Children’s middle-grade fiction has seen a shift in recent years, with increased interest in graphic novels and comic strip fiction; in fact, the top fiction author this year is Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man, followed by Bunny vs Monkey writer and illustrator Jamie Smart at third. Both have moved up two places compared to a year ago and have seen their sales increase by more than £1m. Also rising up the ranks is John Patrick Green and his Investigators, with sales more than doubling year-on-year (helped by a featured World Book Day title) to boost him from 25th in the author ranks to 13th.
The growth in graphic novels has helped to balance a decline seen in wider children’s fiction, although plenty of top names are defying that decline. Representing the illustrated children’s fiction side, we see growth for long-established authors as well as emerging ones, with Jeff Kinney, Katie Kirby, Liz Pichon, Harriet Muncaster, Rachel Renee Russell and Andy Griffiths all up to varying degrees. And then there’s the fantasy adventure side, seen in Rick Riordan within the top ten and Katherine Rundell and A.F. Steadman closing out the top 15, all with increased sales vs a year ago.
Source: Nielsen BookData