Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' series of books about vampires, which has of course spawned a number of film adaptations, is responsible for an overall 4.9% boost of sales of children's books. I don't know if these books are any good, or anything, but I suppose people tend to think that if it gets kids reading, the quality isn't all important. Not that I'm saying these books are rubbish. They might be good. What do I know? Anyway, 'Twilight' books fill the top five slots in the annual Nielsen chart, with the Beano annual and some Miley Cyrus claptrap following behind.

Meanwhile, the top five of younger children's books includes that old favourite 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle at number 1, and another old favourite, Maurice Sendak's 'Where The Wild Things Are' at number 4. It should come as no surprise to the parents of toddlers, however, that the top five is dominated by the work of Julia Donaldson: 'The Tyrannosaurus Drip Song' is at number 2, 'The Stick Man ' is at number 3, and 'The Gruffalo's Child' is at number 5.