Our Story

For more than 30 years, NorthSouth Books has published a wide range of high-quality picture books. We began in 1989 as an English-language imprint of the Swiss-based NordSüd Verlag. Since then, NorthSouth Books has released about 30 books a year, with titles that span the globe. From Japan to France, from Germany to the US, we are a truly international publisher. Regardless of their origin, a NorthSouth picture book brings with it a love of detail and originality.


Picture Books

Perhaps NorthSouth Books is best known as the publisher of Marcus Pfister’s The Rainbow Fish and Hans de Beer’s The Little Polar Bear, which have been translated into over 30 languages. But we are continuing, as well, to build a list of modern classic picture books, both from international and US-based authors and illustrators. NorthSouth titles, like Torben Kuhlmann’s Edison, have been named as Batchelder Honors in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Our US-based books, The Field and Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos among them, have been equally successful and receiving of praise.


Fairy Tales and Classics

Fairy tales have been a constant for us. Picture books by Bernadette Watts, Maja Dusíková, Binette Schroeder and Lisbeth Zwerger are integral to the NorthSouth program. We have also invested in richly illustrated unabridged classics – including The Jungle Book, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan. Given our connection as a publisher to Switzerland, we have reissued many Swiss classic picture books, including the works of Hans Fischer, Felix Hoffmann, and Herbert Leupin.


Authors and Illustrators

Newly discovered and well-known authors and illustrators alike make up our publishing program. Each one adds that bit of character which makes up the whole of NorthSouth: Marcus Pfister, Jacqueline Alcántara, Kwame Alexander, Monica Brown, Hans de Beer, Torben Kuhlmann, Baptiste Paul, Rashin Kheiriyeh, Sebastian Meschenmoser, John Parra, Daniel Miyares, Eve Tharlet, Abigail Rayner, Brigitte Weninger, Lisbeth Zwerger, Philippe Goossens, Kazuo Iwamura, Bernadette Watts, Maja Dusíková, Binette Schroeder, José Sanabria, Carol Roth, Sonja Danowski, and so many more.