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Independent booksellers are predicting strong sales of classic children’s books this Christmas, with the sector proving to be resistant to e-book sales.
“Children’s bookselling is particularly important at Christmas, with design and illustration continually raising the bar,” said Sheila O’Reilly of Dulwich Books in south London. “These books make the perfect gift and the only hard part is helping a customer narrow it down to one choice. Children’s books are increasingly becoming Kindle-proof, making them essential to the stability of bookselling during Christmas.”
Octavia Karavla, owner of Octavia’s Bookshop in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is predicting strong sales of Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear books because “they are traditional and British, everything you want Christmas to be about”, and Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, which will be forming the basis of her festive window display.
Natasha Radford, who runs the Chicken and Egg Bookshop in Brentwood, Essex, said she sells ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas “whatever issue we’ve got in”, and Jacqueline Johnson of the Jacqson Diego Story Emporium in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, said people always want copies of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman (Puffin).
In terms of new titles, every retailer The Bookseller spoke to said that David Walliams’ Awful Auntie and his latest picture book, The First Hippo on the Moon (HarperCollins Children’s Books, HCCB), would fly off the shelves. Johnson and O’Reilly also said that Animalium, the non-fiction guide to different types of animals from Big Picture Press, will prove popular.
O’Reilly’s Christmas picks also include Princess Mirror-Belle by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s), Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers (HCCB), and any of Egmont’s Minecraft titles. Radford and Karavla both said they anticipated a lot of interest in Russell Brand’s new children’s title, Trickster Tales: The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Canongate).
Jo de Guia of Victoria Park Books in east London said Christmas was an “essential” time of the year for the shop. She added: “We take probably twice as much as we would in another good month, and three times more than we would in an average month.”
Wayne Winstone, owner of two bookshops in south-west England, said: “Children’s is traditionally 25% of our business mix, and in December that can increase by a further 8%–10%.”
However, for Johnson, Christmas is more important in terms of PR. “When we first started, we expected Christmas to create a high percentage of turnover but it hasn’t worked out like that. Instead, it’s important in terms of our place in the community, and it’s very important for PR and marketing.”
Most bookshops are reaching out to their local communities with specific children’s events, and Radford said her shop’s “massive” events were “bonkers”. Over the holiday season, she is working with the local council and a local newspaper to create a “Santa run”. The event will challenge children to find different Santas in various shops; each Santa will have a different letter with them, and every child that combines the letters to form a word will be in with a chance to win a selection of prizes—including a bundle of books.
Johnson’s shop will have a postbox for Father Christmas, and every child who writes a letter will receive a reply. The shop will also feature an order and collect service for parents buying presents.
Victoria Park Books will host its annual mulled wine event on 24th December, providing mulled wine all day for customers who are doing their last-minute Christmas shopping.