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Purple Ronnie creator Giles Andreae has sold the publishing rights for his first children’s brand, World of Happy, to Egmont Press following an auction between five publishing houses. “World of Happy” has already aired on CBBC as short, two-minute animations.
Lara Hancock, senior publisher of picture and gift books at Egmont Press, secured world rights for all books from Rosemary Canter at United Agents. At the time of going to press, a figure for the deal was not available.
Egmont plans to launch the series with 13 picture book titles in spring 2011. Hancock said: “It is unusual to publish this many picture book titles at once but we wanted to present the entire World of Happy, almost like the Mr Men books, and to make them very collectable.”
Each book will be created as a 32-page square paperback with flaps and will retail for £3.99. New books in different formats will be published later in 2011 and it is understood that a broader licensing programme will follow.
It is not yet clear if new episodes of World of Happy programmes will be commissioned by the BBC.
Hancock said: “It would be nice if that did happen but the books stand up on their own and don’t really feel like a licensed brand.”
Each book will tell a distinct story using different animal characters to support the “big idea” behind the brand which is to encourage children to view the world in an enthusiastic way and to position Andreae as an ambassador for happiness, said Egmont. Hancock added: “Giles’ big idea to establish World of Happy as the global brand for joy is genius.”
Andreae said: “I think it is possible that this could be significantly bigger than anything else I have done and if this is what I am remembered for, I will be happy. Children need to be encouraged to approach the world with joyfulness.”