Moritz Verlag

The Publishing House and Its History

Moritz Verlag was founded as a subsidiary of the Paris-based leading French children's book publisher l'école des loisirs in Frankfurt on the Main in 1994 with Markus Weber as the publishing director. The publishing house quickly made its mark with picture books that had a strong appeal thanks to their unusual vigour and colourfulness.

As early as 1995 Yvan Pommaux received the German Children's Literature Award for »Detective John Chatterton« as the best picture book of the year. This was followed by Grégoire Solotareff for »Du groß, und ich klein« (»You Big And Me Small«) in 1997 and by Chen Jianghong's »Han Gan und das Wunderpferd« (»Han Gan and the Magic Horse«) in 2005 and by Claude K. Dubois for »Akim rennt« (»Akim Runs«) in 2014. Lastly it was Megumi Iwasa and Jörg Mühle, who received this coveted award, for which many titles by Moritz Verlag have been nominated over the years, for »Viele Grüße, Deine Giraffe« (»Yours Sincerely, Giraffe) in 2018.

In 2010 Moritz Verlag began to publish books for first-readers, themed ›for all those who already enjoy reading by themselves‹. Non-fiction books also make for a considerable share of the publishing list. As regards sales and distribution, Moritz Verlag is co-operating with the Beltz Publishing Group in Weinheim. Moritz publishes approx. 20 new books per year, of which four titles are usually children's literature.

Program

Our picture books are committed to becoming children's favourite books. They want to tell fascinating and meaningful stories that are compellingly illustrated. It turned out that those books that are told and illustrated by the same person are usually the most impressive. Moritz publishes board books and picture books from around the world as well as non-fiction picture books and a first-readers' collection. Amongst the biggest successes are »Das kleine Museum« (»The Little Museum«, 1994), »Steinsuppe« (»Stone Soup«, 2000) by Anaïs Vaugelade, »Frag mich!« (»Ask Me!«, 2002) by Antje Damm, »Ich bin der Stärkste im ganzen Land« (»I am the Strongest«, 2003) by Mario Ramos, »Die besten Beerdigungen der Welt« (»All the Dear Little Animals«, 2006) by Ulf Nilsson and Eva Eriksson, »Die Torte ist weg!« (»The Birthday Cake Mystery«, 2006) by Thé Tjong-Khing, »Gute Nacht, Gorilla« (»Good Night Gorilla«, 2006) by Peggy Rathman, »Piep piep piep« (»The Noisy Book«, 2009) by Soledad Bravi, »Bitte anstellen!« (»Line up, Please!«, 2012) by Tomoko Ohmura, »Alle Welt. Das Landkartenbuch« (»Maps,« 2013) by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinscy, »Nur noch kurz die Ohren kraulen« (»Tickle My Ears«, 2015) by Jörg Mühle and »Viele Grüße, Deine Giraffe« (»Yours Sincerely, Giraffe«, 2017) by Megumi Iwasa and Jörg Mühle. Since 2023, Moritz has been publishing “The Children’s Calendar” (formerly published by edition momente), which is edited and selected by the International Youth Library and takes you through the year with more than 50 poems. Every Monday there is a new poem in the original language and a translation with an illustration to help you discover our diverse world. “The Children's Calendar” was awarded the Calendar Prize of the German Book Trade in 2024.

Authors, Illustrators and Translators

Kristina Andres, Jeanne Ashbé, Magali Bardos, Jutta Bauer, Stephanie Blake, Chen Jianghong, Giselle Clarkson, Antje Damm, Claude K. Dubois, Eva Eriksson, Katja Gehrmann, Hannah Gemmel (T), Patrick George, Susanne Göhlich, Ursula Gräfe (T), Piet Grobler, John Hare, Michael Heinze, Annette Herzog, Satomi Ichikawa, Birgitta Kicherer (T), Andrea Kluitmann (T), Ole Könnecke (T), Angelika Kutsch (T), Sabine Lohf, Jörg Mühle, Gerda Muller, Thomas Müller, Rose Lagercrantz, Kerstin Meyer, Aleksandra & Daniel Mizielińscy, Andreas Német, Leslie Niemöller, Ulf Nilsson, Tomoko Ohmura, Chiaki & Ko Okada, Markus Orths, Liliane Oser, Christian Oster, Camilla Pintonato, Yvan Pommaux, Mario Ramos, Peggy Rathmann, Andreas Röckener, Clémence Sabbagh, Komako Sakai, Tobias Scheffel (T), Hans-Christian Schmidt, Grégoire Solotareff, Gitte Spee, Constanze Spengler, Pernilla Stalfelt, Katrin Stangl, Mathilde Stein, Julia Süßbrich (T), Thé Tjong-Khing, Catharina Valckx, Sylvia Vanden Heede, Thomas Weiler (T).