Scholastic Ups Print Run for 'The Wonky Donkey'

As PW previously reported in September, a YouTube video featuring a Scottish grandmother reading The Wonky Donkey to her four-month-old grandson—in between irrepressible fits of giggles—seems to have had a contagious effect, sparking sales of the 2009 picture book from New Zealand, written by Craig Smith and illustrated by Katz Cowley. Based on Smith’s song of the same name, the book features a cumulative rhyming text starring a three-legged donkey.

Scholastic is responding to the surge in demand across all channels by bringing the book back into print. The Wonky Donkey will return to press in the U.S. with a print run of 500,000 copies (increased from the 50,000 copies initially planned, based on pre-orders). Scholastic first published The Wonky Donkey as an original paperback in 2010, with a modest print run, following its success with Scholastic Australia/New Zealand. To date, 75,000 copies are in print in the U.S. Books are in the process of shipping to stores as stock arrives, and an ebook edition is available now.