Publisher Preview: Creative Editions (Fall 2025)

If 2025 on this site is to be remembered for anything, it may be for the fact that I’ve had more interesting and new publisher previews here than ever before. A veritable plethora of them! I like it. I like giving the little guys some of the attention. After all, I was just at the American Library Association Conference where the big fellas take out whole enormous rooms for their cocktail parties and mixers. Shouldn’t a smaller company like the Creative Company get a bit of the spotlight as well? I should think so.

Today we’ll look at what they have coming out in the latter part of the year. It’s not a huge list, but by gum it’s an interesting one.

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A Sense of Red by Kate Riggs, ill. Eleonora Pace

ISBN: 9781568464152

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

This illustrated board book was described as different enough from the other titles coming out of the “board book fire hose”. Why? Well, for one thing, this is a double concept book covering a single color as well as the five senses. It’s origins? Turns out, Pace is Italian. They called it, “lightly literary”, and the artist is a dog person (a fact that you may pick up on as you noticed how she managed to work more than a few into the book).

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Nosy! by Seymour Chwast

ISBN: 9781568464091

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

“An ode to the node.” If you know anything about design then you know the name “Seymour Chwast”. Now in his 80s, the man is still doing original work. For example, until this moment he’d never published a book on a first run in a board book format. Inside the book itself, you’ll find that it’s all about all things nose, both human and animal. It’s also printed in an almost perversely appealing shape. I mean, you get to use the nose to turn the pages! How cool is that?

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Baby, Let’s Go to the Orchestra! by Janna Matthies, ill. Monique Felix

ISBN: 9781568463858

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

Where do people get the ideas for their books? Well, it probably doesn’t hurt that Janna Matthies actually works with a symphony orchestra in Indianapolis. Her passion is getting kids to hear live orchestral music. In this very simple book, the whole thing works as an introduction to what you would encounter as hear the orchestra. The book has a rhyming text and offers a little preview of the different instruments, invoking a sense of them. Consider this an invitation to hear and play this type of music and engage in something that can (let’s face it) feel a little intimidating.

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Marie Curie in the Land of Science by Irene Cohen-Janca, ill. Claudia Palmarucci

ISBN: 9781568464008

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

An informational biography is a bit unique for Creative Editions. Still and all, this particular book was the Bologna Prize winner from a couple of years ago. Written for ages 9 and up, it’s the story of Marie Curie’s life in a mere 56 pages. It presents to you the story of how Marie grew up in Poland and came to Paris. Then we learn how she got into science, met her husband, and became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first PERSON to win a second Nobel Prize. The book even shows her during WWI, performing triage on the injured. All told the book is a big, hefty presentation, but its price is low. Best of all? They added backmatter to the original edition! Good for them!

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The Land of Faraway by Beth Kephart, ill. Olga Dugina

ISBN: 9781568464190

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

This is classic Creative Editions, complete with drop dead gorgeous illustrations. In fact, this book actually began with its illustrations. Olga, the illustrator, was a big fan of Italian fairy tales as a child. She grew up in a house with several volumes of them, and so it shouldn’t be surprising that she created this wildly romantic book inspired by that look and feel. In a slightly backwards way, Beth then wrote an English text for it. She turned it into a kind of dream-your-own-fairytale by asking a series of questions inspired by the art itself. How could you use this? Well, it could be ideal for a writing group because it’s so dreamy and lush. Still, I think of it more as a writing prompt picture book, much like The Mysteries of Harris Burdick! A full imagination at work.

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Baby Pterosaur by Julie Abery, ill. Gavin Scott

ISBN: 9798889880356

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

Now we’re going to shift gears and look at some of the Amicus titles. I’ve actually covered a fair number of these cute little dinosaur board books. Why? Because they’re shockingly good. It has something to do with their good readaloud texts and whimsome little critters. The stories themselves are so simple but I appreciate how the characters always get into the mildest of jeopardy. They’re cozy, or, as I was told, they are, “The mac and cheese of the board book universe.” We’re just showing Baby Pterosaur here, but also keep an eye peeled for Baby Spinosaurus.

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Winter Is the Worst! by Dan Tavis

ISBN: 9798889880165

Publication Date: October 7, 2025

Finally, we’re going to close up today with a little penguin that hates winter. Grumpy to his frozen little core, this penguin proceeds to tell us all about why he hates this season so much, including having to bundle up to the point of immobility, slipping on ice, snowballs, all that. He’s highly resistant… but he does very much like climbing up hills and going down on his sled. There’s a vertical panel of him doing this very thing.

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And that’s it! Special thanks to Anna Erickson, Ali Bryniarski, and the whole team for letting me know about their books.

Filed under: Publisher Previews