The Best Selling Books for Children and Young Adults in 2019
Or…your gift buying guide for young people
For this story I combed The New York Times (NYT) weekly best seller lists to identify the top-selling books for 2019 in four categories:
- Children’s picture books
- Middle grade hardcover
- Children’s series
- Young adult hardcover
Each week NYT published the top five best sellers in each category. I aggregated the data over forty-eight weeks. The top five books each week were scored according to their ranks — 1.0 for first, 0.71 for second, 0.58 for third, 0.5 for fourth, and 0.43 for fifth. (The score is the rank to the power of minus one half.) Then, for each book, I added the scores over the year.
For each category, I will count down the top three, before revealing the full top 20.
Children’s picture books
The best picture books can transfix readers of all ages. For the adult reading the book aloud for the umpteenth time there is something delightful on every page which makes reading a joy.
3. The Pigeon Has To Go To School! by Mo Willems
Weeks in top 5: 13 Highest position: 1 Goodreads: 4.45
The new go-to book about going to school for the first time and the anxiety that can cause.
