Natalie Portman to Publish Picture Book with Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

Academy Award-winning actress, director, producer and activist Natalie Portman has signed with Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group imprint, Feiwel and Friends, to publish NATALIE PORTMAN’S FABLES, a collection of retellings of three classic fables that emphasize empathy, inclusivity, and humor, gorgeously illustrated by debut artist Janna Mattia. NATALIE PORTMAN’S FABLES will be published on October 20, 2020.

“Reading stories is one of the first ways we start practicing empathy. We feel for characters in stories as we might for ourselves or our own friends,” Portman said. “These classic tales have great messages (hard work pays off, perseverance and grit win over hubris and haste, abundance can be dangerous), but I hope they just feel like great stories we want to read again and again, the way I do with my children’s favorites.”

In The Tortoise and the Hare, the slick and confident Hare meets the patient and focused Tortoise. When Hare challenges Tortoise to a race, Hare believes that shy Tortoise doesn’t stand a chance. But as Hare learns, bragging about one’s abilities doesn’t make one a winner. In The Three Little Pigs, the two pigs whose houses are made of disposable plastic don’t stand a chance against the Wolf. But the pig whose house is made with greener materials survives the Wolf, and helps keep the Earth green. In Country Mouse and City Mouse, two mouse cousins sample one another’s differing lifestyles. In the end, both mice realize there is no “right” way to live.

“I am privileged to be working with the deeply talented author, Natalie Portman,” said Jean Feiwel, Publisher of Feiwel and Friends. “Her storytelling is witty and wise and the stories will reverberate long after you are done reading. I can’t wait to have you read NATALIE PORTMAN’S FABLES.”

Feiwel acquired North American rights for NATALIE PORTMAN’S FABLES from CAA, and will coedit with Liz Szabla.

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Natalie Portman is best known as an actor whose credits include Black Swan, for which she won an Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress; Leon: The Professional, Cold Mountain, Closer, V for Vendetta, the Star Wars franchise prequels, A Tale of Love and Darkness, Jackie, and the forthcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, she is a graduate of Harvard University, and now lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Jenna Mattia was born and raised in San Diego. She received a degree in Illustration for Entertainment from Laguna College of Art and Design, and now works on concept and character art for film, illustration for licensing, and private commissions. This is her picture book debut.

About Macmillan:

Macmillan Publishers is a global trade book publishing company with prominent imprints around the world. Macmillan publishes a broad range of award-winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats.

US publishers include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt and Company, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Picador, St. Martin’s Press and Tor/Forge. In the UK, Australia, India and South Africa, Macmillan publishes under the Pan Macmillan name. The German company, Holtzbrinck Deutsche Buchverlage, includes among its imprints, S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Rowohlt and Droemer Knaur.

Macmillan Publishers is a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large family-owned media company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.