Read on for news about Teacher Created Materials’ first-ever licensed titles, in collaboration with Mattel; the tie-in program for Zootopia 2, with books from Random House and other publishers; and more.
HarperPop Brings Toca Boca’s Creative Play Pattern to the Printed Page
HarperPop, HarperCollins’s new imprint for licensing and pop culture, and its U.K. counterpart, Farshore, have joined forces to release a line of licensed books tied to Toca Boca, a safe, interactive world for kids that attracts close to 60 million players every month. All told, Toca Boca games have been downloaded more than one billion times since the launch of the brand in 2011.
The publishers secured worldwide English-language rights and local-language rights in Europe from Sweden-based Toca Boca and its parent, U.S.-based global toy and entertainment company Spin Master.
Farshore spearheaded initial negotiations, with both companies having a shared vision of what the program could look like. Tomas Palacios, executive editor at HarperPop, had already been eyeing the property, piqued by his daughter’s love of Toca Boca. While playing the game, she was giggling and having fun, he said, and she loved that she could create whatever she wanted to within the world.
HarperCollins has published books tied to interactive properties, including Roblox and Adopt Me, in the past. What sets this brand apart from other interactive IPs, according to Palacios, is the open-ended play pattern, meant to encourage creativity and self-expression. “Toca Boca is a unique license, just in the game play,” he told PW. “Players go about the world how they see fit, and there are infinite possibilities. It’s a different experience for everyone. And it’s like the universe—it keeps expanding.”
The look-and-feel of Toca Boca’s world was also attractive to the HarperPop team. “It’s a colorful, playful aesthetic,” said Palacios, who noted that Spin Master and Toca Boca took the time to develop an impressive style guide. “They’re painting such a picture, you look at the style guide and the formats just come to mind.”
The first title is Welcome to Toca Boca: Sticker & Activity Book, to be published in the U.K. and U.S. in April 2026. This is a deluxe 48-page sticker and activity book with 600-plus stickers and lots of content to allow fans to express themselves, mirroring the play pattern of the game. Farshore will follow up with two more titles in 2026: Dream Life Colouring Book in May and Find Your Style Sticker Book in July. In the U.S., HarperPop will follow up Welcome to Toca Boca with a Look and Find title, a key format across all of the company’s licenses, and a doodle book with creative prompts, both in 2027. Overall, HarperCollins’s and Farshore’s lists for Toca Boca will be very similar, with both developing titles for their respective markets and sharing many of them with each other for localized publication.
More coloring and activity titles will be forthcoming beyond the initial list, and Palacios believes there could be opportunities for story-driven formats, as well as room for expansion to fans younger and older than the current sweet spot of ages 9–12. (The Look and Find format is already broader, reaching kids from ages five to 13.) While nothing specific is planned yet, he cited I Can Read Comics, Pick a Story choose-your-adventure-style chapter books, and graphic novels as possibilities.
Teacher Created Materials Pairs with Mattel for First Licensing Deal
Teacher Created Materials has acquired a multi-year license with Mattel to publish curriculum-aligned workbooks and flashcards tied to several of the toy company’s brands, starting with Barbie and Hot Wheels. TCM has negotiated content agreements with partners including the Smithsonian and Time for Kids, but this is its first-ever brand-licensing deal.
Mattel approached TCM to gauge its interest in creating licensed titles based on its IPs. “The workbook and activity-based space is something we’ve been paying close attention to as families look for more hands-on, educational ways to engage with the brands they love,” said Ryan Ferguson, Mattel’s global head of publishing. “Workbooks and learning materials give families another touchpoint where play, creativity, and skill-building intersect. We’ve had select activity and learning titles over the years, but this is our most focused and comprehensive entry into the category.”
As for TCM, “our mission is to make learning fun, and that’s a core value in everything we do,” Kyra Ostendorf, publisher of trade at Teacher Created Materials, told PW. “This is a fabulous opportunity to do that. And it will help us reach new audiences outside the more traditional educational market with our great content.”
The program will start with five workbooks (for preschool, preK, kindergarten, and grades 1 and 2) and flash cards for Barbie and Hot Wheels, respectively, with both programs designed for kids three to eight. The first Barbie products, under the Barbie Dream School theme, come out in April, followed by the Hot Wheels range, tied to the Netflix TV series Hot Wheels Let’s Race, in August. All include literacy and math exercises, as well as some age-appropriate science and social studies material.
TCM supplies the educational content, which is accompanied by photographs and illustrations and is fully branded to the Mattel properties, with the characters and other brand elements appearing on every page. In the Barbie books, for example, Barbie and friends speak to the reader, with text bubbles asking questions or showing encouragement. “Our goal from the very beginning was to engage with children who might not want to sit down with a workbook,” Ostendorf said.
“Our brands definitely bring strong built-in audiences, but each one also has a clear purpose that naturally ties into learning,” Ferguson added. “The Barbie brand is all about inspiring the limitless potential in every girl, and the Hot Wheels brand ignites and nurtures the challenger spirit that lives within every kid in order to overcome obstacles.”
