Ladybird flies across the pond for US collaboration

Penguin Random House Children's imprint Ladybird is to partner with its PRH US sister company Penguin Young Readers to develop novelty and picture books for the American market.

The collaboration will kick off with three titles in Rhiannon Fielding and illustrator Chris Chatterton's Ten Minutes to Bed series: Little Unicorn, Little Unicorn's Christmas and Little Dinosaur, which will be released in US shops on 20th October. Four titles in the Ten Minutes to Bed series have been published in the UK‚ņ since 2018 and they have collectively sold 186,000 copies for just over £906,000 through Nielsen BookScan's UK TCM.

The Ladybird ranges will sit within the Penguin Workshop imprint. Penguin Workshop president and publisher Francesco Sedita said: "For years, we’ve had the great pleasure of working on many projects with our Penguin UK colleagues. And now with our Ladybird partnership, we’re thrilled to roll up our sleeves and create some of the very best novelty and picture books titles together that are certain to engage curious young readers in the US."

Other series in development for the US include the "first concepts" Baby Touch list which introduces colours, shapes and numbers; and the Little World range for pre-schoolers, which focuses on "high-interest destinations" like the farm, the jungle and the beach.

Ladybird's publishing director Shannon Cullen said: “Our new partnership with Penguin Workshop marks a really important moment for Ladybird, to join with our expert colleagues to bring a selection of our picture and novelty books to families across the US... [it] has already been a wonderful collaboration and we look forward to the launch of our bestselling Ten Minutes to Bed series, which we hope will set the pattern for continued success.”