Scholastic, a longtime North American publishing licensee for Peppa Pig, has been named the publishing partner for Learn with Peppa in the U.S. and Canada. The global brand extension first launched in the U.K. in January under license from Hasbro, with Penguin Random House imprint Ladybird being the global master licensee outside North America. The program also includes a dedicated website, learnwithpeppa.com, and a Hasbro-produced app.
“We’ve had so much fun with Peppa for so many years now, and we love a good brand extension,” Debra Dorfman, Scholastic’s v-p and publisher, global licensing, media, and brands told Publisher's Weekly.
“When Hasbro presented it to us, we saw that it integrated story with all of these different pillars of learning, and that made sense to us.” She noted that all Peppa stories have some sort of life lesson, and that Scholastic has published more overtly educational titles in the past that have done well. But the umbrella brand and the learning framework that Hasbro and Ladybird developed in coordination with educational experts set this program apart, she said. “It’s a good fit for our supplemental school channels, but it’s a great trade program as well.”
Ladybird launched with a full array of more than 80 titles, but Scholastic’s calendar will be more measured. The first title, 5-Minute Phonics, will release in May. This is a new format at Scholastic, a 96-page reader with five stories and five activities, that is also being married with other properties, including Pokémon and Gabby’s Dollhouse. A math-based abacus book will be released in the fall, with a social emotional learning title and a preschool science title (allowing young readers to get to know the world around them) in 2024.
The latter two will be 8x8s for the school channel, but the retail version will likely be slightly different. “We want a way to differentiate it from the regular Peppa 8x8 program,” Dorfman said. “There will be a clear message about the educational theme, so parents will know there’s a learning concept.” Many of the titles in the program will be U.S. adaptations of Ladybird titles, but there are likely to be some titles created specifically for the U.S. market as well.
The Learn with Peppa framework covers seven preschool-appropriate categories of learning: the body, creativity, math, English/reading, emotions, our world/science, and community. Michael Kelly, Hasbro’s v-p of global publishing, said the program, being worldwide in scope, is not tied to a specific curriculum, as those vary by country, state, and local district. “But it’s more in-depth than the soft learning that you see with traditional ABCs and 123s,” he said. “There’s a progression and it measures stages of learning, so parents can evaluate their child’s progress.”
Meanwhile, Scholastic’s regular Peppa Pig program continues, with a minimum of seven titles per year plus some exclusive titles for the school market; 8x8s, readers, and novelty books are at the core. Proprietary titles are also developed for Costco and Sam’s. “Peppa’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Dorfman said. “Everybody loves Peppa.”
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