Top 10 Print Book Sales of 2012 – Children and Young Adults

This year, the print book market for children and young adult was not simply dominated, but it was rather infested by The Hunger Games series, according to Nielsen. Kids (and many adults) were infatuated by Suzanne Collins’ dystopian adventure books. Out of the ten best-selling books for children and young adults, six are taken by The Hunger Games series. The reason why we see Collins’ trilogy not three but six whole times is because it was published in both hardcover and paperback editions. Also, all three parts of the series were released as a boxed set. All of these editions and versions of the book managed to enter our top 10. Amazing, isn’t in? However, the top spot is taken by the first installment of the trilogy and to be more specific – its paperback version. The second part, Catching Fire, occupies the second place, while Mockingjay is left third. The boxed set edition of the Hunger Games trilogy is comfortably sitting on the 8th spot.

Like Collins, author Jeff Kinney is also taking a big part of Nielsen’s 2012 book chart for children and young adults. Kinney’s book The Third Wheel which is the sixth part of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is seen on the list twice – once as a hardcover edition and once as a paperback. Critics made quite a lot of positive review about the book and it seems that the young also loved it!

On the 7th position is Rick Riordan’s The Mark of Athena. This book is again part of a series of novels called The Heroes of Olympus. Riordan is seen also a little down on our list with The Serpent’s Shadow. This fantasy adventure novel is based on the mythology of the Egyptians and is the last part of the series The Kane Chronicles.

Here’s the full list of books:

• The Hunger Games (Trade Paperback) – Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire (Hardcover) – Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay (Hardcover) – Suzanne Collins
• The Third Wheel (Hardcover) – Jeff Kinney
• The Hunger Games (Hardcover) – Suzanne Collins
• The Hunger Games (Trade Papaerback) – Suzanne Collins
• The Mark Of Athena (Hardcover) – Rick Riordan
• The Hunger Games Trilogy (Boxed Set) – Suzanne Collins
• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 6 (Hardcover) – Jeff Kinney
• The Serpent’s Shadow (Hardcover) – Rick Riordan

Let’s now take the time and do a short recap of the 2012 top 10 print books for children and young adults: only three authors, a whole bunch of series and trilogies, as well as plenty of fantasy!