Color Me Crayola

What goes together better than Crayola and colors? This spring, Simon & Schuster's Little Simon imprint is releasing Crayola Rainbow Colors, a die-cut board book. "I had wanted to do a Crayola book for a while," said Cindy Alvarez, v-p and editorial director at Little Simon. She sent a proposal to licenser Binney & Smith, where it sat for over six months as the latter's licensing department underwent a reorganization. Meanwhile, Salina Yoon, an author/illustrator who works frequently with Little Simon, approached Alvarez with a crayon book concept. The two ideas came together and this book is the result. It has a 100,000-copy first printing and will be displayed using alternative merchandising tools such as clip strips. Alvarez expects sales to be strong in both mass market and trade channels.

The book teaches children about colors and resembles a Crayola crayon box. "It's as close to the brand as you can possibly get without being crayons," Alvarez said. Little Simon was at the forefront of branded books during their heyday in the late 1990s; The Cheerios Play Book, one of several branded titles in its stable at the time, has over two million copies in print. (The imprint currently holds the license for Mattel's Matchbox.)

Diane Baldovsky, associate manager of global licensing for Crayola, which has authorized coloring books but no trade titles until now, expects to expand the brand's publishing activity in the future.