Andersen prepares Elmer’s 30th anniversary celebrations

Andersen Press is planning a year-long celebration of Elmer the Elephant for 2019, including a new book and a retrospective at Seven Stories, to mark 30 years since David McKee’s first Elmer book was published.

The new book, written and illustrated by McKee, will be entitled Elmer’s Birthday and will be published in September, and the retrospective, "Elmer and Friends: The Colourful World of David McKee", will show the artist’s original artwork in a new show for children.

Andersen will organise the biggest ever “Elmer Day”, an annual celebration of Elmer the Elephant, and provide event packs for all schools, bookshops and nurseries that sign up. Next year Elmer Day will take place on 25th May. The company is also working with public art events organisation Wild in Art on Elmer art parades in Tyne and Wear, Suffolk and Plymouth.

News about Elmer licensing deals, organised with Penguin Ventures and Metrostar, will be announced "in due course". 

The first Elmer book, entitled Elmer, was published by Andersen in 1989, with sales up 20% in 2017 by TCM value (by volume up 27%). The Elmer the Patchwork Elephant brand now encompasses 39 books, clothing and toys.