Tuttle Mines Backlist to Mark Its First 60 Years

By Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 5/29/2008

Since turning 60 in Japan denotes one full life cycle and the return to the point of birth, Tuttle Publishing in North Clarendon, Vt., which publishes books that bridge the cultures of East and West, is celebrating its 60th by going back to its very first books.

The press, which was founded by Charles Tuttle Jr. in 1948, will publish new editions of reference books like Daniel C. Beard’s 19th-century bestseller The American Boy’s Handy Book (Sept.), which Tuttle has kept in print since 1966. In it Beard, who co-founded the Boy Scouts, provides practical information on making rigging and sailing small boats, camping without a tent and building a snow fort.

Also slated for September are four books based on Tuttle’s all-time children’s bestseller, Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories, which has half a million copies in print over the course of 55 years: Peach Boy and Other Japanese Favorite Stories, Little One-Inch and Other Japanese Favorite Stories, Kintaro’s Adventures and Other Japanese Favorite Stories and Urashima Taro and Other Japanese Favorite Stories. Originally published 50 years ago, the four companion volumes contain stories that Florence Sakade culled from the Japanese children’s magazine Silver Bells.

The press is also marking its first 60 years by focusing on core categories like Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog language books, says publicist Rowan Muelling-Auer. Last year’s release on learning the national language of the Philippines, My First Book of Tagalog Book, was Tuttle’s bestselling children’s book on Amazon. “It fills a need for parents looking to teach their children about their home and language,” Muelling-Auer notes. This fall Tuttle will publish 10 children’s books, including flash-card kits for teaching children Tagalog, Japanese and Chinese.