Publisher Preview: Transit Editions (Fall/Winter 2026)

All right, folks! It’s that time again. The small publishers are assembling and already I have planned posts of upcoming Fall 2026 books coming from Nosy Crow, Eerdmans, Enchanted Lion, and everyone that Publisher’s Spotlight represents. But before we get to any of them, let’s kick things off with a view of Transit Editions’s children’s book imprint. If you were already wowed by the incredible The Muéganos earlier this year, then check out what else is slated to come out. It’s only three titles but, wowzah! Such doozies:

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Mr. Prickly by Betina Birkjaer, ill. Anna Margarethe Kjaergaard, translated by Lin Falk van Rooyen

ISBN: 9798893380712

Publication Date: July 7, 2026

Let’s kick things off with a Danish import from the author/illustrator duo behind the much lauded picture book Coffee Rabbit Snowdrop Lost (which won a Batchelder Honor amongst other things). In this story an anxious hedgehog has a lot of tasks to accomplish before winter hibernation. There’s raking leaves, and mending socks, and just this huge list of things to do! Who amongst you looks upon this list and doesn’t identify?

When things get even more stressful for him, Mr. Prickly decides to chill out, eat some cookies, and then get organized again. And hey, maybe the best thing to do with a lot of things is to multitask them all at once! Yeah. No. The result of such a plan is that as the wind picks up, it rushes into his house, blowing the words from his list all over the place so that the instructions don’t make sense anymore. They now tell him to “vacuum up the air” and “repair his wobbly mom”, etc. In the end, Mr. Prickly just sort of gives up and lies down listening to the beating of his own heart. When he wakes up, it’s spring, the sun is shining, and all the leaves he didn’t rake have blossomed into beautiful flowers. It’s a perfect little lesson for taking the time you need, even when you’re feeling stressed.

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Have You Ever Heard a Horse Sing? by Pauline Barzilaï, translated by Lindsay Turner

ISBN: 9798893380880

Publication Date: October 6, 2026

Awww. Just look at that hot pink punim. You gonna tell this horse you’re not gonna buy its book? Really?

So I can’t be the only person to notice that Dadaism is beginning to have a second life in the world (the popularity of the band Angine de Poitrine is a nice example of this). In a time of AI, people are glomming onto art that only humans could make. And yes, that applies to surrealist picture books as well. Meet French author/illustrator Barzilaï. Utilizing a very nice use of pink, this may be the funniest animal sounds book you’ve seen in a long long time. Remember the picture book version of What Does the Fox Say? Consider this close kin. Young readers are encouraged to reimagine and reconsider the world around them with this participatory book. How? With the weirdest animals sounds you ever did hear. Remember, this title is a translation from the original French, so the publisher had to work out the funniest possible animal sounds with the translator. The end result is just so deliciously weird (and Batchelder-worthy, I’d argue). The artwork, meanwhile, consists of thickly applied brushstrokes that are almost Maira Kalman-esque. You could frame each page of this book. And let me tell you, someone’s readaloud storytime is about to get EPIC!

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Sweater by Claire Lebourg, translated by Sophie Lewis

ISBN: 9798893380781

Publication Date: February 2, 2027

If you are at all a fan of her Mousse series, then the name “Claire Lebourg” may already be familiar to you. In early 2027 she will return with another early chapter book but a standalone one (as far as Transit Editions knows). The book follows the adventures of a dog named Sweater (interestingly, the title is exactly the same in French). Our story begins in an abandoned train car where Sweater is sadly looking at the other dogs who live there. He feels guilty about something. We then jump back in time to a moment when he was driving with his owner to the train station to have their standard 2 months of summer vacation. Yet when they get there, Sweater wanders off to sniff a trash can, and when he returns his owner is gone. After attempting to chase the train that just left, thinking his owner is aboard, he ends up at the edge of Paris, very sad and lost. That’s when he comes across a funny looking dog with a cell phone named Cream Puff. Along with a big dog named Groucho, the two take Sweater back to what essentially turns out to be a kind of doggie commune. Initially Sweater is too sad to participate. He thinks he did something terribly wrong and keeps returning to the city to find his owner. He even puts up missing posters for his owner. In time, Sweater moves through his acceptance of his situation with these new dogs. And by the end he and the others find another dog in that same train station that has “lost” their owner. This allows Sweater to initiate the process of bringing someone new into the fold. A book with a full narrative arc, along with some lovely weirdness as well.

And that’s it! Huge thanks to the Transit Editions team for taking the time to show me their stock and what we can expect in the near future!

Filed under: Publisher Previews