We order some of the books for our school library through Follett. On their Titlewave website they have something called Student’s Choice lists,
showing the 50 most popular books for elementary, middle, and high school levels. The thing that I like about these lists is that they are created from the actual circulation statistics of schools.
As a guy who loves dissecting our annual circ stats, I find this sort of thing interesting to look at. Here are a few random thoughts about the elementary list (if you have a Follett account, you can click here to see it).
Illustrated Novels Rule
A huge percentage of the list is filled with illustrated novels: Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, Dog Man, Captain Underpants. In fact, there is only one non-illustrated book among the entire top 50 – can you guess it?
Wonder.
Popular Pigeon
I didn’t expect to see so many Pigeon books in the top 50. The list doesn’t include many picture books at all, so seeing the Pigeon pop up four times was a surprise.
The Oldie
The oldest book on the list, by far, is Green Eggs and Ham. That book will never quit. And along with the Elephant & Piggie title We Are In a Book!, is one of only two early readers on the list.
The Loner
The only non-Pigeon-related picture book on the list is The Day the Crayons Quit.
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