I'm here at my mobile office in Naples, Florida . . . lucky me! I'm tagging along with my husband who has a conference, and I'm chilling out with my giant stack of books while he has meetings all day.
Yeah. It's pretty much bliss. We haven't gotten away sans children in a very long time. It's raining right now, but who cares? I'm in a quiet hotel room in a comfy bed.
As I was catching up on some blogs this morning, I spent some time looking through PW's list of children's books best sellers of 2009. Take a look at it here. A lot of it is not surprising ("Hello" Bella, Fancy Nancy, and Harry), but there were some books that were noticeably absent from the list. Where were the Mo Willems books? Where was Olivia? Have those books already run their course? And, I was fascinated by the backlist numbers, especially those for Dr. Seuss's books.
So what gives a children's book longevity? And, is it easier for a children's book to have longevity than a work written for the adult market? Lots of these big selling backlist books were my favorites as a child, and I assume that people in my generation are buying those same books for their children--keeping the book alive in perpetuity.
What say you? Any surprises on the list?
sf
7 comments:
Oh to be where you are...
I'll have to take a look at that list later. I'm interested in what was listed/not listed.
Great post SF! So glad to see you actually made it past all the tornados! yikes!
AAHHHH I feel relaxed just looking at the picture.
Yeah I was surprised by similar things on the list. I hadn't thought about Mo Willems until you said it--love him.
I agree with Christina. What a great photo to look at on a Monday morning! Have a wonderful time!
Love the office. Can I join you? Though something tells me I wouldn't get any work done.
No Mo Willems? I love him!
I was actually surprised that books like Shiver and Along for the Ride weren't higher on the list. The Miley Cyrus book sold more copies? Ugh.
Hey, isn't Florida great! I live here in paradise (West Palm Beach).. love the weather and of course the beaches!
I think in some cases the longevity of or endurance of story has a lot to do with the rhythm... they set into our psyche like "Old MacDonald Had A Farm". ---"I do not like them Sam I am!" Of course, there are other components, but I think in the case of Green Eggs, it's the rhythm as well as the masterful telling of a story using 50 words. I used more than that in this post!
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