It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer[1] and then acquired by the Penguin Group in 1975.

Its books have won the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and include such books as The Twenty-One Balloons, written and illustrated by William Pene du Bois (1947, Newbery medal winner for 1948), Corduroy, Make Way for Ducklings, The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1993), The Outsiders, Pippi Longstocking, and The Story of Ferdinand.

Its paperbacks are now published by Puffin Books, which includes the Speak and Firebird imprints.

In 2023, Tamar Brazis was named v-p and publisher of Viking Children's Books.

[4] The Viking Critical Library offers academic editions of literary texts.