  Puffin
Books Celebrates 60 Years of Breaking New Ground
In September 2001, Puffin Books celebrates its first 60 years
as a revolutionary publisher of children’s books. Back in
1941, Puffin published its first storybook — Worzel Gummidge
by Barbara Euphan Todd — and made headlines as the first
publisher of paperback books for children. In doing so, like its
parent company Penguin, Puffin fundamentally made owning books
and the experience of reading available to many families for the
first time. But that was only the beginning of the story.
Puffin has always sought to break the mould and expand notions
of what a "children’s book" might be. In 1942,
Puffin gave readers the first children’s fiction title to
depict a working-class home — Eve Garnett’s The Family
From One End Street. In 1956, Puffin published the first children’s
novel to convey the experience of World War Two — Ian Serraillier’s
The Silver Sword. In 1973, readers were introduced to the
turmoil of the Irish troubles (combined with the melee of teenage
love) in The Twelfth Day of July, the first novel in Joan
Lingard’s Kevin and Sadie Quintet. And in 1997, Puffin
took a frank and unflinching look at drug abuse in Melvin Burgess’s
Junk.
Puffin hasn’t only broken the mould in its fiction publishing.
The picture book list has introduced such key titles as Eric Carrel’s
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Raymond Briggs’ the
Snowman, Father Christmas and Fungus the Bogeyman
and Janet and Allan Ahlbergs Each Peach Pear Plum and
Peep! amongst many other enduring favourites. Indeed, Puffin
was the first publisher of a paperback lift-the-flap title with
Eric Hill’s Where’s Spot? (1981).
It is not only through individual titles that Puffin has broken
the mould, but also by introducing new formats and embarking on
revolutionary marketing activity. In the 1960s, Puffin introduced
Peacocks, the first list of books specifically for teenagers.
In the early 1990s, Puffin presented readers with the first Modern
Classics series for children.
There was more fresh thinking in the way the company published
Richard Adams’ Watership Down in 1973. Puffin recognised
the dual interest in this title from child and adult readers and
published two editions — a Puffin and a Penguin.
The Puffin Book Club, created in 1967 was designed by Puffin’s
then Editor Kaye Webb to bring children into a "living relationship"
with books. In the 1980s, one of Puffin’s biggest achievements
was growing the audience for poetry in schools. This was done
by not merely publishing key works by the freshest of poets —
Joan Agard, Allan Ahlberg, Roger McGough, Grace Nicholls, Brian
Patten, Michael Rosen, Kit Wright - but by actively taking poets
in schools to perform their work in front of young audiences.
Puffin is always seeking new ways to interact with its readers.
Puffin was the first UK children’s book publisher to launch
a dedicated website — www.puffin.co.uk
— in 1996. And in 2001, Puffin became the first (and, to
date, only) children’s publisher to commission a TV advert
- for the books of Roald Dahl.
Puffin’s current and future publishing demonstrates the
company’s continuing creative vigour and ability to touch
readers’ minds, nerves and hearts. 2001 has already seen
Puffin author Beverley Naidoo winning the Carnegie Medal for The
Other Side of Truth and the much talked-about debut of Eoin
Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl. The autumn brings the eagerly
anticipated dream-team pairing of Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs
with The Adventures of Bert, and the memoirs of Puffin
favourite Dick King-Smith — Chewing the Cud.
Writing in The Observer recently, Robert McCrum observed
that "the child’s experience of the book is unique.
It is the most unselfconscious reading we shall ever do; yet at
the same time it shapes our consciousness, as no other reading
ever will. The books we read as children create an imaginary universe
from which we can never be quite free".
During its first 60 years, Puffin has led readers into some of
the most dazzling and challenging reaches of that universe. Puffin’s
mission to break new ground remains paramount. Who knows where
the journey will transport us to next?
Other Book World articles
Talk at Egmont byAnnie
Dalton 12 July 2001
ClearVision Helping young
braille readers
Young Readers UK 2001
Annie Everall
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