Thursday, February 28, 2013

What's Popular in MG Series: Books Kids Love Survey Results

The results are in! 146 of our participated in Part II of the Books Kids Love Survey that Anne and I sent out into the interwebs; that's 146 people weighing in on what middle grade series are popular at their branches and which are not. And now, without further ado, the fifteen middle grade series we surveyed, from most popular to least:

I am intrigued by the fact that the top three most popular middle grade series--Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and Dork Diaries--can all be considered readalikes of one another. I sense a theme, writing style, and or perspective that appeals to this age of reader...

Anne compiled the data on each individual series. Take a look at the charts below; how do series' popularity at your library relate to any larger trends? Are you missing anything from your collection?

Anne and I want to say THANK YOU for weighing in on the series that your readers are enjoying, or perhaps not so much. My hope is that the results can give us some points of consideration in moving forward. What I'll be thinking about:
  • Are there series on which I should be offering book discussions or programs?
  • Based on series popularity, what types of readalike booklists should I make before summer reading?
  • What series am I purchasing too many copies of?
  • What series may need replacement copies?
It should be noted that a few people expressed a wish that we had offered more descriptive criteria in Part II of our survey; namely, they wanted there to be an option for a series that saw consistent middling interest among readers. Note that our data will only reflect popularity within the boundaries that we set for the survey. Also, there will always be room for discussion on what it even means for a book or series to be "popular." For now, though, I think these data give us plenty of interesting things to talk about.


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