Dorling Kindersley has inked a deal with BBC Worldwide, granting it the exclusive publishing rights to create titles based on the BBC/Discovery Channel-produced documentary Walking With Dinosaurs. DK will produce three kids titles, including a photo book, a sticker book and a 3-D poster book. All the titles are slated to ship to retail in early April, well in time for the U.S. broadcast of the three-hour documentary, which airs on Discovery Channel on April 16.

New series

In March, Disney Press will release the first two titles based on the live-action supernatural tweens show So Weird, which currently airs nightly from Friday to Sunday on the Disney Channel. DP will offer the first two books (Family Reunion and Sacrifice, US$4.99 each) to retailers in a mix 12-copy display, and plans to promote the books on its site at disneybooks.com. The third SW title, Escape, is slated to hit stores in May.

In time for Women’s

History Month

Fashion as social protest is the theme of Scholastic’s You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! (US$16.95), an illustrated biography by Shana Corey about a nineteenth-century suffragette who skirted the sartorial conventions that male society dictated by wearing her bloomers out in public instead of a skirt. Scholastic will release Amelia to stores in March, along with free postcards featuring the book’s cover art for public distribution.

Disney digs Dinosaurs

Disney Press will have a wide selection of Dinosaur titles at the ready by the time its parent company’s CGI-laden pic of the same name charges into theaters this May. In all, DP will offer 11 titles, including pull-a-page, lift-the-flap, animated flip, trading card, junior novel and story books. Retailers can order the titles, which range in price from US$5 to US$35, individually or in a 45-copy mix Dinosaur display. Disney will be running in-theater cross-promotions featuring the books, and will promote the titles on-line at www.disneybooks.com.