September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels

There’s a new look to the top 20 Kids graphic novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for September 2021 (8/29/21 – 10/02/21) provided to ICv2.

There are five books on this month’s chart that weren’t on last month’s, three August and two September releases.  The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Snobs, by multiple Eisner nominee Chan Chau (see “The 2021 Eisner Award Nominees“), is in second place; Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Friends Forever, the third book in the Real Friends trilogy, is in fourth.  Big Nate returns to the chart for the first time in a while with Big Nate: Aloha!, Ben Clanton’s playful narwhal and jellyfish return in Narwhal’s School of Awesomeness, and the fifth title is the graphic adaptation of Lauren Tarshis’ I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001.  All these are August and September releases.

So what got bumped? Terri Libenson’s Truly Tyler, which charted for two months; Jerry Craft’s New Kid, a perennial best-seller; the fourth Wings of Fire adaptation; FGTEEV Saves the World; and Kayla Miller’s Clash.

Here’s what hasn’t changed:  There are 11 Dog Man books in the top 20, even though there are only 10 volumes in the series.  As we explained last month, that’s because Scholastic has just reprinted the first six volumes (see “August 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels“), but the old ones are still hanging around in stores (with a different MSRP and ISBN), and in September, unit sales of the older edition of Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild were high enough to put it at number 20.  Those 11 plus Cat Kid Comic Club give Dav Pilkey, once again, a dozen titles in the Top 20.

For charts of September 2021 graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels

For the charts with the actual sales numbers from NPD BookScan, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:
September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
September 2021 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales

NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more.  NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market.  The ranks on this chart are based on piece sales.  Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; we’ve removed those titles from the ranking above.

For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the “BookScan Top 20 GN Index.”

Source: ICV2