Scholastic to Acquire Cottage Door Press for About $71 Million

Is Scholastic buying Cottage Door Press? It has signed the agreement. On September 29, 2026, Scholastic Corporation announced from New York that it has a definitive agreement to acquire Cottage Door Press, an independent children's publisher, for approximately $71 million, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The release went out on PR Newswire at 7:00 a.m. Eastern. Scholastic trades as SCHL.

The company describes the deal as a way to expand its place in early childhood books, which it calls a key focus, by adding a publisher with strengths in early childhood and novelty formats. It says the transaction should broaden Scholastic's children's list across formats, categories and channels.

What Cottage Door is, in Scholastic's account

Scholastic calls Cottage Door the largest independent children's publisher in the United States and one of the fastest-growing in the industry. The release dates the founding to 2014. It says Cottage Door has distinguished itself with books that encourage interaction and discovery, with particular strengths in board books and novelty formats, plus product development, digital marketing and go-to-market work.

In the transaction details, Scholastic says Cottage Door generated approximately $45 million in net revenue and was strongly profitable for the twelve months ended May 31, 2026.

Cottage Door's own description, included in the release, says the list has grown from a small collection of titles to children's books, storytelling products, and a range of adult lifestyle and activity titles. The acquisition announcement itself is framed around early childhood, board books and novelty. The adult lines are in the company boilerplate, not in the strategic rationale Peter Warwick gives.

Who said what

Peter Warwick, Scholastic's president and chief executive officer, said Cottage Door "is a strong strategic fit for Scholastic and an attractive investment in an important growth area of the children's book market." He credited founder Dick Maddrell and his team with "category-defining formats, concepts and licenses, as well as strong relationships with retailers and families." Warwick then tied the fit to Scholastic's own machinery: "Bringing their strengths together with Scholastic's trusted brand, publishing expertise, unique school channels and distribution scale creates meaningful opportunities to build on that momentum and create long-term value."

Sasha Quinton, president of Scholastic's Children's Book Group, said Cottage Door "brings a distinctive creative vision to publishing for our youngest readers, with an exceptional ability to develop innovative formats that children want to touch, explore and experience." She said Scholastic has admired both the list and the team, and that the group is "thrilled to welcome them to Scholastic."

Dick Maddrell, founder and CEO of Cottage Door Press, said he was proud of what the team had built and that "finding the right home for our brand and our team was an important priority." He said Scholastic "understands what makes Cottage Door special," shares "a kid-first culture," and "can help Cottage Door realize its full potential in this next stage of growth."

Greenhill, which the release identifies as a Mizuho affiliate, was exclusive financial advisor to Cottage Door Press.

What moves, and what does not

After closing, Cottage Door is to be integrated into Scholastic's Children's Book Group. Scholastic says it expects Cottage Door to keep operating with its existing publishing team and its entrepreneurial approach, keeping the brand, the expertise, the creative identity and the culture, while using Scholastic's broader capabilities.

One line of business is carved out. Cottage Door's Luna StoryTime products, a line of interactive electronic toys, will be spun off before closing and will not be acquired by Scholastic. The release lists completion of that separation as a condition of the deal, not as a detail to be tidied up afterward.

Price, timing, and what Scholastic expects

Under the definitive agreement, Scholastic will acquire Cottage Door Press for approximately $71 million, before customary purchase price adjustments. The opening paragraph of the same release describes the price as approximately $71 million, subject to those adjustments. Closing is expected by the end of 2026. It depends on customary closing conditions, the pre-closing separation of Luna StoryTime, required third-party consents, new license agreements with certain key licensors, and approval by the shareholders of one of the sellers.

Scholastic expects to pay with cash on hand and borrowings under its revolving credit facility. It expects the acquisition to contribute to revenue growth and Adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2027, and to be accretive in the second year after close, including anticipated synergies. The release labels those statements as forward-looking. It says further benefit is expected over time as Scholastic puts Cottage Door through its distribution platform and finds manufacturing and operating efficiencies.

Scholastic's description of itself in the release is the context for the "school channels" line in Warwick's quote. The company says it is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books through school book clubs and book fairs, classroom libraries, school and public libraries, retail and online, with a reach into more than 135 countries. That is Scholastic's account of its own scale. Cottage Door's site, named in the release, is cottagedoorpress.com. Scholastic's is scholastic.com.

Why it matters for authors

This is a scale deal in the part of children's publishing built on board books and novelty formats, not a quiet backlist purchase. Scholastic is buying a profitable independent, about $45 million of net revenue in the year ended May 31, 2026, and folding it into the Children's Book Group while saying the current publishing team stays. The distribution implication is the one Warwick named: Scholastic's school channels and its retail reach, set next to a list Scholastic says already has retailer and family relationships of its own.

Authors and illustrators on the Cottage Door list do not get a contract-by-contract readout in this release. What the release does fix is the perimeter. The book publishing business is what Scholastic is buying. The Luna StoryTime toys are not. Closing is aimed at the end of 2026, and it still needs the toy business separated, third-party consents, new license agreements with certain key licensors, and a shareholder vote at one of the sellers. Until those close, the integration Scholastic describes is a plan, including the fiscal 2027 contribution and the second-year accretion.

Sources

• Scholastic Corporation, via PR Newswire: Scholastic to Acquire Cottage Door Press, a Leading, Fast-Growing Innovator in Early Childhood Publishing (New York, September 29, 2026, 7:00 a.m. ET)
• Scholastic: scholastic.com, the company site named in the release
• Cottage Door Press: cottagedoorpress.com, the company site named in the release