Monkey Music Moves Into Books

Pre-school music education franchise announces publishing partnership with Macmillan.

Monkey Music, the UK’s leading pre school music franchise, is delighted to announce a major two book publishing deal with Campbell Books, the specialist pre-school imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books.

Monkey Music was founded in 1993 by musician and teacher, Angie Coates. Today, with over 50 successful franchisees operating throughout the UK, more than 12,000 families attend 1,200 Monkey Music classes taking place every week.

Campbell Books is a specialist maker of books for pre-schoolers and understands that sharing and talking about books with babies and toddlers is an important step in their journey to becoming life-long readers.

Angie Coates, founder Monkey Music, said, “Babies and toddlers love books and music so producing a Monkey Music book with music has been something I’ve always wanted to do! Working in collaboration with the incredible team at Campbell Books has been a very rewarding experience and I am truly delighted with what we have been able to produce. Our first book Let’s Sing and Play is a captivating mix of colourful images and catchy tunes and I can’t wait for little monkey’s everywhere to enjoy it with their family and friends.”

Stephanie Barton, Macmillan Children’s Books Publisher 0-6, says, “Working with Monkey Music is the perfect partnership for Campbell Books. Together we can create the best, bespoke integrated book-and-music experience for little children. The Monkey Music brand is widely known and admired by parents, and we’ve worked closely with Angie to create a rich and interactive experience that children will love and want to experience again and again. There are many Monkey Music parent fans at Macmillan and it was through this that we started talking about the possibility of working together to create an interactive book-and-music-experience for babies and toddlers.”

Let’s Play and Sing, illustrated by Emily Bolam, publishes on 14th July 2016 and is aimed at toddlers from 18 months. It also contains a 22 sing-along track CD with musical activities based on Monkey Music classes. The books are based on the Heigh-ho and Jiggety-jig classes and can be used with or without knowledge of the Monkey Music curriculum. The second book, aimed for babies from 6-18 months, will be published in June 2017.

Monkey Music: Let’s Sing and Play, Publishing 14th July 2016
ISBN 9781447286974, Board Book & CD. Price £12.99

For further information please contact:

Angie Coates, Founder and CEO Monkey Music, T:01582 766464
E: angie.coates@monkeymusic.co.uk

Charlotte Copping, Publicity Executive, Macmillan Children’s Books, T: 020 7014 4214
E: charlotte.copping@macmillan.com  

Notes to the editors:

Angie Coates founded the first Monkey Music class in 1993. As a musician and teacher, Angie knew that early exposure to music was beneficial for young children and so she developed a musical curriculum to stimulate early learning and development in pre-schoolers. Angie is married to a TV producer and lives with her five children in Hertfordshire.

Monkey Music first launched in 1993 by Angie Coates. Finding a lack of music classes to attend in her local area, Angie decided to write a musical curriculum that stimulated early learning and development. In 2010, Monkey Music was voted winner of Best National Pre-Schooler Development Activity by parents across the UK. With rapid growth and success, Monkey Music became a franchise in 1998 and is now nationwide in the UK with over 12,000 families attending the classes every week.

Pan Macmillan is the UK general book publishing arm of the Macmillan Group, which operates in over 70 countries.  Its imprints include Macmillan, Mantle, Pan, Picador, Bluebird, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Bello, Tor, Macmillan Children’s Books, Campbell Books and Macmillan Digital Audio. Pan Macmillan was named Publisher of the Year at The Bookseller Industry Awards in May 2015.