One of the blogs I follow faithfully is Lauri Fortino‘s Frog on a (B)log, a terrific blog that celebrates picture books. Her post last week about the Top 15 Circulating Picture Books of 2015 at her local library inspired me to reach out to my local library to see if I could get similar data.
Our lovely Children’s Librarian, Lauren Antolino, was happy to oblige. Once she had the results, she gathered as many of the top ten circulating picture books as she could so I could snap this picture. If you count, you’ll see that one is missing. That’s because, you guessed it, all copies of Mo Willem’s Knuffle Bunny are currently checked out!
I was curious if there would be any overlap between Lauri’s list of top circulating picture books and ours. Interestingly, not a single book is on both lists. When I asked Lauren what she thought the greatest factor in obtaining “top ten” status was, she said the number of copies the library owns. Books with multiple copies make it possible for several to be checked out at once and for one to be available at the library for little browsers (i.e. our children) to discover. Thus they get checked out more.
Without further ado here are the picture books that circulated the most in 2015 at the Cranford Public Library:
1. Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
2. Rainbow fish to the rescue! by Marcus Pfister
3. Look and Find Disney Princess
4. Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
5. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
6. That is not a good idea! By Mo Willems
7. Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
8. I Spy Spooky Night by Jean Marzollo
9. The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
10. Can you see what I see? On a scary, scary night by Walter Wick
I also learned that one of my books made the top 25! Goodnight, Ark is tied for 22nd most circulated picture book, along with The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt.
Happy reading all!
Laura Sassi Tales 
Very interesting data and the fact that more copies lead to more circulation. That’s kind of a given… And hooray for your book being the top 25!
Yes, the more available the more chances to check out. I’m happy when libraries have even one copy of my book, however! =)
Congrats, Laura! That’s terrific!
22nd! Wow! Pretty cool! You’ll be on the table before you know it!
Reminds me of a question on my Psych 101 final. What one factor above all others is the greatest predictor of whether two individuals will form a friendship?
Answer: Geography
Granted – this was preInternet/Facebook! But the number of books available to borrow is certainly a logical factor that drives circulation statistics! Neat post.
Very logical. =) Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Laura, Thanks so much for sharing my blog! I’m thrilled that my post of top circulating picture books of 2015 inspired you in some way. That is so great to hear! Awesome that your book made the top 25! It’s interesting that not one book was the same from our two lists, but there are many factors that influence what gets checked out most often, and it’s impossible to determine in every case. Also, there are many patrons who stay and read right in the library and may never actually check out the books. So number of readers could be much higher than number of circulations. 🙂
Good point, Lauri and you are an expert in library matters. Especially when they were little, my kids and I would read many, many picture books on our weekly visits without ever checking them out. We’d find a cozy corner and read, read, read!
Yay for you, 22! 🙂
That is so great Laura! It’s such a good feeling to know that our books are being read by children. Thanks for sharing this.