.3% surge in sales. The approach of Easter couldn’t lift sales in the adult categories, however. The nonfiction category was flat with 2018. Chelsea Handler’s Life Will Be the Death of Me topped the category list, selling more than 62,000 copies in its first full week. Wolfpack by Abby Wamback landed in the fifth spot on the category list, with more than 18,000 copies sold in its first week. Units in adult fiction fell 7.3% compared to 2018, despite the continued strong showing of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which sold nearly 41,000 copies.

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