For the week of the 13th February, the highest selling book title in Australia according to Nielsen BookScan 2010 data (posted on the Bookseller & Publisher website) was
"Hourglass" by Claudia Gray, the third in a vampire based series written for young adult readers ("YA") and aimed at the same demographic as the Twilight Series of books by Stephanie Meyer. I was amazed that this book outsold both of the first two books from the Stieg Larsson Millenium series - an adult fiction series. It goes to show how popular these books are with our young people and I have to confess that I have read both of these vampire series and can now see what the attraction is.
The first two books in the series by Claudia Gray are
"Evernight" and
"Stargazer". The Twilight and Evernight books revolved around the themes of first relationships, and the confusion of growing up, but are interspersed with lots of action and adventure. The books are a safe way for our young people to find empathy for the feelings and changes happening to themselves and let's confess, who wouldn't want to be the centre of attention of some hunky guy when you're 14. The vampire bent adds that fantasy aspect that is so popular. Don't worry, the main characters are nice vampires - they don't attack humans, and the need for the vampire to consume blood (usually animal) is dealt with very discretely. You get all the good parts of vampires - amazing strength, not needing to sleep, well read and intelligent from living so long, as well as handsome guys falling for "ordinary" girls, without any of the gory bits.
At the top of the highest moving section of the charts are two other children's/YA books - the latest in The 39 Clues series of books,
"Viper's Nest" by Peter Lerangis and Robert Muchamore's
"Secret Army", the third book in the Henderson Boys series.
For the week of the 13th February, the highest selling book title in Australia according to Nielsen BookScan 2010 data (posted on the Bookseller & Publisher website) was "Hourglass" by Claudia Gray, the third in a vampire based series written for young adult readers ("YA") and aimed at the same demographic as the Twilight Series of books by Stephanie Meyer. I was amazed that this book outsold both of the first two books from the Stieg Larsson Millenium series - an adult fiction series. It goes to show how popular these books are with our young people and I have to confess that I have read both of these vampire series and can now see what the attraction is.