Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn.

[1][a] It became the publisher of Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee, Charles Johnson, James Merrill, Nikki Giovanni, Mona Van Duyn and Theodore H. White.

Knopf recruited editor Jean E. Karl to establish a Children's Book Department in 1961.

[6][7] In the 2000s, the Simon & Schuster imprint Atheneum Books for Young Readers published the popular May Bird fantasy series for young adults, inaugurated by May Bird and the Ever After (2005), and the Olivia series of picture books featuring Olivia the pig (from 2000).

In a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery as one of its Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children.