W.W. Norton & Company, the oldest and largest independent, employee-owned book publisher in the U.S., has announced the spring 2027 launch of a new trade imprint, Norton Waverly. Karen Lotz, who joined the company in September 2025 as director of children’s books and strategic development, will helm the imprint—the first to be added to the publishing house since Norton Young Readers launched in 2019.

Norton Waverly’s debut release, due on April 6, is a new middle grade novel by Kate DiCamillo, The True Story of Edith Leapyear, Child Outlaw: As Told by Herself. Lotz described the book as “a fictional memoir told by a child with a fully formed voice. It reads like a fairy tale, yet has so much emotional truth, which I know that readers of multiple generations will respond to.”

Being Norton Waverly’s inaugural author represents a reunion of sorts for DiCamillo, whose oeuvre includes two Newbery Medal winners (The Tale of Despereaux and Flora & Ulysses) and a Newbery Honor Book (Because of Winn-Dixie), all three published by Candlewick Press. Before joining Norton, Lotz spent more than two decades at Candlewick and its parent company, Walker Books, where she served as DiCamillo’s international publisher. “I am deeply moved that The True Story of Edith Leapyear will be the first book to bear the Norton Waverly imprint,” DiCamillo said in a statement. “I believe in the power of stories to connect us, to change us. This imprint embodies that belief.”

Moving forward, with a nod to the past

Lotz arrived at Norton with a goal—and the task of navigating a path to reach it. “From the beginning, our plan was that I would start an imprint, in addition to helping build out the strategy for the children’s group as a whole,” she said. “The challenge was deciding together what that would be—what could stand apart from our existing offerings and bring something different to the market. I have always loved publishing history and was happy to do a deep dive into how the company began.”

Lotz learned that Norton was the brainchild of newlyweds William Warder Norton and Mary Dows Herter Norton, who launched their publishing enterprise in 1923, assembling pamphlets in their home on Waverly Place in lower Manhattan, an address that inspired the Norton Waverly name 103 years later. “Their aim was to spark conversation among adult readers across all backgrounds about the great ideas of their time,” Lotz said. “I realized that the Nortons’ mission from a century ago offers a wonderful opportunity for us today: the chance to engage readers from different points of view in a dialogue of ideas, connected by a shared love of storytelling. We thought about what it would mean to apply that mission to books for young readers, and how, with Norton Waverly, we could accomplish the task of bridging the children’s and adult audiences by publishing books that people of different ages can read together and share.”

The plan is to grow the imprint’s list to approximately six new titles annually, with a commitment to “creating single, spectacular reading experiences,” Lotz said. Noting that “reading in our time is often ‘unbound,’ ” she said that Norton Waverly plans to offer ebook and, whenever suitable, audiobook editions of its titles. She added, “Our hope, though, is that our centerpiece offerings will live between two covers. Nothing matches the pleasure of holding a physical book in one’s hands or the magic of sharing it with people in your life. Those experiences are timeless.”

While Lotz emphasized the imprint’s goal of establishing a strong retail footing and partnering with booksellers, she also recognized the importance of securing a good presence in the school market. “We want our books, with the high quality of their content and artwork, to be friendly for teachers, librarians, and story times,” she said. “That is historically one of Norton’s strengths, and our goal is to do the same with the Norton Waverly imprint.”

Titles that will appear on future Norton Waverly lists represent an eclectic range of creators and subject areas. These include Heir to Magic, a duology by frequent author-illustrator collaborators Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, which reimagines the world of Arthurian legend; and two books by Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize–winning musician and author Rhiannon Giddens, the first of which is a yet untitled multi-narrative illustrated history of the banjo.

Norton Waverly will also introduce works by two authors who are new to the children’s book world: scientist Agathe Chave-Lucas, whose debut novel, The Many Revolutions of Sophie Germain, is based on this 18th-century mathematician; and Sugpiaq biologist Autumn Loyal Watkins, who has written two books of stories based on her childhood memories of growing up as a proud member of the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Recalling the company’s beginnings on Waverly Place, Lotz pointed out that Norton’s new imprint underscores the publisher’s commitment to its original mission. “The Nortons exhorted us to create ‘Books That Live,’ she said. “Norton Waverly hopes to do just that by publishing dazzling narratives that are worthy of legacy—joyful books created to last.”