Clarion Books
American children's imprint that began at the Seabury Press, belonged to Houghton Mifflin from the late 1970s and joined HarperCollins in 2021; publisher of the 2002 Newbery and Caldecott winners.
- Editions tracked
- 55
- First editions
- 47
- Books
- 55
- Years
- 1983 to 2017
Clarion Books is a publisher based in United States. We track 55 editions it published between 1983 and 2017, 47 of them first editions across 55 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Clarion Books
Clarion Books is an American children's publisher that began as the young readers' list of the Seabury Press, was bought by Houghton Mifflin in the late 1970s, and has been a HarperCollins imprint since 2021.
The list grew out of the work of the editor James Cross Giblin, who joined Seabury in 1967 as editor-in-chief and led the development of the children's line that later took the Clarion name. When Houghton Mifflin acquired Clarion, Giblin went with it as publisher, retiring early in 1989 to concentrate on writing his own books. He published the first books of Eileen Christelow and Mary Downing Hahn.
As a Houghton Mifflin division under the editorial director Dinah Stevenson, Clarion took both the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal in 2002: the Newbery for Linda Sue Park's A Single Shard, which made Park the first Asian-American winner, and the Caldecott for David Wiesner's The Three Pigs. Wiesner had won the Caldecott ten years earlier with Tuesday.
In 2021 HarperCollins agreed to buy HMH Books & Media, the trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for 349 million US dollars, and from 7 July 2021 HMH's children's books were issued under the Clarion Books name.
We have not yet written the guide to Clarion Books's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Clarion Books marked its firsts? Tell us.
Published by Clarion Books
Frequently asked questions
How many Clarion Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 55 editions published by Clarion Books, 47 of them first editions, across 55 books.
Where these facts come from
- Obituary: James Cross Giblin, Publishers Weekly, 2016 (publishersweekly.com)
- Clarion Wins Newbery, Caldecott Medals, Publishers Weekly, 2002 (publishersweekly.com)
- HarperCollins, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.