Angelina Dances With Penguin

by Karen Raugust -- Publishers Weekly, 5/30/2005

Angelina Ballerina will play a starring role with Penguin Young Readers Group, which has secured U.S. and Canadian rights from HIT Entertainment. Penguin will publish backlist and frontlist titles for girls 3–8, ranging from gift sets to coloring books, starting with three titles this fall and 15 in spring 2006. The deal includes multiple imprints: hardcovers from Viking, paperback picture book reprints from Puffin; and a range of mass market formats from Grosset & Dunlap.

Angelina's previous U.S. publishers, which have collectively sold more than five million books, have included Clarkson Potter, which offered the first titles starting in 1983, and, most recently, Pleasant Company. Penguin has been interested in the property for some time, making a bid for the rights—which ultimately went to HIT—when they came up in the late 1990s, according to Doug Whiteman, president of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Penguin will continue to build on the existing trade program (it takes over the backlist on January 1, 2006), as well as expanding into new formats (such as chapter books) and adding mass market distribution. "That's where we see growth," Whiteman said. Author Katharine Holabird, who created Angelina with illustrator Helen Craig, will write new titles for Penguin.

The publisher will support Angelina with displays and a prominent position in its spring catalogue. It also will tie in with HIT's marketing initiatives and entertainment productions, as well as work with other licensees, including Sababa Toys.

"Penguin was the ideal partner to build out our program," said Jamie Cygielman, HIT's senior v-p of consumer products, U.S. and Latin America. "Angelina has a heritage as a literary property first, so publishing will be the cornerstone for everything we do."