Ambitious publisher secures deals for Rainbow and The Next Step.
Boat Rocker Studios has become the latest licensor to sign a deal with children’s publisher, Sweet Cherry.
The partnership will see the company produce a range of books for Rainbow and The Next Step.
The global deal for nostalgia brand Rainbow covers all formats, including hand puppet books, sound books, novelty books, board books and gift books. The nursery style range, aimed at babies and infants, contains redrawn artwork and stories for little ones to explore, featuring the iconic characters from the cult children’s TV classic.
An initial range of three hand puppet books featuring Bungle, Zippy and George launched at London Book Fair this week on Sweet Cherry’s stand, and then at Bologna Book Fair on April 1.
The books will be available at retail from October, with more formats coming in 2020 and beyond.
Meanwhile, the deal for The Next Step covers the UK, Eire, Australia and Canada and is for annuals, journals, sticker activity books and junior novels.
The initial launch is for an annual/book including facts, tips, activities and quizzes, which will launch from October. Further formats will arrive from 2020.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with Sweet Cherry,” said Kate Schlomann, evp brand management and content marketing at Boat Rocker Studios. “They are experts in producing beautifully designed, engaging books for children and young adults and they have created more wonderful examples for Rainbow and The Next Step which we are sure will be a big hit.”
Abdul Thadha, md at Sweet Cherry, continued: “We were excited to be able to work on these books for this iconic preschool brand and hugely popular tween drama series.
“We’ve had a lot of fun designing them and hope we’ve captured the charm of the iconic characters Bungle, Zippy and George, and the energetic spirit of The Next Step.”
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