When Rachel Williams and Jenny Broom decided to team up and launch their own company publishing children\u2019s books, one of the first hurdles was a name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe love cats,\u201d Williams says. \u201cSo, we toyed with all sorts of names and landed on \u2018Magic Cat\u2019 because we feel that magic happens when you sit down with a young reader and pore over something that’s physical, on paper. We thought it was playful, and we think cats bring good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have three crazy cats between us as well,\u201d Broom adds. \u201cAnd that fed into the name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The early conversations heading into 2019 and entrepreneurial dreams of two long-time co-workers \u2013 who worked as part of teams at several publishing companies \u2013 have grown into an all-female-led venture with 29 employees, the release of about 50 books a year, and a recent Independent Publisher of the Year award from the British Book Awards. \u201cAfter a slow start working in the pandemic, we\u2019ve really come a long way,\u201d says Broom, who lives and works out of the Magic Cat offices in London. \u201cIt\u2019s been a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think our success has been because we have stayed true to our commitment to making the best books with authors and illustrators,\u201d says Williams, originally from Australia and who now lives in Norfolk in the UK. \u201cThat’s really at the heart of everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magic Cat\u2019s titles encompass a wide spectrum of topics \u2013 things kids naturally gravitate toward like the environment, fantasy worlds with wizards and goblins, mysteries and adventures \u2013 but Williams and Broom have also made nonfiction a focus of their publishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two have an uncanny knack for finding authors and illustrators who tell nonfiction stories in an interactive way, knowing that kids love to point and search and dive deep into puzzles, mazes, and games with their parents while learning something too. The illustrations are stunning and visually invigorating, such as the Brown Bear Wood<\/em>: It\u2019s Busy Down in the Woods Today (<\/em>by Rachel Piercey and Freya Hartas) <\/em>that harkens back to the Richard Scarry books of the 1970s with countless characters going about their daily activities in a woodland setting that functions like a city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We wanted something focused on the creative joy of books that didn’t just demand shareholder money each year. \u2014 Rachel Williams<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The company also branches out into more fiction-oriented stories like its Bearlock Holmes<\/em> mysteries by Kristyna Litten, but always with a backdrop of learning. And, of course, Williams and Broom are always looking for a perfect fit for bedtime reading, like 5 Minute Space Stories <\/em>(by Gabby Dawnay and Mona K.), short stories that \u201cset out on a mission to explore different aspects of the universe; from how the Moon came to be, to the birth of a star and the immense, light-sucking darkness of a black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams authored one series herself, of which one book \u2013 Slow Down\u2026on Your Doorstep: Calming Nature Stories for Little Ones<\/em> \u2013 was featured in Literati\u2019s \u201cSubscription Box.\u201d Literati is continuing to work with Magic Cat on bringing more of the UK company\u2019s titles to its U.S. offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTheir books are very well packaged, very attractive and make you want to pick them up and dive in,\u201d says Aubrey Poole, Literati\u2019s editorial manager. Poole first encountered Magic Cat at the publisher\u2019s booth at the annual Bologna Children\u2019s Book Fair in Italy. \u201cThere was a book called 5-minute Nature Stories<\/em> that I picked up and started reading. It was nonfiction and intended for short stories at bedtime, but the whole thing was written like poetry but was still very accurate and scientific. I saw that theme resonate in their selections, and I started to go through their catalog and just got more and more impressed with the quality of their books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne would think nonfiction books would be seen by kids as dry, less interesting than an exciting adventure theme,\u201d Poole says. \u201cBut I love looking for authors and illustrators that find ways to get kids drawn into nonfiction and interact with the content, get engaged with it to make it more fun and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams and Broom call each other \u201cwork wives\u201d based on their years together serving different roles at publishing houses in England. The constant collaboration is a foundation for not burning out on their business, since support from a friend is continual, Broom says. They also credit their current success to children\u2019s book author and publisher Amanda Wood, a founding editor and publisher of Templar Books, itself an award-winning children\u2019s book publisher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen Jen and I first started talking about the business, we pulled her in and said, \u2018Let’s start a female owned and operated company,\u201d Williams recalls. \u201cWe wanted something focused on the creative joy of books that didn’t just demand shareholder money each year. We felt this independent spirit and love of the bookmaking process that would be more than simply moneymaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe started out with a really strong kind of reputation for making nonfiction,\u201d Broom says. The duo commissioned the Little People Big Dreams<\/em>, a biography series that delves into the lives of key figures from history from the world of science, the arts, sports and culture, with an emphasis on showing children how their understanding of the world changes through time with these real-life portraits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had this very solid understanding of how we could translate traditional nonfiction into something children can enjoy\u2026 content that gets their brains going,\u201d Broom says. \u201cBut as a parent, we realized that sometimes it can be helpful to have a narrative bolted onto the content so that you’ve got a beginning, middle, and end.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams and Broom, both mothers of children at the perfect age to engage with their books, say they have a \u201ccaptive audience\u201d to \u201croad test\u201d their work, but their parent friends are also a constant source of feedback. \u201cIt’s a really privileged position to be in, and we’re having a blast doing it,\u201d Broom says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of how much creative thinking the two put into selecting books to publish, Williams says that, in the end, it\u2019s about channeling the creative work of writers and illustrators to reach young minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broom agrees. \u201cI think we’re particularly interested in working with people with a message,\u201d she says. \u201cWe want to take somebody’s passion and channel that into a young reader and create the next generation of interested people engaging with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n