Kids Are Reading Poetry, Even If Adults Don’t Recognize the Poets

By Ron Hogan on May 26, 2008 7:08 AM

Earlier this month, I noted that the boom in YA science fiction and fantasy sales compared to the adult market for those genres. A little bird with access to Nielsen Bookscan tells me the effect can be seen in other genres as well. “Has anyone noticed that YA is also home to one of the bestselling (if not the bestselling) living poets in the country, Ellen Hopkins?” this source asks.

Hopkins is the author of four verse novel that deal with topics like drug addiction, child abuse, and suicidal impulses; according to my source, these books have registered more than 500,000 sales on Bookscan alone… and 7,000 copies in just one week earlier this month. “Hopkins isnâ€™t an anomaly, either,” the email continues. “Sonya Sones has over a quarter-million Bookscan sales across four YA verse novels since 1999.”

As a comparison point, there’s former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins; we’re not sure if he’s the best-selling living American poet, but let’s stipulate that he’s one of the most readily recognized. Over the last decade, according to my source, Collins holds up pretty well—roughly 600,000 books sold, although that includes collections he’s edited as well as his own work. But during that week when Hopkins sold 7,000 books? Collins sold 900.

Now, there’s some important distinctions to be made before drawing any conclusions here—starting with the fact that Collins is stocked in the poetry section, which I’m sure that researchers would tell us is one of the less-trafficked areas of most bookstores, while Hopkins and Sones can be found mixed in with the YA fiction. And poems like “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July” probably aren’t quite as attention-grabbing as novel-length narratives about meth addiction or coping with a sister’s nervous breakdown.

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