IN BRIEF Top 10 UK


Familiar titans of children’s illustrated fiction make a strong showing in the UK alongside newer, social media-backed stars


Text Kiera O’Brien 3


Repeat offender Gangsta Granny swipes third


Walliams and Ross’ second Children’s Fiction title of the year, a sequel to Walliams’ all-time bestseller, Gangsta Granny, screeched into the charts in November. Gangsta Granny Strikes Again! shifted 281,138 copies in the last seven weeks of the year, and achieved a six-week stretch in the


Children’s top spot. However, it has a long way to go to surpass its predecessor, with Gangsta Granny on 1.5 million paperback copies sold to date.


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Kinney shoots and scores with latest Wimpy Kid


Jeff Kinney’s 16th Diary of a Wimpy Kid title, Big Shot, scored sixth place, shifting 200,111 copies. The success of Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series— the yearly release usually easily tops 200,000 units—is now supplemented by


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companion series Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid. All told, the children’s behemoth has sold 15 million books through BookScan in the UK to date, for a value of £84.6m.


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Bestseller Lists UK Top 10


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Mega hit for colossal duo


Top


of the charts


David Walliams and Tony Ross once again ruled the roost among kids’ books in the UK, with Megamonster the bestselling Children’s book of the non-lockdown weeks of 2021. It sold 313,440 copies from June onwards. The monster seller racked up a five-week streak atop the Official UK Top 50 chart across the summer.


4 Rashford racks up sales


Marcus Rashford (pictured) and Carl Anka’s You Are a Champion was the Children’s Non-fiction best- seller of the year, scoring its biggest single-week sales the week after the Euro 2020 final.


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TikTok resurrects 2017-published YA title


Adam Silvera’s 2017-published Young Adult Fiction title soared back into the charts in early 2021, its sales buoyant enough to see it claim the year-to-date Children’s number one for several months (at least until Walliams’ Megamonster appeared on the scene). They Both Die at the End was at the very forefront of the TikTok trend, notching up just under 200,000 copies sold last year alone—and 60 million views on the social media platform.


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Festive food-themed début on a roll


Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, of YouTube channel LadBaby, have spent the past four years running away with the Christmas number one in the UK singles chart, with a veritable buffet of sausage roll-themed cover songs. Last year, they made a play for the book equivalent, with Greg the Sausage Roll: Santa’s Little Helper, illustrated by Gareth Conway, trotting straight into the number one spot upon release, with a launch-week volume of more than 40,000 copies. While Greg didn’t quite manage to roll all the way to the festive top spot, it shifted 117,473 copies in total in the run-up to Christmas.


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Picture-perfect pig pipped to the post


J K Rowling’s newest Children’s book, The Christmas Pig, illustrated by Jim Field, shifted just a whisker under 300,000 copies from its October publication onwards. The festive title achieved the author’s first overall number one (under her own name, at least) since 2016’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The Christmas Pig sold just under 45,000 copies solely in the fortnight running up to Christmas Day.


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Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’


The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List jingled into fifth place in the UK kids’ chart overall, after just a handful of weeks on bookshop shelves.


8 Cooking up a storm


Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s latest Tales from Acorn Wood series title, Cat’s Cookbook, was the bestselling Picture Book of 2021, with a string of Pre-School number ones and 133,990 copies sold.


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As has become tradition, the


Beano Annual 2022 thundered up the children’s non-fiction charts over the autumn period, notching up a total volume of 112,492 copies sold.


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