Award-winning Cardiff indie Candy Jar Books has acquired the rights to publish brand new books based on the classic children’s animation series The Raccoons.
For children who grew up in the mid-’80s, early ’90s The Raccoons was required viewing. Mixing anarchic humour with great storytelling, this classic Canadian animation TV series focused on the exploits of Bert Raccoon, his best friend Cedric Sneer, Melissa and Ralph, Schaeffer the dog, and, of course, the dastardly pink aardvark, Cyril Sneer.
Created by Kevin Gillis, The Raccoons was originally shown in the UK on the BBC. Although the show first hit screens in 1985, its message still resonates today. With Over 80% of young people eager to take action to help the environment, the stories about the greedy aardvark millionaire Cyril Sneer, who regularly tried to destroy the natural balance of the Evergreen Forest in his quest to make a fortune, are more relevant than ever.
Over the years The Raccoons TV company, Run With Us Productions, has signed a number of licensing deals including t-shirts, hoodies, games, toys, hot cocoa, mugs, as well as colouring and activity books, but it has never ventured into children’s novels, until now. Kevin says: “We’re delighted to be working with Candy Jar Books in releasing a set of stories featuring the Raccoons, and the characters of the Evergreen Forest, for the very first time. Candy Jar has brought together a great team of well-known authors to write these novels. They have done an incredible job capturing the drama, mystery and comedy of the series for a great co-reading book experience.”
The three books (Cry Wolf!, The One That Got Away and Blast from the Past!) are written by John Peel (author of Eerie Indiana, Are You Afraid the Dark, The Secret World of Alex Mack, The Lucy Wilson Mysteries and Doctor Who), Iain McLaughlin (the former editor of Britain’s longest-running comic, The Beano, and author of books based on The Tomorrow People, Dennis the Menace and Doctor Who), and Chris McGuire (who produced the Hannah Montana spin-off series, Hannah-Oke, launched Hacker T Dog, and developed and wrote the BAFTA-winning Me:TV and Emmy-winning Pet School for CBBC).
The books are specifically created to encourage parents to read along with their children. Each easy-read novel has seven chapters, one for each day of the week. Alongside this, the books feature QR codes which allow the reader to access additional interactive video and music content.
The Raccoons TV series has recently been restored and remastered from the original 35mm films to 4K and relaunched on BritBox/ITVX and The Roku Channel. Kevin concludes: “The UK and Ireland were two of the first countries to partner with The Raccoons back when we first launched in the 1980s. We have incredible fans here, and these new books, alongside the BritBox/ITVX and Roku Channel episodes, will help Bert, Cedric, Melissa, Ralph, Schaeffer, Broo and Cyril reach a twenty-first-century audience.”
Candy Jar Books will be releasing Cry Wolf!, The One That Got Away and Blast from the Past! on March 28th 2024. The titles will be distributed by the Books Council of Wales, and will be available from Gardners, Peters, Waterstones, Amazon and your local independent bookstore.
www.candyjarbooks.co.uk