IN BRIEF Top 10 Australia


It’s all about one canine in the Australian books market, with books by cartoon dog Bluey occupying five of the top 10 bestseller berths


Text Kiera O’Brien 3


The second Bluey title, Time to Play!,


hit second place. In locked-down Australia, sales of Children’s books through Nielsen have jumped 10% in volume year on year, spiking above 20 million books sold.


5


Bluey hits the beach after awards nod


Bluey makes her third appearance with Bluey: The Beach in fifth, with 89,546 copies sold. Australia’s top 10 bestselling children’s books of the year include seven Bluey titles, with only YA franchise re-boots Midnight Sun and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as well as Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man title Fetch-22, breaking the Bluey streak. The Beach was also named the Australian Book Industry Awards’ Book of the Year 2020; it is the first children’s book to pick up the gong.


8


Twilight dawns as Meyer hits the top 10


The Twilight renaissance echoed around the globe, with Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun beaming into eighth place and becoming the bestselling non-Bluey book in the nation’ children’s chart. Told from the point of view of ultimate Noughties vampire love interest ck is he


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Edward Cullen, the hardback is by far the newest book in the 2020 top 10, published in August. In the UK, Meyer’s re-boot has sold nearly 150,000 copies.


16 14th October 2020 Creek, with paddle


Bluey: The Creek charted in ninth place, shifting 85,588 copies. The five Bluey titles in the top 10 alone collectively shifted a tail-wagging half a million copies.


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Bestseller Lists Australia Top 10


1


Bluey goes big—again


of the charts


Bluey: Big Backyard tops Australia’s bestseller chart for 2020 to date, with 169,393 copies sold so far this year—and it is one of 11 Bluey books in the top 100, five of which hit the top 10. The cartoon dog’s TV series is the most-watched show on ABC’s on-demand service in history, no doubt helping sales of its print siblings.


4


Top


2 Delia serves up a treat


Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing conquers the Australian fiction chart, with 138,552 copies sold. Set in mid-20th century North Carolina, the title offered a slice of escapism in pandemic year.


Pape’s prudence helps Aussies through recession


longtime success


Scott Pape’s The Barefoot Investor took a rare breather from the Australian top spot. The personal finance guide has barely vacated the number one since its publication in 2016, becoming the bestselling non-fiction title of all time in the territory. Australia’s economy had avoided a recession for 30 years before the double whammy of devastating bush fires and the corona- virus crisis hit—but it is reportedly expected to be back in growth from the fourth quarter, with household saving ratios rising to their highest levels since the Second World War in the past few years. It may well owe something to the effect Pape’s mega-seller has had on its readers...


Dalton’s tale continues to Swallow up sales


Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, his semi- autobiographical novel about a young Brisbane boy growing up in poverty, has clearly continued to enchant Australian readers after its breakout in 2019. With 88,820 copies sold, Boy Swallows Universe is easily the bestselling Australian-authored fiction title (if we don’t count Bluey). Début author Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words hit 17th place overall, with Heather Morris’ 2019 blockbuster The Tattooist of Auschwitz in 20th.


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Phosphorescence helps Aussies in lockdown


Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence, released just as Australia went into lockdown, seems to have occupied the same role Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse did for UK and Irish book-buyers. A self-help guide to finding one’s inner light and sustaining it, despite day-to-day stresses, climate change and global events out of our control, Phosphorescence has sold 86,884 copies Down Under since March.


10


Bluey: Bob Bilby was Australia’s 10th-


bestselling book of 2020. It tells the story of Bluey’s sister bringing homehome t Bob


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Bilby from school, according to Bluey ng).


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Source: Nielsen BookScan Australia. Data range: 40 weeks to 3rd October 2020.


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