Publisher
Hodder Children's Books
Hodder Children's Books is the children's imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, now within Hachette. It first published Skellig, How to Train Your Dragon and the CHERUB series.
- Editions tracked
- 131
- First editions
- 50
- Books
- 131
- Years
- 1976 to 2023
About Hodder Children's Books
Hodder Children's Books is the children's imprint of the British publisher Hodder & Stoughton, part of Hachette UK, and the first publisher of David Almond's Skellig and Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon.
Its parent, Hodder & Stoughton, was founded in London in 1868 by Matthew Henry Hodder and Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton. During the Second World War it set up Brockhampton, a selling arm that turned to children's books with Enid Blyton's Famous Five (from 1942); Brockhampton Press later issued Asterix the Gaul in English in 1969. Hodder bought the children's publisher Wayland in 1999. Headline acquired Hodder & Stoughton in 1993, forming Hodder Headline, and Hachette Livre bought that group in 2004.
Hodder Children's Books first published Skellig on 11 August 1998; it won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon followed in 2003, starting a long-running series. The imprint now belongs to Hachette Children's Group, whose authors include Cressida Cowell, Robert Muchamore and Alice Oseman; the group currently lists Hodder Children's Books among its previous imprints.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Hodder Children's Books's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Hodder Children's Books first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Hodder Children's Books
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Hodder Children's Books first edition?
How many Hodder Children's Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 131 editions published by Hodder Children's Books, 50 of them first editions, across 131 books.
Where these facts come from
- Hodder & Stoughton, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Skellig, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- How to Train Your Dragon (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Recruit (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Hachette Children's Books, Hachette UK (hachettechildrens.co.uk)
- First Edition Identification by Publisher (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), ILAB (ilab.org)
- First Editions of Today and How to Tell Them, H. S. Boutell, Internet Archive, 1949 (archive.org)
- How to Tell If a Book Is a First Edition: Publisher Rules Checklist, Appraisily (appraisily.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 22 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.