FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 2, 2019 - Highlights for Children and Kane Press announced today that Highlights for Children has sold Boyds Mills Press and its affiliated imprints, Calkins Creek and WordSong, to Kane Press. The new company will be known as Boyds Mills & Kane and will be headquartered in the Kane Press offices in New York City. The new ownership is effective immediately.
“I am overjoyed to welcome the Boyds Mills imprints into the Kane Press family,” says Kane Press Publisher, Juliana Lauletta. “As Boyds Mills & Kane, we are committed to working closely with our talented authors, illustrators, and agents, and to continuing our mission of creating amazing books for kids, young adults, and kids-at-heart.”
Boyds Mills Press was launched in 1990 by Kent Brown, grandson of the founders of Highlights, to add trade book publishing to the company’s portfolio. The decision by Highlights to sell the BMP imprints reflects an increased focus on its growing branded business. “BMP has been an important, vibrant part of the Highlights legacy of serving kids and families,” says Mary-Alice Moore, SVP, Publisher of the Highlights Retail Group. “But the expansion of our Highlights branded businesses—in publishing, licensing, digital, and international—means we are no longer able to devote the appropriate strategic attention and resources that the BMP books so richly deserve. We are heartened by Kane’s commitment to the long-term success of the books and authors and illustrators we love. Although we are sad to lose the BMP imprints from our portfolio, we are committed to the continued growth of our Highlights Press and Highlights Learning book imprints.”
Key BMP staff will move to the new company: Carolyn Yoder, Senior Editor of Calkins Creek; Rebecca Davis, Senior Editor of BMP and WordSong; Barbara Grzeslo, Art Director; Kerry McManus, Marketing Manager; and Suzy Krogulski, Assistant Editor. “The chance to join Boyds Mills Press with Kane Press to create a single company focusing solely on book publishing was an incredible opportunity for us,” Lauletta says. “Our shared goals of compelling storytelling and wonderful artwork for both fiction and nonfiction books are at the center of our imprints’ Venn diagram and make this acquisition feel like a perfect fit.”
Echoing Lauletta’s statements, Leying Jiang, President of Kane Press, adds, “As part of the international publishing business under our parent company, Thinkingdom Media Group, we are particularly excited about the great opportunities of leveraging our unique resouces and taking Boyds Mills & Kane books into a broader market.”
With assets across five distinct imprints—Boyds Mills Press, Calkins Creek, Kane Press, StarBerry Books, and WordSong—the Boyds Mills & Kane library comprises nearly one thousand titles in print, many of which are recipients of starred reviews and prestigious awards and honors, including the Sibert Medal as well as Newbery, Printz, Coretta Scott King, and Geisel honors.
The new business entity’s name is Thinkingdom, Ltd., doing business as Boyds Mills & Kane. The company’s business operations will be overseen by President Leying Jiang, and Juliana Lauletta will serve as Publisher. Ordering information for all titles will remain the same.
Highlights was represented by Broadwater & Associates, an investment banking firm specializing in the media and information industries.
About Boyds Mills Press
Established in 1990, Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers. Boyds Mills Press’s picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction books focus on excellent storytelling, imaginative illustration, and strong characters. Authors and illustrators include Suzanne Bloom and Rebecca Kai Dotlich.
Calkins Creek, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2019, publishes nonfiction and historical fiction that introduces children to the many people, places, and events that have shaped U.S. history, presenting multiple points of view through original and extensive research. Calkins Creek authors include Sibert Medal–winner Larry Dane Brimner and Sibert Honor–winner Gail Jarrow. WordSong, established in 1990, is the only children’s imprint in the United States specifically dedicated to publishing poetry.
WordSong titles capture the vibrant, unexpected, and emotional connections between text and young readers. Some of the well-known poets who publish under the WordSong imprint include Nikki Grimes, Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Jane Yolen.
About Highlights
Devoted to Fun with a Purpose for over 70 years, global media brand Highlights (www.highlights.com) has helped millions of children foster their creativity and become their best selves. Its magazine portfolio includes the flagship Highlights magazine; Highlights High Five; High Five Bilingüe, an English/Spanish version of High Five; and Highlights Hello. Its branded book publishing program launched in 2013 with Highlights Press and has expanded to include Highlights Learning with distribution by Penguin Random House.
About Kane Press
Founded in 1992 by Joanne Kane, Kane Press is an award-winning publisher of fiction and nonfiction books for children ages 2 to 11. Connecting great stories with educational content is the focus of all Kane Press books. Kane Press is proud to have received several Teachers’ Choice Awards as well as recommendations from the Parents’ Choice Foundation and ILA’s Children’s Choices Reading List, among others.
StarBerry Books was created in 2018 to encourage diversity and children’s natural curiosity with picture books created by authors and artists from all over the globe. StarBerry titles have garnered a Junior Library Guild selection, a Kirkus starred review, and inclusion in CBC/Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year list.
About Thinkingdom Media Group
Thinkingdom Media Group is the parent company of Thinkingdom, Ltd., dba Boyds Mills & Kane. TMG is a publicly traded publishing and media company headquartered in Beijing.
Contact:
Leying Jiang, President
Thinkingdom, Ltd.
73 Peter Coutts Circle
Stanford, CA 94305
Tel: (650) 862-2566
ljiang@kanepress.com
Juliana Lauletta, Publisher
Boyds Mills & Kane
250 Park Ave., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10177
Tel: (646) 844-3485
jlauletta@kanepress.com
Mary-Alice Moore, SVP, Publisher
Highlights for Children
815 Church Street
Honesdale, PA 18431
Tel: (570) 251-4520
maryalice.moore@highlights.com