Products tied to additional Mattel properties—which include Fisher Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, and many more—are being developed for future seasons under this multiyear deal.
TCM’s primary retail channel is educational resellers—who have the right under the contract to bundle the books with other branded products, such as backpacks—but Ostendorf hopes the license spurs sales into traditional retail channels as well. While the products are designed to reach parents and kids at home, Ostendorf has also had conversations with TCM’s direct-to-school sales team and some of the company’s educational resellers that suggest there might be opportunities in schools as well, such as for after-school programs or as summer take-homes. “We see them more as additional resources rather than a core classroom product,” Ostendorf said.
TCM would consider additional licenses if the right one presented itself, according to Ostendorf. “There’s not a lot of red tape here, so if an opportunity comes along we’re ready to grab it,” she said.
Record-Breaking Zootopia 2 Inspires Tie-Ins, Original Storytelling
Random House Children’s Books has published a range of tie-ins to Disney’s Zootopia 2, which released on November 26. It was also the lead publisher for the original Zootopia, which premiered in March 2016.
“The world of the Zootopia films has offered us rich opportunities to engage readers with action, adventure, humor, and mystery,” said Chris Angelilli, senior VP and editor-in-chief, licensed publishing, at Random House Children’s Books. “We are huge fans of the original movie, so it’s been a treat to jump back into the world with retellings across multiple formats, and original storytelling to come in 2026.”
Among the Random House titles now available are Disney Zootopia 2: The Junior Novelization; a Little Golden Book tie-in; an 8x8 storybook, Dream Team; a jacketed picture book, Ready in a…Flash!; and Better Together and Zoo Crew (Step into Reading levels 2 and 3, respectively).
The picture book, which stars the film’s sloth, Flash, is a new format for the Zootopia publishing program. Other new initiatives for the franchise include a graphic novel, Disney Zootopia: The Graphic Novel, which was released in September in advance of the sequel, and The Curious Cases of Hopps and Wilde, a new original chapter book mystery series that follows the ongoing adventures of the films’ two lead characters, detectives Judy and Nick. The first novel is The Bling Sting, with a second, The Treasure Haunt, to follow. “Zootopia has proven to be an evergreen franchise, and we believe that children will want to read more about these characters for years to come,” Angelilli said.
The full Zootopia 2 publishing program also includes The Art of Zootopia 2 from Chronicle Books, Zootopia 2 Book and Magnetic Playset from Readerlink’s Studio Fun imprint, Zootopia 2 Ultimate Sticker Book from DK, and Zootopia 2 Busy Book from Phidal.
“Disney Publishing’s holistic Zootopia 2 program builds on the world and characters audiences love and meets readers at every age and stage—from storybooks and inventive coloring and activity formats to chapter books and graphic novels,” said Elizabeth Ansfield, editorial franchise lead for Zootopia 2 at Disney Publishing.
The film achieved 91% critic and 96% fan ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and generated $915 million in box-office receipts—and counting—after its first two weekends in theaters, with its global opening-weekend take representing the highest ever for an animated film. “The scale and creativity of this program reflect the cross‑generational reach and the rich storytelling potential of the world of Zootopia, reinforced by the new film’s critically acclaimed, record‑setting global box‑office debut,” Ansfield said.
In Brief
The Lumistella Company, home of the book-and-toy-based The Elf on the Shelf franchise, launched a new YouTube TV series, Scout Elf Squad, as well as a music video for the song “The Elves Went Over the Mountain,” featuring the characters from the new show. A 10-song album will launch on Spotify, with accompanying videos for each song releasing on the Elf on the Shelf YouTube channel.... Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: The Musical, for children ages three to nine, launched in September at the Seattle Children’s Theater and is now on a 23-city tour of the U.S. The Simon & Schuster property, based on the book by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert, is represented for licensing by Moxie & Co. P3 Productions, Seattle Children’s Theater, and Moxie & Co.’s founder Arlene Scanlan are producing the show.... Spin Master acquired the Swedish kids’ book app Lylli, launched in 2020. The reading and storytelling platform features content from publishers and creators aimed at children ages two through nine. Spin Master also owns Piknik, a subscription platform for games and learning experiences.... Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide, a creative production company founded in 2023 by former Marvel publisher John Nee, former IDW editor-in-chief John Barber, and former IDW business manager Nate Murray, released Marvel: Behind the Panels of Secret Wars, in collaboration with Marvel Comics. The 300-page deluxe hardcover art book, which launched on Kickstarter, features hundreds of illustrations and is a deep dive into the development of the 2015 Secret Wars comic crossover event.... Dynamite Comics is bringing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the 1997–2023 TV series, along with its spin-off series Angel, back into the comics realm, under license from Disney’s 20th Television. Kelly Thompson will write both series, which will be interconnected.
