The children's
wing of
Penguin Books, created in 1939 when
Noel Carrington met the
Penguin's founder
Allen Lane with an idea for a series of
children's
non-fiction picture books. The
decision to accept them took just two minutes.
The first Puffin picture books were published in 1940 and enjoyed immense success, showing the enormous potential of children's books among the more adult-oriented titles usually associated with Penguin. Puffin story books followed in 1941 starting with Worzel Gummidge by Barbara Euphan Todd.
Now celebrating their sixtieth birthday, Puffin Books remain at the forefront of children's publishing throughout the English-speaking world with a history of titles including the Narnia series, Babe the Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith, the oft-cloned Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebooks created Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson and all of Roald Dahl's children's fiction.
They also specialise in media tie-ins and has relationships with a number of major film studios, including Disney and Dreamworks as well as licensing agreements for character properties like Digimon.
research thanks: www.puffin.co.uk