Board books and mass merchandisers were the big winners in the final week before Easter. At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of board books were 148% higher in the week ended Apr. 16, 2017, than in the comparable week in 2016. The biggest beneficiary of the board book boom was the mass merchandiser channel, where unit sales rose 90% over the week ended Apr. 17, 2016. Both the juvenile fiction and nonfiction segments posted huge gains in the week, with unit sales in juvenile fiction up 72%. Though Easter books dominated the top of the juvenile fiction segment, a book by Jay Asher held the top two spots on the category bestseller list: his original Thirteen Reasons Why sold about 42,000 copies in the week, and the tie-in to the Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why, sold more than 28,000 copies. The bestselling Easter books were the board book Happy Easter Mouse by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond, which sold more than 22,000 copies, and God Gave Us Easter by Lisa Tawn Bergren and Laura Bryant, which sold more than 20,000 copies. Print unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction segment were 59% higher than in 2016, led by Easter Eggstravaganza Mad Libs by Roger Price, with more than 17,000 copies sold in the week, followed by The Story of Easter, a board book by Patricia Pingry, with almost 17,000 copies. Unit sales in the adult fiction category were down 0.5% from the comparable week in 2016. The trade paperback version of The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware landed at #3 on the category bestseller list in its first week, selling more than 19,000 copies, while another book hitting shelves for the first time, Thrawn by Timothy Zahn, was in fourth place, selling nearly 16,000 copies. Old School by Bill O’Reilly and Bruce Feirstein remained #1 on the adult nonfiction bestseller list, selling more than 32,000 copies, but total unit sales in the segment were 2% lower than in the comparable week in 2016.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel (in thousands)

Apr. 17, 2016 Apr. 16, 2017 Chge Week Chge YTD
Total 10,962 13,268 21% 2%
Retail & Club 9,426 10,350 10% 4%
Mass Merch./Others 1,536 2,917 90% -8%

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)

Apr. 17, 2016 Apr. 16, 2017 Chge Week Chge YTD
Adult Nonfiction 4,787 4,691 -2% 2%
Adult Fiction 2,393 2,380 -0.5% 2%
Juvenile Nonfiction 868 1,378 59% 0.3%
Juvenile Fiction 2,585 4,455 72% 2%

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)

Apr. 17, 2016 Apr. 16, 2017 Chge Week Chge YTD
Hardcover 2,942 3,520 20% 5%
Trade Paperback 6,242 7,273 16% 1%
Mass Market Paperback 1,034 970 -6% -5%
Board Books 485 1,205 148% 7%
Audio 73 59 -19% -5%