New York, April 30, 2004 - Holtzbrinck Publishers today acquired the assets of Roaring Brook Press from The Millbrook Press, Inc., announced John Sterling, President and Publisher of Henry Holt, one of the Holtzbrinck trade publishers.

The terms of the purchase, which was brokered by Robin Warner of the Van Tulleken Company, were not disclosed. Roaring Brook, an innovative publisher of high quality children's books, is now a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership and will publish its first list with Holtzbrinck this coming fall.

Founded in 2001, Roaring Brook Press published its debut list of books in spring 2002. Less than a year later, in January 2003, one of its picture books, Eric Rohmann's My Friend Rabbit, won the Caldecott Medal. Another Roaring Brook picture book-Mordicai Gerstein's The Man Who Walked Between the Towers-won the Caldecott Medal in January 2004, the first time in thirty years that the Caldecott has been awarded to the same publisher two years in a row.

Roaring Brook, which is based in Connecticut, publishes about forty titles a year, half of them picture books and half novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Directed by Publisher Simon Boughton (who will report to Sterling), the Roaring Brook staff includes Neal Porter, Deborah Brodie, and Lauren Wohl, all of whom are veterans of the children's book business. The Roaring Brook staff will make its own editorial, marketing, and publishing decisions, but the division will be closely affiliated with Henry Holt. Holt and Holtzbrinck will provide sales, subsidiary rights, production, distribution and other support services.

"The phenomenal success of Roaring Brook Press, still only three years old, speaks volumes about the creative talents of Simon Boughton and his extraordinary publishing team," Sterling said. "Roaring Brook has a dazzling future, and we are delighted that the Press is now part of the Holtzbrinck family."

Simon Boughton commented, "Holtzbrinck is made up of diverse, highly regarded and independent-minded companies, and I speak for myself and my colleagues when I say that we're thrilled to be joining the group. We look forward to working with Holtzbrinck-and with the Holt team in particular, whose enthusiasm and experience offer Roaring Brook a world of opportunity and a bright future."

The U.S. Holtzbrinck group, a subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, GMbH, includes the trade publishing houses of Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Henry Holt and Company; St. Martin's Press; Tor Books; Picador; and Audio Renaissance. Also included are Palgrave Macmillan, the academic and scholarly publishing company; the Bedford Freeman Worth college publishing group; and Scientific American.