Candy Jar Books to Publish ‘The Raccoons’ Book Series

Candy Jar Books has acquired the rights to publish new books based on the classic children’s animation series, “The Raccoons.” 

For children who grew up in the mid ’80s/early ’90s, “The Raccoons” was required viewing. Mixing anarchic humor with great storytelling, the classic Canadian animation TV series focused on the exploits of Bert Raccoon, his best friend, Cedric Sneer, Melissa and Ralph, Schaeffer the dog and the dastardly pink aardvark, Cyril Sneer. 

Created by Kevin Gillis, “The Raccoons” originally aired on BBC in the U.K in 1985, and still resonates today. With more than 80% of young people eager to take action to help the environment, the stories about the greedy aardvark millionaire, Cyril Sneer, who regularly tries to destroy the natural balance of the Evergreen Forest in his quest to make a fortune, are more relevant than ever. 

Over the years “The Raccoons” TV company, Run With Us Productions, has signed a number of licensing deals, including T-shirts, hoodies, games, toys, hot cocoa, mugs and coloring and activity books, but it has never ventured into children’s novels.  

“We’re delighted to be working with Candy Jar Books in releasing a set of stories featuring ‘The Raccoons’ and the characters of the Evergreen Forest for the very first time,” says Gillis. “Candy Jar has brought together a great team of well-known authors to write these novels. They have done an incredible job capturing the drama, mystery and comedy of the series for a great co-reading book experience.” 

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The three books (“Cry Wolf!,” “The One That Got Away” and “Blast from the Past!”) are written by John Peel (author of “Eerie Indiana,” “Are You Afraid the Dark,” “The Secret World of Alex Mack,” “The Lucy Wilson Mysteries” and “Doctor Who”), Iain McLaughlin (former editor of Britain’s longest-running comic, “The Beano,” and author of books based on “The Tomorrow People,” “Dennis the Menace” and “Doctor Who”) and Chris McGuire (who produced the “Hannah Montana” spin-off series, “Hannah-Oke,” launched Hacker T Dog and developed and wrote the BAFTA-winning Me:TV and Emmy-winning “Pet School” for CBBC). 

The books are specifically created to encourage parents to read along with their children. Each easy-read novel has seven chapters, one for each day of the week. Alongside this, the books feature QR codes that allow the reader to access additional interactive video and music content.  

“The Raccoons” TV series has recently been restored and remastered from the original 35mm films to 4K and relaunched on BritBox/ITVX and The Roku Channel.  

“The U.K. and Ireland were two of the first countries to partner with ‘The Raccoons’ back when we first launched in the 1980s,” says Gillis. “We have incredible fans here, and these new books, alongside the BritBox/ITVX and Roku Channel episodes, will help Bert, Cedric, Melissa, Ralph, Schaeffer, Broo and Cyril reach a 21st century audience.” 

Candy Jar Books will release “Cry Wolf!,” “The One That Got Away” and “Blast from the Past!” in March. The titles will be distributed by the Books Council of Wales, and will be available from Gardners, Peters, Waterstones, Amazon and independent bookstores.