Boat Rocker Studios Inks Book Deal with Sweet Cherry

Boat Rocker Studios has signed a deal with children’s publisher Sweet Cherry to produce a range of books for classic children’s show Rainbow and CBBC reality-style teen drama The Next Step.

The global deal for Rainbow covers a wide variety of books aimed at babies and infants, including hand puppet books, sound books, novelty books, board books and gift books. The deal for The Next Step covers the U.K., Eire, Australia and Canada and will include annuals, journals, sticker activity books and junior novels.

Rainbow’s initial launch will include three hand puppet books featuring a trio of characters from the show, Bungle, Zippy and George, and will take place at the London Book Fair today, March 12, and continue at the Bologna Book Fair on April 1. The books will be available in stores beginning in October, with more of the collection rolling out in 2020.

The Next Step’s initial launch is for an annual/“book of fun,” a fan-based book full of facts, tips, activities and quizzes about the show. It will be available at retail beginning in October, with further formats to come in 2020.

Kate Schlomann, executive VP of brand management and content marketing at Boat Rocker, said: “We are delighted to be teaming up with Sweet Cherry. They are experts in producing beautifully designed, engaging books for children and young adults, and they have created more wonderful examples for Rainbow and The Next Step which we are sure will be a big hit.”

Abdul Thadha, Sweet Cherry’s managing director, said: “We were excited to be able to work on these books for this iconic preschool brand and hugely popular tween drama series. We’ve had a lot of fun designing them and hope we’ve captured the charm of the iconic characters Bungle, Zippy and George, and the energetic spirit of The Next Step.”