Sojo & Mouse is a publishing house with a difference. Our aim is to create wonderfully original children’s books, which provide a platform for authors and illustrators to share and showcase their work on a much larger scale than the increasingly popular self-publishing route.
In an industry where many established publishing giants don’t have the capacity to take on new writers, and keep with what they know, this publishing mouse actively seeks out fresh and original work, and work that breaks the mould of the traditional children’s picture book.
It is the brainchild of two creative-education practitioners, who day-to-day use their craft to stimulate and inspire the imaginations of young children. Helen, a drama practitioner, and Sophie, an illustrator/animator, both regularly work with primary age children in schools and on other private projects, and see the wonderful effect that stories and pictures can have in firing up young minds.
When working on a collaborative workshop with their respective companies, Sojo Animation and Sprouts, they created a story that had to be told! But when finding out that regular publishers have many guidelines and tend to dismiss children’s books already with illustrations, and not wanting to tear apart the wonderful work they’d already done, they began to look into other ways of doing it. And never ones to want to do things by halves, Sojo & Mouse was born…!