Disney kicks off a year-long Winnie-the-Pooh campaign

The Mouse House will support Pooh’s 100th anniversary with a year-long brand campaign of consumer products collabs and new publishing titles throughout 2026. Licensees launching SKUs at retailers worldwide this month include LEGO (construction sets), Just Play (blind boxes), Kyte Baby (toddler apparel), Loungefly (backpacks and bags) and Wet Brush (beauty). Meanwhile, Random House Children’s Books, Insight Editions and DK are each publishing a new slate of books this year. 

Oggy and the Cockroaches renewed for a ninth season

France Télévisions has greenlit the next chapter of Xilam Animation’s tentpole 2D-animated comedy series. The 78 new seven-minute episodes are expected to deliver between Q3 2027 and Q2 2028, just in time to ring in the franchise’s 30th anniversary. 

Isadora Moon to get a big book push

Kelebek Media is collaborating with Oxford Children’s to launch a TV tie-in publishing range for its 2D-animated comedy series Isadora Moon. A first range of four picture books and four activity books will drop at retailers worldwide in May, followed by 14 additional titles for early readers in September. The partners plan to release a total of 32 licensed books within the next two years. 

Epic adds Nick franchises to its digital library

The digital reading platform has inked a deal with Nickelodeon to bring existing books and comics featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender, SpongeBob SquarePants, PAW Patrol, Dora the Explorer and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into its catalogue. Epic currently features more than 40,000 titles, audiobooks and learning videos for kids, and has licensing agreements in place with Scholastic, Sesame Workshop, National Geographic and Curious George. 

Peter Pan and Neverland gains a new publisher

Rights owner Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Charity has appointed Simon & Schuster as the IP’s new publisher in the UK. S&S will create and launch its Peter Pan program later this year, spanning illustrated retellings of the original 1904 tale and an assortment of picture books and fiction novels. At the heart of the plan is a new book series for middle-graders by children’s authors Katie and Kevin Tsang (Dragon Mountain) that will kick off with a first title called The Neverland Thieves on September 24. In the public domain stateside and across most of Europe, J.M. Barrie’s original Peter Pan play has a copyright exception in the UK that will never expire, allowing GOSH to collect royalties from companies that license the IP’s iconic characters.