Penguin/Puffin books

I've never really been a huge fan of Penguin books, not because there's anything wrong with them, but because I would always think of them looking like this copy of The Memory Keepers Daughter:



I always hated that orange. It seemed outdated and ugly, definitely not something I would want in my personal library.

Recently, I discovered the most beautiful collection of books I've ever seen, called Puffin in Bloom:



I preordered the moment I saw them, and they came out today. They've really changed my attitude about Penguin/Puffin. I started looking into other collections by Puffin and found Puffin Chalk, another fantastic collection of books:



I plan on purchasing Peter Pan, Pippi Longstocking, and The Wizard of Oz in the Puffin Chalk collection soon.

I've created this topic so people interested in Penguin/Puffin books can talk about them here. My focus is mainly on different Puffin collections, but anything Penguin/Puffin related can be talked about in this topic!

What collections or individual books from Penguin/Puffin do you love?

Does anyone know the difference between Penguin and Puffin? From what I know, Penguin owns Puffin / Puffin is just a part while Penguin is the whole company, but I honestly don't know.

Oh my, those are lovely! I never saw any of these before.

I wonder if they'll do/have done The Secret Garden, since they've done A Little Princess. I collect various illustrated editions of The Secret Garden and I wouldn't mind having one more! Do they have interior illustrations?

@amysisson - I was wondering why The Secret Garden wasn't done for Puffin in Bloom! (The four books shown are the entire collection, unfortunately.) I know that Puffin published The Secret Garden as two different Puffin Classics (paperback, left; hardcover, right):



Perhaps because they had published it twice before, they decided against doing it again, but of course I'm not sure.

A Little Princess has black, pen-and-ink interior illustrations by Margery Gill, and Heidi has interior illustrations by Cecil Leslie. Little Women and Anne of Green Gables have no interior illustrations.

Also, I forgot to mention: all of the cover art in this collection was created by Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co.

Puffin is one of the children's imprints at Penguin (now Penguin Random House since their merger last year.)

@Marissa_Doyle - that's what I thought! Thanks for clarifying!

I also don't care much for their standard orange, but they've released a wealth of differently colored/styled covers over the past bunch of years. Some are interesting, some are hideous (their line of neon-colored stripes is enough to send one into an epileptic fit). The "in Bloom" style is definitely not at all to my taste, but I do quite like the "Chalk" one. :)

I've loved Puffin books since I was a child, and still have many that I bought with my pocket money, back when 95p seemed like a lot of money! (Now the average price for a paperback children's book is about £5.99.) They published so many series that I came to love - Dr Dolittle, Anne of Green Gables, the Little House books, Swallows and amazons - as well as stand-alones that I still reread today - The crown of violet, The hounds of the Morrigan and titles by Rumer Godden, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Westall and others.

The Penguin orange was certainly a branding decision that set the books apart from all others on your bookshelf, a tactic Virago press later used with its green spines. It's not the most attractive colour I agree, but it's synonymous with the books and I'm glad they've reintroduced it again in some of their lines.

For anyone who's interested in the design of the imprints, there are two lovely books available, Penguin by design, and Puffin by design, which chart the evolving cover styles during their history.

@@PolymathicMonkey - if you're at all interested, you can read about Puffin Chalk from the artist who created the cover art here. There are even videos of her drawing the covers (completely in chalk!). Very neat.

@Sakerfalcon - wow! I don't think I have ANY books from my childhood still, unfortunately. The orange color was definitely a smart move and I understand why they did it (I just don't particularly like the color orange). I had never heard of Puffin by Design, but I will have to check it out. It looks really interesting. Awesome! Thank you.

Oh! I like like those Puffin in Bloom covers!! I'm hoping they are full text and not adapted.

@2wonderY - I'm not sure what you mean by "adapted," but they are unabridged. Little Women is approximately 800 pages! They're decent-sized books.

Sorry, yes, that's what I was getting at. I've been working hard to clean up a couple of classics here on LT, combining and separating and disambiguating. I order various editions from my library system and compare them, and it's discouraging how many publishers can't keep their hands off perfectly good stories, paying someone new to adapt or abbreviate.

Compare the vocabulary used in these books and in modern books aimed at the same age group. I'm sure a lot of the adapting is to get the 'lexile measures' into the right range. Of course if you are never exposed to a larger vocabulary, you won't learn those words...

Look at the lexiles for Little Women
http://www.librarything.com/work/2770499/workdetails/64899811
There are still a lot of adopted versions in there!

I love the various Penguin Classics and Puffin Classics designs and can't resist buying them when I see them on the shelves. I try to restrict myself to bookstore buying, though, to keep it under control.

I have a copy of Little Women from their Threads line. This line includes The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows and Emma. Here's a link: http://www.penguin.com/static/pages/classics/penguinthreads.php

I also have Cold Comfort Farm, from the Graphic Deluxe Editions line. This line is a mix of adult and children's books: http://www.penguin.com/static/pages/classics/graphicclassics.php

I've also been eying up the Penguin Ink line (based on tattoo art), which seems to be all adult books. And for horror fans, the Penguin Horror line is a beautiful collection of covers.

>13 sturlington: *glares* I hate you. I do not need Penguin horror books! I do not I do not I do not! ...someone tell my brain that I do not?!

>14 .Monkey.: *wicked laugh*

Fortunately I have the Complete Poe, and the BN leatherbounds Complete Lovecraft and Frankenstein, so there are only three to really tempt me. Except I'm a huge Poe/The Raven fan and that cover...!! And Guillermo del Toro! *sigh*

@sturlington - Penguin Threads is amazing!! I love love love the covers for The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows and Little Women! Luckily, I already own Little Women and The Wind in the Willows, so I won't spend more money on them (though I want to!). Penguin Ink is pretty neat too. I work at a tattoo shop so those covers are really close to my heart. I've been eyeing the "Penguin Classics Graphic Deluxe Edition" of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for some time now, though I already own two other versions of the book. Probably won't buy, but it is beautiful!

>17 hannahchristine: I got all excited about the Penguin Threads too, but my library only has one so far. Do the illustrations inside use the same technique?

On the other hand, Penguin also perpetrated this: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28703254

Yes, yes they did.

But will anyone buy it?

I actually like that cover of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I plan on purchasing it eventually if possible!

@2wonderY - unfortunately, the interior illustrations are not the same as the cover art!

>22 hannahchristine: WHAT?! Why?? What in the world is appealing about that to you?

For other lovers of Penguin's series books

www.penguinfirsteditions.com/index.php?cat=penguin_series

>13 sturlington: I love that edition of Cold Comfort Farm and had to buy it when it was first released. Roz Chast is one of my favourite cartoonists and she was a great choice for that cover. I also like the artwork on Shirley Jackson's We have always lived in the castle in the same line.

The first book I bought with my own money was a Puffin. It cost 3/6d, 17½p in decimal currency. It's still in my collection and my 23-year old son read it recently - it was the only acceptable science fiction he could find in my library!

@@PolymathicMonkey - I think it makes sense with the dark tones of the book. I like it. It's quite "Toddlers and Tiaras" -esque (and hey, that show's pretty popular!) and I like that. Again, it just makes sense. I'm a huge fan of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I think this more "adult" cover suits it.

@CDVicarage - That's so sweet!! Though I don't like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass, I LOVE that cover!!