
by BK Munn
Booknet Canada has published its year-end bestseller lists of books sold in all Canadian bookstore and online and that list includes the 10 bestselling Juvenile and YA books of 2019. Most of the books are graphic novels and/or “profusely cartooned hybrid books”. Dave Pikey’s Dog Man series leads the pack, as it has for a few years now.
Here’s the list:
- For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey
2. Guts by Raina Telgemeier
3. Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey
4. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney
5. The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith, illustrated by Katz Cowley
6. Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney
7. Boy-Crazy Stacey by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan
8. Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey
9. Just Jamie by Terri Libenson
10. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
According to Booknet, “There are three titles from last year’s list that made it onto this year’s list: The popularity of The Wonky Donkey continues, Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey, and the perennial bestseller, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. The rest of the titles were frontlist (published in 2019 or in late December 2018).”
Booknet further notes, “Half of the titles on the list are Comics or Graphic Novels: For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey, Guts by Raina Telgemeier, Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey, Boy-Crazy Stacey by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan, and Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey. And three of those are Dav Pilkey titles. All 10 titles were Juvenile Fiction; no Young Adult titles cracked the top 10 in 2019. And sadly, no Canadian authors made this year’s top 10 list. “
A separate list of just kids’ books by Canadian authors is mostly made up of picture books written by Robert Munsch, with no comics.
