The best selling children’s books of all time list never seemed wanting before 1997 (and the landslide popularity of Harry Potter books). Over a hundred hard-bound and over a hundred paper back books kept millions of children and pre-adolescents riveted. Such books include the following (named here as this writer’s favorites, not as priorities on the bestseller lists, and by no means complete):

HARDBACK

Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, and Where the Sidewalk Ends, numbers 14, 22, and 12, respectively.

Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat; Green Eggs and Ham; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; and Hop on Pop!, numbers 9, 4, 13, and 16, respectively.

Crampton’s Scuffy the Tugboat, number 8.

The Children’s Bible, number 21.

Potter’s The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, numbers 23, 29, and 36, respectively.

Piper’s The Little Engine that Could, number 30.

The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary, number 47.

Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, number 63.

Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, number 39.

White’s Charlotte’s Web, number 78.

Walt Disney’s Storyland, number 49.

All of the Nancy Drew mysteries, those listed (#5, #1, #2, #3, #4 ) numbered 50, 53, 68, 76, and 100, respectively.

All of the Hardy Boy mysteries, those listed (#1, #2, #3, #4, and #5) numbered 55, 72, 86, 108, and 111, respectively.

Sam McBratney’s Guess How Much I Love You, number 74.

PAPERBACK (excluding the same titles as appearing above in hardback)

S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders; and That was Then, This is Now, numbers 2 and 27, respectively.

Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great; Blubber; and Superfudge, numbered 3, 8, 20, 21, and 23, respectively.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, number 29

Go Ask Alice (Anonymous), number 18.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s On the Banks of Plum Creek; Farmer Boy; The Long Winter; By the Shores of Silver Lake; and Little Town on the Prairie, numbers 26, 30, 34, and 37, respectively.

Zindel’s The Pigman, number 39.

Cormier’s The Chocolate War, number 118.

L’Engle’s A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and A Wrinkle in Time, numbers 110, 127, and 11, respectively.

Rawlings’ The Yearling, number 40.

Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda, numbers 48, 65, and 87, respectively.

But from 1997 to 2005, these best-selling children’s books of all time have added some competition. With over 300,000,000 (three-hundred-million!) copies of A. K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter Books have been sold. In addition, the books have been translated in numerous languages (having been written, originally, in UK English); have been turned into seven films so far—the first three worldwide box office hits that grossed a total of $2.6 billion; have influenced non-literary products; have been alluded to in popular songs; and have roused controversy and contest from many different walks of life, from anti-cultists asserting the Harry Potter series is propagandist to unfounded (and reversed, actually) suits claiming plagiarism.

So where do the Harry Potter Books fall on the lists of best-selling children’s books of all time? Here are the results:

PAPERBACK

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – number 7.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – number 19.

HARDBACK

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – number 5.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – number 10.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – number 11.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – number 19.

Not bad for being only eight years in the publishing history and only 6 completed and a seventh planned in….