Oddly appealing

This year's Licensing Show was refreshingly un-dominated by ancient reruns.

A lot of new Japanese adorableness (kawaii) had elbowed its way in.

Simplistic "hand-draw" styles like Charlie & Lola and even Roald Dahl had center aisle presence.

And, breaking new ground, was Pampers' Kandoo, a lively spokesfrog previously mentioned in this blog. P&G was wisely licensing the rights to their potty-empowering character.

On behalf of Edgar & Ellen, I met with people from Israel, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Latin America and the US entertainment triangle: Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

NY Licensing Show starts tomorrow!

I'm packing my wheelie in anticipation. Last time I went was in 2005 when I was disappointed in the lack of originality: Hello Kitty!, Barbie, Marvel Superheroes, same old stuff--except Chronicles of Narnia which had many people scratching their heads. Would it work? It was religious after all.

But it's doing fine--another in the trend toward literary properties for kids.

I'm taking the twins, Edgar & Ellen who, with eight books under their jammies, are beginning their licensing journey outside the US.