Mattel Press is introducing a new Fisher-Price board book series called Smilestones. The first three titles, I Am Kind!, I Can Listen!, and I Can Babble!, will launch on August 12. A second wave of three titles, I Can Sign!, I Have Big Feelings!, and I Can Potty! debuts on October 7. Mattel’s titles are distributed by Simon & Schuster.
“The series is all about celebrating the little victories and letting go of expectations,” Ryan Ferguson, global head of publishing at Mattel, told PW. “After 95 years of Fisher-Price helping families, we’ve learned that development happens naturally when fun leads the way. [The books are] designed to be approachable while offering expert, pressure-free guidance for parents.”
The company’s goal was to expand Fisher-Price beyond toys and connect with parents in new ways. “We saw an opportunity to offer something more than just a book for parents to read to their children,” Ferguson said. “We wanted to give families simple tools that support early development.”
The series was created in collaboration with the Fisher-Price Play Lab. Founded 64 years ago, the Play Lab was the first kid-led testing lab in the toy industry. Fisher-Price’s early childhood development experts continue to work directly with children, observing how they play and learn, and use those insights to inform product development and evaluate new products.
The Smilestones brand, a mash-up of “smile” and “milestones,” is meant to reflect Fisher-Price’s approach of guiding parents with solid advice while helping them find joy in every developmental stage, big or small. While this is the brand’s first appearance in publishing, it has been used as an umbrella brand to identify tips and toys to help parents support their child’s growth.
The Fisher-Price publishing program is seeing new life after a bit of a hiatus. “This launch, along with several other Fisher-Price titles, marks the beginning of many more to come as we continue to expand our publishing efforts under Mattel Press,” Ferguson said. Leading up to the Smilestones launch, Mattel Press published three Fisher-Price titles last year: Fisher-Price: Giant Coloring Book, Fisher-Price: My First Sticker Book, and Little People: Our Beautiful World. “We’ll have many more titles coming from Mattel Press for Fisher-Price, and we will continue to partner with our licensees for adjacent formats that can complement the Mattel Press line,” he said.
The Smilestones series is currently focused only on board books, but Mattel is open to adding other formats in the future. “We’re exploring more titles that continue to reflect the real experiences families go through,” Ferguson said. “There’s so much room to grow with this series.”
