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Walker plots picture book push

03.08.07 Caroline Horn

Walker Books is to double its picture book output to 30 titles a year from 2008, in a bold move that underscores the company’s growing confidence in the market. It will also extend its picture book backlist into new formats, including a board game.

The push is led by a new deal with acclaimed Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao, who has sold more than five million books worldwide and will make his ­children’s début with author Joyce Dunbar in The Monster Who Ate Darkness (October 2008). Walker Books picture book publisher Deirdre McDermott hailed the acquisition as “the picture book signing of the decade”.

Other signings include new books from established authors and illustrators including Anthony Browne, Michael Rosen and John Burningham. The Guess How Much I Love You series will be extended, with four new seasonal titles from Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram, beginning in spring 2008. Burningham will publish his first new Walker picture book for 14 years, Cat Flap, at the end of next year.

Lesley Agnew, manager of The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, said the move would help specialists and independents. “The choice has been declining for the past 18 months [but] our sales of picture books have always been strong.”

Meanwhile, Walker is also continuing its move into new non-book formats, including board games branded with picture book contents. The first game, based on We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, will launch in October and a new game will follow each year.

UK sales director Jane Harris said it will focus on selling the board game through the book trade, rather than the toy market: “We want to support the retailers who have helped establish these authors and titles.” The publisher has already developed a number of its picture books into DVDs.

Childrens Walker Books

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