International deals for new Mr Men titles

International publishers have snapped up the rights to the new Mr Men books, announced earlier this week.

Yesterday (15th August) Adam Hargreaves, the son of the late Mr Men creator Roger Hargreaves, announced he had produced three new titles - Mr. Marvellous, Little Miss Fabulous and Little Miss Sparkle – to mark the 45th anniversary of the first Mr Men book, Mr Tickle.

Sanrio, which owns the Little Mr Men Little Miss brand, has now sold the rights to Penguin Random House for North American, Australia, South Africa and various markets in Asia. It has also sold the French worldwide language rights to Hachette Jeunesse and the Chinese rights to Children’s Fun.

In the UK, Sanrio is publishing the new titles as e-books through Amazon Media. Egmont, the official Mr Men Little Miss publisher in the UK, decided not to publish them for the present.

Hargreaves created the first six Mr. Men books in 1971 when his son Adam asked him what a tickle looked like. The first Little Miss books were released in 1981 and Adam took over series after his father’s death in 1988.