NEW YORK — The country’s hottest book isn’t a hit because of Oprah Winfrey or Donald Trump. It’s all because of a laughing Scottish grandmother.
Thanks to a viral video of Janice Clark reading Craig Smith’s “The Wonky Donkey” to her baby grandson, and her breathless amusement over lines such as “He was a honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” the 2009 picture book about a three-legged, one-eyed donkey has sold more than 100,000 copies in the United States this fall, much of that in the past week. According to NPD BookScan, which tracks around 85 percent of the print market, “Wonky Donkey” topped all releases with more than 90,000 copies sold last week, beating out Bob Woodward’s “Fear” and Rachel Hollis’ “Girl, Wash Your Face,” among others.
“You can’t ask for a better endorsement of your creation than when the person reading your book is having a better time than the child being read to. Janice’s infectious laughter was an absolute delight!” wrote Smith, a New Zealand-based musician and author, in a recent email. “Remember, this viral sensation came about because a grandmother read a BOOK to her grandson, albeit a very special grandmother.”
“The Wonky Donkey” had already sold hundreds of thousands of copies in New Zealand and Australia. But until recently it had a much smaller audience in the United States. According to Scholastic, the book had sold about 75,000 copies and was out of print before the video caught on last month.
“Before this fall, if you had said ‘Wonky Donkey’ in my store, no one would have known what you were talking about,” said Linda Devlin, owner of Linda’s Story Time in Monroe, Connecticut. “Now, it just sells and sells. People see it and say, ‘Oh, I have to get that for my grandchildren.”‘
Scholastic announced Friday that it had ordered another 600,000 copies. Meanwhile, Clark is coming to New York in November for an event at Barnes & Noble.
On his website, craigsmith.co.nz, Smith identifies himself as a creator of “cruisy, easy listening, children’s and sometimes humorous acoustic music.” He has released numerous books and records, including picture stories such as “The Drizzly Bear” and “The Scariest Thing in the Garden.”
– From news service reports
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