Jumbo

The publishing house and its history

According to the motto »For children only the best«, the publishing house JUMBO in Hamburg has been publishing exciting high-quality audiobooks for over 25 years. The labels GoyaLiT and Goya libre provide audiobooks for adults and adolescents. Along with other entrepreneurs, Gabriele Swiderski and Ulrich Maske founded JUMBO in 1991. The red elephant-logo, which provides high brand recognition, was designed by Jutta Bauer. Overall, the program includes more than 1200 titles. With more than 30 current employees, the JUMBO publishing house ranks among the largest audiobook publishers in Germany and continues to remain independent from other corporate groups. Many of JUMBO’s productions have been ranked on the »hr2-Hörbuchbestenliste« and have received numerous awards, such as the »Deutsche Schallplattenkritik« prize.

Program

In JUMBO’s audiobooks, characters like »Bobo Siebenschläfer« or »Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt« excite listeners from the age of two upwards. Important components of the program are well known series such as ›Die Nordseedetektive‹ or ›Die Zeitdetektive‹ that take the listener to distant lands and past times. The ›Wieso? Weshalb? Warum?‹ series does not only inform but is fun as well. JUMBO furthermore publishes audiobooks of texts by renowned authors, including Kirsten Boie (»Der kleine Ritter Trenk«) or Andreas H. Schmachtl (›Tilda Apfelkern‹, ›Snöfrid‹) are part of the program too.

Artists such as Matthias Meyer-Göllner, Ulrich Maske, Bettina Göschl, Robert Metcalf and others contribute to the musical diversity of the program. Marko Simsa aims to and succeeds in excitingly introducing classical music to children. Colorful picture books and children’s books complete the program.

The label Goya libre publishes audiobooks for adolescents. Cornelia Funke’s »Tintenwelt«, Kirsten Boie’s »Alhambra«, Monika Feth’s »Der Erdbeerpflücker«, the audio dramas »Krabat« and »Die Welle« as well as youth novels by Antje Babendererde and Morton Rhue combine suspense with literary form. Dystopias and fantasy-trilogies by Tracy Banghart, Bianca Iosivoni or Kiera Cass are as much a stable component of JUMBO’s program as is the popular series ›Die Legende der Wächter‹ by Kathryn Lasky.

Renowned actors and actresses lend their voices to the stories: Katharina Thalbach, Regina Lemnitz, Stefan Kaminski, Dietmar Wunder, Josefine Preuß, Jürgen Uter, Karl Menrad, Robert Missler, Julia Nachtmann, Rainer Strecker, Jacob Weigert, Julian Greis and Bernd Stephan among others.

JUMBO is also publishing books for many years. The program involves colorfull illustrated picture books, age-appropriate stories and classic literature for the whole family.

The spectrum ranges from picture books to read aloud and discover, to age-appropriate stories with cheeky illustrations and to colorfully illustrated classic literature for young and old.

Besides lovely illustrated picture books by Rocio Bonilla and children's books like the series "Die Nordseedetektive" by Bettina Göschl and the successful author Klaus-Peter Wolf, JUMBO is publishing books with stories, songs and games based on productions from the listening program.