For all of the industry handwringing, children’s book sales remain strong, as the AAP StatShot for the first half of 2012 shows. According to the 21 publishers reporting, overall sales from January to June are up 40.7% over the same period last year. E-books reign supreme, showing 251.5% growth in sales over from January to June 2012 over the same period last year – from $46.1 million to $146.4 million – pointing to a rapidly growing acceptance in this market of the new digital format. E-books are also claiming a larger share of the children’s market as a whole– 17% of the total in the first half of 2012, compared with 7% in the first half of 2011. But while e-books are cannibalizing some sales in the adult category – particularly in mass market, down 20.3% – sales across all children’s formats are up in 2012, from board books to YA. Now that’s something worth celebrating.