Dial Books for Young Readers

About Dial Books for Young Readers

Dial Books for Young Readers is the New York children's imprint that grew out of the Dial Press and now sits within Penguin Young Readers at Penguin Random House.

Its parent, the Dial Press, was founded in New York in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh. Dell bought a majority of Dial in 1963 and full ownership in 1969. When Doubleday bought Dell in 1976, the children's division was sold separately to E. P. Dutton, and through Dutton it passed to New American Library and the Penguin Group, which merged with Random House in 2013. Penguin dates the imprint itself to 1961, and Dial's children's division also used the Pied Piper imprint.

Phyllis Fogelman became editor-in-chief of Dial's children's list in October 1966 and stayed for more than three decades, rising to president and publisher. Under her the list published Julius Lester's To Be a Slave (1968, a Newbery Honor book), Mildred D. Taylor's Song of the Trees (1975) and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1977 Newbery Medal), and Verna Aardema's Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (1976 Caldecott Medal). Rosemary Wells's Max and Ruby board books launched Dial's Very First Books line in 1979, and Mercer Mayer's wordless A Boy, a Dog and a Frog books were among the first wordless picture books.

Later Dial titles include Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder (Newbery Medal), Ingrid Law's Savvy (Newbery Honor), Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun (Printz Medal), and the picture books Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri and The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld.