Egmont launches list of modern classics

Egmont UK will this year launch a list of modern children’s classics, starting with five titles in March.

All the titles in the ‘Modern Classics’ series were first published in the late 20th or 21st century and include titles by authors such as Michael Morpurgo and Andy Stanton.

Fiction publishing director Sarah Hughes said she wanted to “highlight some of the best and most iconic fiction that we publish”.

“The thinking behind the Modern Classics is to help extend a title’s reach into the gift market and to introduce classic authors that some grown-ups may not be aware of, but they should be,” she said.

Egmont will publish the first five titles in March -  You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton, The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann and Whispers in the Graveyard by Theresa Breslin - in March. A sixth book, The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimbo, will follow in October 2016.

The books will all be published in paperback with specially designed covers (created by the fiction design team, headed by art director Ben Hughes) and will be priced at £6.99. They will also include new bonus material with information about the author and their works.

The Modern Classics list follows Egmont’s children’s ‘Classics’ range, which launched in June 2015 with titles such as The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and Peter Pan by J M Barrie.