The Coronavirus Pandemic has caused world-wide school closures and issuance of emergency tele-distance and homeschooling protocols. The stress that many parents feel to provide their children with quality educational resources and to establish a sense of safety and stability cannot be overstated. This has led trends such as Facebook's Messenger Kids app seeing a boost in engagement as socially isolated kids find ways to effectively interact with peers. It has also changed the marketplace for children's books.

Both physical print and e-book sales overall are down since shelter-in-place guidelines were enacted, by reports of a 10% drop in the past week alone, and one of the categories to see the largest hit was Children's Fiction titles. While Children's Fiction sales have seen better days, there has been a large uptick in Children's Non-Fiction sales (by some reports as much 135%) as parents seek to fill that educational void.

The current top 10 in Children's Books at Amazon ($AMZN) is led by The Book of Silly Jokes for Kids: 800+ Jokes! and given the need for some levity in today's climate, we're sure it's well received. A blend of reading classics such as The Very Hungry Caterpiller and more experiential titles like I am Confident, Brave & Beautiful: A Coloring Book for Girls and What Should Danny Do (The Power to Choose Series) rounds off a look into the current market.

Name

Avg Category Rank

Days ranked past month

The Big Book of Silly Jokes for Kids: 800+ Jokes!

17.2

29

It's Not Easy Being a Bunny (Beginner Books(R))

17.9

29

Little Blue Truck's Springtime

21.0

29

If Animals Kissed Good Night

23.7

29

I Am Confident, Brave & Beautiful: A Coloring Book for Girls

26.5

29

How to Catch a Mermaid

34.7

29

Dog Man: Fetch-22: From the Creator of Captain Underpants (Dog Man #8)

43.6

29

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

44.5

29

What Should Danny Do? (The Power to Choose Series)

45.4

29

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

53.6

29

Our data shows both the average sales rank of book titles as well as current sales rank, which reflects this quite sharply. For instance, Mac and Cheese (I Can Read Level 1) usually sits at a Catagory Rank of 40, now finds itself in 22. Or Star Wars Workbook: 2nd Grade Math, typically a Catagory Rank of 85 and currently at 1. 

By the way, we here at Thinknum Medium would like to provide you with a short list of free resources if you have littles. The e-book Coronavirus: A Book For Children by Kate Wilson is available for free on Amazon. Check in with #SAVEWITHSTORIES, a project started by actresses Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams to read to children and raise money to make sure no child goes hungry. With Goodnight With Dolly, incomparable country music legend and childhood literacy advocate Dolly Parton reads to children every Thursday through her non-profit foundation Imagination Library. LeVar Burton Reads features the Reading Rainbow hero himself reading to children on Mondays, young adults on Wednesdays, and adults on Fridays (parents need enrichment too!). Last on this list, but certainly not least; actor, father, and comedian Josh Gad through #GadBookClub on Twitter has been reading bedtime stories to children every night.

What influence this trend will have on the slow-moving world of traditional publishing, is a tale only time will tell.

Further reading:

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.