Gemini Books Group recently announced the launch of Gemini Children’s Books, a new trade children’s publisher. A creative, experienced and long-established team, Gemini Children’s Books will publish illustrated picture books, non-fiction, gift and activity books. We asked publisher Dan Graham to answer some questions, and here are his fabulous answers.

Huge congratulations on the launch of Gemini Children’s Books. Please talk us through your journey so far and how this new imprint came to be.
Marcus Leaver, formerly president of Sterling Publishing, CEO of The Quarto Group and Co-Founder of the Welbeck Publishing Group, formed Gemini Books Group, with the acquisitions of Imagine That!, Palazzo Editions, Ad Lib Publishers, Mardle Books and Pimpernel Press. With the energy of a start-up, and a publishing pedigree spanning over twenty-five years, Gemini Children’s Books is the children’s imprint for the group. Our first titles will publish in September in the UK, US, and Australia and we can’t wait to share our picture books, non-fiction, novelty and activity books with children around the world!

Describe Gemini Children’s Books in three words.
Ingenious, interactive and fun!

And what will Gemini Children’s Books stand for? What’s your editorial ethos?
Every Gemini Children’s book is created through the lens of a child. What will the child think, feel and learn when they choose one of our books? Will it spark curiosity to pursue a new line of inquiry relating to the world or a new craft, hobby, or skill. Most importantly, will the book empower the reader and nurture their emotional intelligence. Alongside, standard considerations like safety and costs, the creative process for the creation of all Gemini Books starts with the question; will children choose our books and are they worthy of their time (& fun!). If the answer is a resounding ‘yes!’, then a concept has the potential to be a Gemini Children’s book and we’ll develop it.

Some of the series of books you are working on sound absolutely wonderful. Share some of them with us please and how they came to be developed?
Interactivity is woven into the DNA of the children’s editors and designers and most of our books! Whether it's through transforming pictures, pull-tabs, wheels, flaps, play pieces, felt trails or magic searchlights, our children’s books are designed to stimulate the senses as well as the cerebellum! The children’s team is a close-knit group of creatives split into three specialised teams with a focus on our core categories of publishing. Regular R&D sessions, group brainstorming, and break-out sessions to explore how ideas might work when translated to ink, paper and printing presses all form part of our development process.

For our 2024 launch list, I am particularly proud of our Magic Searchlight series (inspired by the old school method of making printer’s book plates from film) that allows children to learn natural history facts and stats whilst searching for hidden items using an integral torch. I am also very excited by our empowering Transforming Picture range of non-fiction. In You Can Save Planet Earth, children can learn proactive skills for helping to reverse many of the adverse man-made impacts on our planet and can see the positive effects of their actions by turning the special transforming pages that metamorphose the scenes from negative to positive outcomes.

What other brilliant books are you launching with?
Original Picture Books like Donut Touch and Bear’s Book of Calm and a series of rhyming superstar board books called Lullaby Legends are other key titles in the launch list, alongside innovative STEM 3D modelling kits and a whole raft of novelty and activity books. Brian Bilston’s Refugees poem also deserves a special mention. His iconic forward and backward poem about the plight of refugees is a perfect book to help challenge misconceptions relating to forced human migration and provides an alternative way of looking at the world – perfect for kickstarting conversations at home, in schools, and in the wider community.

We have seen where you work, what a breathtaking backdrop and brilliant home for creativity. Tell us about your location, and have you got any jobs? ;-)
We’re incredibly lucky to work on the banks of the River Deben in Suffolk, UK. We also have offices in Great Portland Street in London, but all team members enjoy spending time in our Woodbridge HQ and the opportunities it affords for beautiful riverside walks and even the group wild swimming (if the weather and tide play ball!).

Who would you invite to your dream literary party?
Tough, tough question! As I don’t have infinite seating, I think I’ll have to keep the gathering small, eclectic, but perfectly formed.

William Shakespeare – who wouldn’t want to spend time with the Bard!

John Keats – I’ve always loved his poetry and a different poem surfaces in my mind with the passing of each season. From To Autumn to Ode to a Nightingale, you can’t beat a bit of Romantic lyric poetry!

Philip Pullman - I love his Dark Materials world and cannot wait for the final instalment of The Book of Dust later this year. I would invite Lyra, too, but that may be considered cheating!

Alice Walker – I studied her books for my undergraduate dissertation and could talk about the characterisation and symbolism in her books for days!

Sarah J Maas – a high fantasy heroine that is sometime maligned but that has single-handedly ignited reading groups around the world! I’ve only read the Throne of Glass series but her ability to spin interconnected narrative threads that span multiple books is excellent, as is her ability to capture her readerships' attention and loyalty.

Zora Neale Hurston – I encountered Hurston’s work whilst researching and writing artist biographies for The Art of the Harlem Renaissance exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. The power and vibrant prose of Their Eyes Were Watching God has remained with me ever since!

Tell us a secret about books….
They are magic, cunningly disguised as ink on paper.

@geminibooksgp

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