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Quirky Kid published an Australian edition of How to Be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them, marking an early expansion from original therapeutic resources into licensed children’s publishing.
The title is by Laurene Krasny Brown and illustrated by Marc Brown, creator of the Arthur children’s book series. It offers practical, illustrated guidance on making friends, resolving disagreements, handling shyness and navigating difficult peer interactions.
A Books+Publishing profile of Quirky Kid Publishing later identified How to Be a Friend as the first overseas title for which Quirky Kid acquired Australian publishing rights.
Moving into rights-based publishing
Quirky Kid’s early publishing work had focused on resources developed from its own child psychology practice. Acquiring an established international title added a different capability: selecting overseas books that aligned with Quirky Kid’s clinical and educational focus and producing them for the Australian market.
The title was selected because its focus on friendship and social confidence complemented Quirky Kid’s work with children experiencing peer and relationship difficulties.
An Australian Quirky Kid edition
A Google Books bibliographic record lists Quirky Kid as publisher of the 2011 edition, with ISBN 978-0-9806743-4-7.
The Quirky Kid edition was produced as a hardcover title and was used alongside the organisation’s social and emotional learning work, including The Best of Friends®.
The current Quirky Kid product record continues to list the Australian edition within the organisation’s publishing catalogue.
Building a broader publishing catalogue
By 2018, Books+Publishing reported that Quirky Kid had acquired Australian rights to five overseas titles, with How to Be a Friend identified as the first.
The move complemented Quirky Kid’s original publishing program rather than replacing it. The organisation continued to develop its own psychology-informed resources while also building experience in rights acquisition, international publishing relationships and trade titles.
This early rights acquisition is a useful milestone in Quirky Kid’s development from a clinic producing its own therapeutic tools into a more diverse educational and children’s publisher.
