Tiger Aspect Kids & Family has signed a development deal for bestselling adventure picture book series What the Ladybird Heard. The four-book series was created by the award-winning partnership of Julia Donaldson (author) and Lydia Monks (illustrator), who together, have sold over 4 million copies of this series. From the first release in 2009 of What the Ladybird Heard it has been translated into 24 different languages, proving to be a huge success. The most recent book, What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside was released in paperback in 2021 and spent 3 weeks at the top of the Pre-school and Picture Book Nielsen bestseller charts.
The development of the series will be overseen by Tom Beattie, Head of Kids and Family at Tiger Aspect, who will also be an executive producer for the series. 犀利士 spect-signs-deal-donaldson-and-monks-ladybird-tales-1291584″>Beattie has said that “Having read these books to my kids, with the brilliant rhyming verse and following the bumpy trail across every page looking for the ladybird, time and time again, I’m honoured to be working with Julia and Lydia to bring this brilliant story to screen.” Julia has also shared a similar enthusiasm for this collaboration, and has said that she is “sure that Lydia Monks’s characterful pictures of the clever little ladybird, the farmyard animals and the comical thieves will translate brilliantly into animation, and I can’t wait to see them all on my television.”
The deal covers the option to create a pre-school animated, 52 x 11-minute TV series with their sister company Zodiak Kids & Family will handle worldwide distribution, and plans to start seeking broadcast partners in 2022.