1993
Like all fairy tales, this story starts in a castle. The very first Castoro headquarters are located in the mezzanine of Belgioioso Castle! A group of friends takes over a publishing trademark of cinema books and relaunches it.
1993–1997
Movies, movies, movies! Il Castoro is the official publisher of the Venice Film Festival. “Castoro Cinema” is still the vastest series ever made about directors, with over 250 monographic titles.
1999
Il Castoro starts publishing children’s books, aiming for the highest quality, always trying to be close to children’s needs and tastes. The first books are…a complete failure, but the following ones are a great success and awards start pouring in.
2007-2008
Crucial years for Il Castoro! We start publishing the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and acquire La Libreria delle Ragazze e dei Ragazzi in Milan, the oldest children’s bookshop in Italy.
2014
We engage with graphic novels for kids, a resounding success from the outset. We start with Raina Telgemeier, and we are now publishing about twenty graphic novels per year, including Italian authors and translations.
2017-2018
We acquire two sister companies: Edizioni Sonda, whose main themes are ethical diets, civil rights, social inclusion, environmental responsibility; and Tunué, whose focus is graphic novels for junior and adult readers.
2023
Il Castoro is the leading independent children’s book publisher in Italy with a catalogue of over 800 children’s books and an avarage of 870.000 copies sold per year. Our books have been translated into 39 languages and… we can’t wait to see what’s next!
