Hazy Dell Press Rallies Fans to Bring Popular Cryptid Characters to Life
Following a 2023 reader survey that named characters from the Hazy Dell Flap Books Mothman Baby! and Nessie Baby! as the most popular choices for our initial venture into plushie production, we're utilizing the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter, to fund the beginnings of a prospective new product line called “Hazy Dell Plush."
Based on characters from the Hazy Dell Flap Books by Elias Barks and illustrated by Zoe Persico, the cryptid plushies represent a potential new dimension for our small, independent publishing company, most commonly known for our specialization in beautifully illustrated board books, picture books, and chapter books that employ creatures from world folklore as appealing vehicles for lessons of social-emotional learning.
“Since we launched our company in 2015, one of the main requests from parents has been to create plushies of our characters,” said owner, Renee Yama. “They want to really step up story time with tactile and cuddly friends for their children to love. Since day one, it has been a goal of ours to create plushies that are just as high quality and thoughtfully designed as our books. We’re very excited to be so close to making this a reality for our readers, and to invite them along for the ride."
Though readers have requested dozens of characters to find new life in plushie form, it was Mothman Baby and Nessie Baby that received the most support from readers in our 2023 survey, squeaking by a menagerie of fan favorites from Hazy Dell Press books, including Get Dressed, Sasquatch!, Goodnight Krampus, I Believe in You, You’re My Little Legend, and the bilingual bestseller Don’t Eat Me, Chupacabra! / ¡No Me Comas, Chupacabra!
“We would love to bring all of our characters to life,” said Yama, “and, hopefully, some day we will. But for now, we let the readers guide our first two plushie choices, and we hope that Mothman Baby and Nessie Baby blaze a trail for many more characters to come. In so many ways, this Kickstarter campaign is not just about those two characters, but about the future of Hazy Dell Plush, in general.”
Launched on February 6, the Kickstarter campaign features a variety of funder rewards to motivate participation, including exclusive enamel pins and holographic stickers of the characters, Hazy Dell Flap Books, and, of course, the plushies themselves. And, for the most motivated participants, we're offering a limited-number of funders the opportunity to receive custom illustrations from illustrator Zoe Persico and title-page dedications in future Hazy Dell Press books.
Though plushies represent a new page for Hazy Dell Press, the Kickstarter campaign does not. In fact, this campaign is a return to our origins, as we launched nine years ago when a successful Kickstarter campaign funded the publication our first book, Monster ABC. Now, nearly one million sales and dozens of awards later, Hazy Dell Press has cultivated thousands of fans across the globe who we hope will join us in our cuddly new phase.
To learn more or to participate in Hazy Dell Press’s plushie Kickstarter campaign, visit our campaign page at www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsterabc/mothman-baby-and-nessie-baby-plushie-pals.