Rooted in the community for over four decades, Victoria-based Orca Book Publishers has quietly grown into a major player on the North American children’s publishing scene.
With a catalogue of more than 1,000 active titles in multiple languages – including Chinese, Swahili, Spanish, and Cree – the independent house is expanding its reach by teaming up with six Quebec-based French-language publishers to bring some of La Belle Province’s top children’s literature to a wider audience.
This spring, Orca began distributing books from Fonfon, Comme des geants, and La Pasteque. Titles from Les 400 coups, Planète rebelle, and KATA are expected to follow this fall.
The move builds on Orca’s existing French-language program, which already includes Québec Amérique and the publisher’s own French titles.
“We have seen quite good interest in those titles so we decided to add more Quebec publishers,” said publisher Andrew Wooldridge.
Although described as “a bit of a gamble,” Wooldridge hopes the growing demand for French-Canadian titles will continue to build over time, putting their chips on the institutional market, which includes libraries and schools.
“There are thousands of bilingual or French immersion schools in this country,” he said. “So where French is taught, (we want to) provide easier access to French titles.”
Acting as a unifying force for Quebec publishers beyond their borders, Wooldridge hopes to bridge the gap between Anglophone and Francophone audiences across North America.
“We live in a country where we have two official languages, but quite often, they are really like two solitudes in a way (and) never really come together,” he said. “So we're just trying to have a partnership that will actually work for everybody.”
