Tag Archives: books

Beano partners with World Book Day to support its Share A Million Stories campaign

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Beano has partnered with World Book Day this March 5 to support its Share A Million Stories campaign for a special edition, one-off comic strip titled A Million Stories in One.

The special strip sees Dennis reading and mashing up classic children’s tales to entertain Bea and Gnasher all in the name of World Book Day. It’s part of the charity’s own campaign calling on kids and families to Share a Million Stories during World Book Day month, running from February to March 29th.

 Alongside the special strip, Beano.com will feature a Story-O-Meter which provides kids with the building blocks to create their own stories. The online tool allows children to use millions of combinations of characters, objects and places to make their very own creations. They will then be asked to share their story with a member of their family or a friend so they can be added to Beano’s totaliser and World Book Day’s Share a Million Stories national total.

The partnership between Beano and the charity builds on Beano’s own rich, 80 year history of championing stories and reading through its use of visual story-telling and humour.

 Research from the 2013 study Books Beyond Time has shown that parents reading with their children for as little as 10 minutes a day can make a significant difference to a child’s achievement levels, while it is according to Egmont’s Print Matters More Study in 2017 that shared reading has the single biggest impact on a child’s independent reading habits.

It’s why World Book Day is calling on everyone in the UK and Ireland to share stories for 10 minutes a day in schools, libraries, bookshops, at home, everywhere and anywhere, to Share a Million Stories together.

 Children can use their £1 token to get a free World Book Day book or get £1 off any book or audiobook from tomorrow, Thursday 27th February. The aim is to get the nation behind the goal of smashing the target and log their story shares at https://www.worldbookday.com/share-a-million-stories/.

Over 400,000 children are already registered. 

Emma Scott, CEO of Beano Studios, said: “We are so happy to have partnered with World Book Day this year. Whether kids are enthusiastic or reluctant readers, Beano has always been a great comic-leap in helping kids to find great joy in reading.

“With World Book Day and our Beano Story-O-Meter at Beano.com, we are getting kids to carry on their reading adventures, so they can make their own stories and let their imaginations run wild.”

 Cassie Chadderton, CEO of World Book Day, added: “We know that children love comics, and that children are more likely to read more when they can choose what they read. World Book Day is very excited to be part of the Beano world, with Dennis, Bea and Gnasher all getting involved to help us Share a Million Stories.

“We hope they’ll inspire many more children to use their £1 World Book Day book token to choose a book of their own.” 

Book series that educates children through classic literature BabyLit jumps into licensing with ThinkTank Emporium

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The US book publishing house Gibbs Smith has partnered with The ThinkTank Emporium to begin development on an animated series and licensing programme for its bestselling babyLit and Little Leonardo book series.

Written by Jennifer Adams and illustrated by Alison Oliver, the BabyLit classics series consists of 30 board books aimed at kids from birth to three years old. It aims to teach developmental concepts through the lens of classic literature.

Take, for example, Pride and Prejudice. The book helps children count to ten through plot developments of the novel, beginning with One English Village, Four Marriage Proposals, Nine Ballgowns, and Ten Thousand Pounds.

Throughout the series, quotes from the original classics are often included next to the concepts. The BabyLit classic series extends to gift merchandise as well with totes, buttons, dolls, puzzles, and a memory matching game.

The BabyLit series currently has more than 50 titles in print, and over 2 million copies in sales. The books have been extremely popular at all levels of retail, including Costco, Target, Barnes & Noble, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many independent bookstores and gift shops.

Meanwhile, the Little Leonardo Series teaches STEAM concepts to kids aged four to eight, focusing on how STEAM affects every day life and introducing real life examples of STEAM heroes from history.

“People are realising that it’s never too young to start putting things in front of toddlers that are a little more meaningful, that have more levels,” said Suzanne Gibbs Taylor, creator of the BabyLit series and publisher/chief creative officer at Gibbs Smith.

“After the success of our books, the natural extension of the brand is to explore television opportunities. We are very excited to see what can be developed for BabyLit.”

Announcement of the partnership was made jointly by David Wollos and Joan Luks for The ThinkTank Emporium and Gibbs Smith, Publisher.

“We are pleased to be working with Gibbs Smith to bring the BabyLit and Little Leonardo series to a global audience via media platforms and licensed product opportunities. The sheer potential in all these areas for these properties is a wonderful asset for ThinkTank and its strategic relationship with Gibbs Smith,” said Wollos.