PW: Publishers Weekly

By Karen Raugust | Aug. 17, 2022

The Magical Tales in Wonderland

The Magical Tales is one of a handful of licensees offering products tied to the Disney Junior series Alice’s Wonderland Bakery in its first season, adding three book-plus titles to its expanding Disney line.

All three Season 1 titles will be exclusive to CVS for the back-to-school season before going

out to mass retailers at large in 2023. More titles for Season 2 are in development.

The initial offering includes Whisk, Bake, Sprinkle, which includes an apron and recipes; Alice’s

Wonderland Bakery Cupcake Kit, which encompasses all the items required to set up a cupcake

stand, and Alice’s Wonderland Bakery Tea Party Play-set, with everything needed to hold a tea

party for four. All the sets include a board book containing an original story that complements

the gift items.

In the more than two years since it first began working with Disney, The Magic Tales has released a range of titles, from a Mickey Mouse advent calendar, a particularly successful

format for The Magical Tales across several Disney properties—to a Cinderella

gratitude journal, to one of its most recent releases, Dumbo: It’s Time for Night Night. For the

future, the publisher is developing a mindfulness series that will incorporate a number of Disney

characters.

The fact that the books are packaged with additional products helps secure placement

throughout mass retail departments beyond the book aisle. The Dumbo title will be featured in

the children’s apparel department at one retailer; other possibilities are bakeries, impulse

sections, and toy departments (which is where CVS will carry its Alice titles). “We can work with

the buyers to see where it fits in a store, beyond just the book department, and that’s been

beneficial,” said Patricia Cardello, owner of The Magical Tales. The company just signed a deal

with Readerlink, which will take over the distribution of all of its titles.

During the pandemic, Cardello said she put a lot of her efforts where the revenues were, and

that was the Disney license. In 2023, at the request of retailers, the company is refocusing on its

proprietary The Magical Tales line, reformatting some of the old titles and adding new titles to

the assortment, in addition to continuing to expand its Disney range.