Scholastic and LEGO Company Announce Publishing Partnership

Posted on June 25, 2004

Scholastic, a publisher and distributor of children's books, has signed a publishing deal with the LEGO Company. As part of the agreement, Scholastic will have rights to publish a wide range of formats based on LEGO intellectual properties, throughout the world. Scholastic has acquired world English rights.

The relationship between Scholastic and the LEGO Company began in November 2003 with the publication of books based on Bionicle. In spring '05, under this new agreement, Scholastic will begin publishing books based on LEGO Knights' Kingdom, a new line of construction sets due to launch in the summer of 2004. Much like Bionicle, Knights' Kingdom is a toy line with a rich back-story consisting of an adventure centered around a quest. Scholastic will create books including readers, sticker books and activity books. In fall '05, Scholastic the LEGO Company plan to introduce books based on Clikits, LEGO's girl fashion craft property and their Alpha Team series -- a line of spy/adventure toys -- as well as core LEGO brand construction toys and LEGO Duplo preschool products.

"Scholastic has been a strong and successful partner in spreading the Bionicle story to kids around the world," said Stephanie Lawrence, director of global licensing, LEGO Company. "Scholastic was my first and only choice for developing a broader presence for the LEGO brand in the publishing category, and I am thrilled to be extending our relationship beyond Bionicle to include other LEGO characters and properties that will engage children's imaginations through reading."