What core principles define Annick?

When Anne Millyard and I founded the company 50 years ago, we had a value system based on supporting the contemporary child. That’s what we do to this day, even though the issues and our readership have shifted. I’ve been mindful that our multicultural world be reflected in our publishing program and editorial team.

What initiatives have helped you diversify your list of creators?

We’ve established a mentorship program to bring LGBTQ2SIA people, people with disabilities, and BIPOC writers into publishing, and it’s been phenomenal. We’ve had close to 500 applications, and we’ve published eight of the people we’ve mentored.

How do you approach the education and school library markets?

We have an arrangement with Saunders Book Company, an educational distributor in Collingwood, Ontario, and in the U.S. we work with educational wholesalers. We know where our books fit with curriculum, and we produce teacher’s guides for everything. Were trade books to be used in the classroom, the educational outcomes would be so much greater.

How do you reach Annick’s young audience across formats?

For all the good work being done by librarians, by educators, we’re losing our reading public, and that’s really frightening. Whatever we can do to expose kids to stories and literature, we’ll take a shot at it. We’re into all the formats. We’re trying to do virtually everything in audio. It’s going to take a while to build, but I’m committed to making the case for reading.