Treehouse Revvs Up to Debut New Preschool Series Trucktown on Saturday, September 6 at 4 p.m. ET

Nelvana Studio brings popular children's book to life in new CGI animated series

Trucktown author Jon Sciezska to make special appearance at Treehouse Big Day Out in Toronto on September 13 and 14

TORONTO, Sept. 2, 2014 /CNW/ - Corus Entertainment's preschool channel Treehouse is revving up to premiere Trucktown (80 x 11 minutes), a rough and tumble series that follows a group of rambunctious young trucks in their ultimate playground. Produced by Nelvana Studio, Trucktown is based on a successful series of books by renowned children's author Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, The Time Warp Trio, Spaceheadz) and published by Simon & Schuster, which includes over 50 titles and has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. The new CGI animated series premieres on Treehouse on Saturday, September 6 at 4 p.m. ET. Kids can visit www.trucktown.com for a sneak peek of the series as well as fun activities and games.

"We're excited to be bringing Trucktown to Treehouse," said Jamie Piekarz, Director of Content, Corus Kids. "Our young viewers will love the vibrant personalities of all the trucks crashing, smashing and playing their way through each episode's adventures."

The new CGI animated series, centres around Jack Truck, his best friends Dump Truck Dan and Monster Truck Max (the Monster Truck), and the rest of the truck gang as they roar, romp and power their way through Trucktown. This group of friends have never met a wall they couldn't smash or a (road or) bridge they couldn't build up —and smash down again. Filled with good old-fashioned kid fun, Trucktown is an exciting place, where smashing and crashing and building and breaking are the (only) best ways to play.

"We're thrilled to extend Jon Scieszka's beloved series of books into a fun and entertaining brand for kids," said Andrew Kerr, Co-Head of Nelvana Enterprises. "As a channel that kids love and parents trust, Treehouse is the perfect home to launch the Trucktown brand for preschoolers in Canada."

Author Jon Scieszka will make a special appearance at Treehouse Big Day Out, a two-day family festival featuring The Wiggles, Splash'N Boots, and other Treehouse characters, taking place on September 13 and 14 at Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in Toronto where he will introduce an episode of Trucktown.

The author's latest book in the Trucktown series, "Race from A to Z," will be released later this fall. Scieszka, penned the series from inspiration during his ten years as an elementary school teacher, in which he noticed many boys weren't interested in reading and wanted to create a world boys would want to be a part of and would motivate them to read. The first book in the series, "Smash! Crash!" published in 2008 became a New York Times best seller. Scieszka also founded Guys Read Guy, a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers and he was appointed the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, a position created by the Library of Congress to raise national awareness of the importance of young people's literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.

About Treehouse
Treehouse offers premium preschool programming and a rich co-viewing environment for children and their parents. Delivering a strong balance of educational, values-rich and entertaining programs, Treehouse delivers high-quality children's series from Canada and around the world. A parent-trusted brand, Treehouse's highly interactive website, TreehouseTV.com reaches over half-a-million moms per month. Treehouse is part of Corus Entertainment's family of kids brands including YTV, Nickelodeon (Canada), TELETOON, Cartoon Network, Nelvana Studio and Kids Can Press. Treehouse is owned by Corus Entertainment Inc., a Canadian-based media and entertainment company. Learn more about Treehouse at www.treehousetv.com.

About Nelvana
Nelvana is a world-leading international producer and distributor of children's animated and live-action content. Nelvana is comprised of Nelvana Studio and its distribution arm Nelvana Enterprises and owned by Corus Entertainment Inc. Nelvana Studio produces a stable of award-winning and globally renowned brands that focus on comedies, preschool and boys action series and ancillary consumer products programs. Nelvana's content airs on Corus Entertainment's kids channels in Canada and in over 160 countries around the world. The Nelvana library has well over 4,000 episodes of programming and has received over 70 major international program awards including Emmys® and Geminis. Visit the Nelvana website at nelvana.com.

For high-resolution images, please visit: http://mediacentre.corusent.com.

Follow Corus PR on Twitter @CorusPR
Follow Treehouse on Twitter @TreehouseTV

SOURCE: Treehouse

Kate Calder, Publicist, Corus Entertainment, 416.479.6319, [email protected]