Wednesday, September 12, 2007


DAHL BEATS ROWLING


Fascinating story from The Guradian overnight.


Roald Dahl remains the most popular children's author among young adults, a survey has found.
JK Rowling, whose first Harry Potter book sparked a publishing sensation when it hit the bookshelves 10 years ago, is only the fourth most popular author.
Second and third place were taken by CS Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia series, and Peter Pan creator JM Barrie.
Prolific children's writer Enid Blyton, famous for the Famous Five series and the Noddy books, only made 10th place.

She was scooped by Anthony Horowitz, creator of the Alex Rider teenage spy novels,
followed by bestselling writer Jacqueline Wilson.Dr Seuss, whose most famous
book was The Cat in the Hat, was seventh, followed by His Dark Materials
author Philip Pullman and Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books.
The survey of 16- to 34-year-olds was commissioned by ITV3 to mark its Roald Dahl weekend on September 22.


Roald Dahl literary estate Director Amanda Conquy said: "It's always great to hear how enduringly popular Roald Dahl's stories are.
"They truly seem to be passed on from one generation to the next with the utmost enthusiasm and affection."


The top 10


1. Roald Dahl
2. CS Lewis
3. JM Barrie
4. JK Rowling
5. Anthony Horowitz
6. Jacqueline Wilson
7. Dr Seuss
8. Philip Pullman
9. Francesca Simon
10. Enid Blyton

Footnote - there are over 2.2 million Google entries for Roald Dahl, while there are 3.2 million for JK Rowling.

Penguin Books are celebrating Roald Dahl day on 13 September. See http://www.penguin.co.nz/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi bookman beattie
have you heard about this new blog? just thought it might be worth a mention on your blog. It looks like a great new initiative from the National Library who are doing so many great online things these days.
Lee

Create Readers
http://createreaders.natlib.govt.nz


Written by School Services staff from around the country, this blog is all about children's and young adult literature (especially from New Zealand), literacy research, and ways to get - and keep - kids reading.

Create Readers features events, reviews, author interviews, reading lists and tips and tricks for creating engaged and motivated young readers.