Coolabi Group signs Penguin Group USA for Clangers
Independent international media group and rights owner, Coolabi Group today announces a new Clangers deal with one of the world’s leading children’s book publishers, Penguin Group USA.
Following the show’s successful launch on the US 24-hour pre-school network Sprout, Penguin Group USA will distribute a Clangers Picture Book with audio CD recording by US TV series narrator William Shatner.
The book, which is expected to hit shelves in the US and Canada in Fall 2016, adds to the major deal between Coolabi and Penguin UK, who are already signed as master publishing partner for Clangers worldwide, excluding US and Canada.
Francesco Sedita, Publisher Grosset & Dunlap, and imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, comments “The moment we saw Clangers we knew we had to be a part of their truly magical world—and we are just as excited about the partnership with William Shatner as the Clangers narrator! This is an enchanting and entertaining show for families and young readers that we are proud to be publishing.”
Valerie Fry, Director of Licensing at Coolabi comments “We’re extremely proud to be working with Penguin Group USA, and to be releasing such an exciting product, with audio CD from William Shatner, in the US and Canada. We are thrilled to expand our Penguin relationship into such a major market.”
Penguin Group USA joins a rapidly expanding portfolio of licensees for the Clangers including; Character Options (master toy), Penguin UK (books), Dreamtex Ltd (homewares), Fashion UK (apparel), Jo Y Jo Design (knitwear), Immediate Media (magazines), C&M Licensing (apparel), MV Sports (wheeled toys), Gemma International (greeting cards & gifts), Redan (magazines), Signature (DVD), StoryToys (digital gaming), Trade Mark Collections (children’s bags) and Rainbow Productions (costume characters).
For more information please contact: Katy Sykes Sundae Communications katy@todayissundae.co.uk 0161 711 0517 / 07947 512 825
About Coolabi Group
Coolabi Group is a leading independent international media group and rights owner specialising in the creation, development and brand management of children’s and family intellectual property rights.
The group has particular expertise in books, television and digital.
Coolabi owns the rights in over 20 TV series and some 360 half- hours of programming; it has shows airing in more than 140 territories on channels including: ABC, Cartoon Network, CBeebies, CBBC, Clan / TVE, Disney, F5, ITV, Kika, Nickelodeon and Sprout.
Brands owned and represented by Coolabi include the much-anticipated remake of Clangers, currently airing on CBeebies, and Scream Street, currently in production for broadcast on CBBC. Other properties include Beast Quest, Poppy Cat, Purple Ronnie and the Smallfilms’ properties Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine.
The group also creates original series fiction for publishers and has created some 100 published series, consisting of over 1,000 books, sold in more than 40 languages. Four of these series, Warriors, Beast Quest, Animal Ark and Rainbow Magic have sold over ten million copies each and Coolabi is currently working on brand extensions for some of these properties the latest example being the hit new Beast Quest mobile game, co-produced with Miniclip.
About Penguin
Penguin Young Readers is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Philomel Books, Puffin, Speak, Firebird, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Times- bestselling authors as Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Ally Condie, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, Gayle Forman John Green, Oliver Jeffers, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, B.J. Novak, Richard Peck, Judy Schachner, Jacqueline Woodson and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as The Little Engine That Could, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Strega Nona, Madeline, Mad Libs, Alex Rider, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Flower Fairies, and Pippi Longstocking, among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Group LLC, a Penguin Random House company
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
