Paolini, in his first
public reading of Brisingr,
in New York City.
Photo: Lisa Berg.
Brisingr (Knopf), the long-awaited third volume in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance cycle, arrived last Friday night, September 20, at midnight. In a record for Random House Children’s Books, the book sold 550,000 copies in its first day.
Random had printed 2.5 million copies of Brisingr, the largest-ever first printing for the division. First-day sales for the title were four times that of Eldest, second in the cycle, which pubbed in August 2005. RHCB president Chip Gibson said the numbers for Brisingr “far surpassed our projections.” More than 2,500 bookstores held midnight parties.
Random House U.K., which published the novel simultaneously, reported first-day sales of more than 45,000 copies, “Brisingr is by far and away the fastest-selling book we’ve ever published,” said children’s sales director Helen Randles. The company also called it the fastest-selling children’s book in Britain this year.
In Matthew Van Fleet’s novelty books, baby birds’ beaks open to receive worms, a dog scratches at a flea, and stinkbugs do indeed stink. One of his books, Monday the Bullfrog, is in itself a cloth puppet. Another common thread, besides their use of movement and texture—they sell. Van Fleet has published eight books, including his most recent, Alphabet (S&S/Wiseman, Apr.), since 1992. Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings (Dial, 1995) has sold more than a million copies, and last year’s Dog (also S&S/Wiseman) has sold just under 300,000 copies to date.This month Van Fleet’s Alphabet arrives with a 350,000-copy first printing; he illustrated it in the vein of Tails (published by Harcourt in 2003 while his longtime editor, Paula Wiseman, was working there), which also shares the same squat dimensions (10 3/4" x 7 1/4"). Alphabet employs many of the novelty mechanisms familiar to Van Fleet’s books, as well as something completely new for him: a removable poster featuring 26 pop-ups hidden beneath flaps, one for each letter.
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