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Children's Literacy Round-Up: March 22

Best Selling Children's Books

I ran across a site, Infoplease, that lists "The Best-Selling Children's Books of All Time". More specifically, it references Publisher's Weekly's publication of the best-selling children's books through the end of 2000, broken down by paperback vs. hard cover books. Here are the top 12 books from each category:

Hardcover:

  1. The Pokey Little Puppy (A Little Golden Book Classic), Janette Sebring Lowrey (1942)
  2. The Tale Of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter (1902)
  3. Tootle, Gertrude Crampton (1945)
  4. Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (1960)
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4), J. K. Rowling (2000)
  6. Pat the Bunny, Dorothy Kunhardt (1940)
  7. The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Kathryn and Byron Jackson (1947)
  8. Scuffy The Tugboat, Gertrude Crampton (1955)
  9. The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (1957)
  10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2), J. K. Rowling (1999)
  11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3), J. K. Rowling (1999)
  12. Where the Sidewalk Ends : Poems and Drawings, Shel Silverstein (1974)

Paperback

  1. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White; illustrated by Garth Williams (1974)
  2. The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton (1968)
  3. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume (1976)
  4. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; illustrated by Sheila McGraw (1986)
  5. Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls (1973)
  6. Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell (1971)
  7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1), J. K. Rowling (1999)
  8. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Judy Blume (1972)
  9. Shane, Jack Schaeffer (1972)
  10. The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks (1982)
  11. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (1974)
  12. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams (1971)

I'd like to see a more updated version of this list, but it's still interesting. Check out the full list here.

P.S. UPDATE: I should have mentioned before that one of the places I saw this list was on Cindy Swanson's blog, Notes in the Key of Life. Cindy lists the first 100 books on the paperback list, and highlights the ones that she has read. It's a fun post, well worth checking out.

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