children's & YA recommendations on the go
The Bookseller reports that Bonnier imprint Hot Key has signed Elizabeth Acevedo (winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal) in a six-figure three-book 3-book deal, consisting of:
Andersen Press has acquired Evernight, the first in a trilogy by Blue Peter Award-winning author Ross MacKenzie [pictured above].
Charlie Sheppard, Publishing Director of Andersen Press, bought World rights at auction from Stephanie Thwaites at Curtis Brown in the biggest fiction acquisition for Andersen in recent years.
The book is described as t “a darkly magical adventure story, with a strong mixed-race heroine, perfect for fans of Northern Lights and Nevermoor.”
It will publish with a large-scale marketing and publicity campaign, which will include an author tour across the UK, marketing spend and point of sale material for the trade, and a school-focussed sampler campaign. Proof copies will be available in the summer, ahead of a March 2020 release.
Charlie Sheppard, Andersen Press’ Publishing Director, has said, “At Andersen Press I’ve always had the luxury of being able to publish books that I would have devoured as a child. Evernight, for me, has the perfect combination of magic, intrigue, twists and world-building that my inner child still can’t resist. I’m so very pleased and proud to be publishing this book and can’t wait to get it into the hands of children everywhere.”
Interesting sounding title coming from Andersen Press in September:
Chinglish – an illustrated diary from the perspective of a teenage, first-generation, British Chinese girl.
A coming-of-age story about a girl growing up above a Chinese takeaway in the West Midlands in the 1980s by Sue Cheung.
The publisher is describing the book as “East is East meets Georgia Nicolson in a Chinese takeaway”.
World rights were acquired from literary agent James Catchpole.
The Madeleine Milburn agency has sold UK & Commonwealth rights to Damaris Young’s debut middle-grade book, The Switching Hour to Lauren Fortune at Scholastic in a two-book deal.
Due for publication in August 2019 the book is inspired by the landscapes and legends from Damaris’ childhood growing up in Southern Africa, telling the story of a girl called Amaya…
Damaris is a middle-grade author who wrote The Switching Hour whilst on the Bath Spa MA. She spent her childhood in Zambia where she was told local myths and stories which now influence her writing. She has since moved to Bristol where she works on building worlds and adventures for MG readers with strong friendships at the heart of them.
In 2018, Madeleine Milburn won Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards. She was praised for her ‘prolific deal-making‘ andis known as a ‘tenacious negotiator and an excellent collaborator with a nose for commercial success’.
HarperCollins has announced that it will publish two new books by Veronica Roth, bestselling YA author of the Divergent series and the Carve the Mark duology…
First up… will be a collection of short stories, titled The End and Other Beginnings: Stories from the Future, which take place in future worlds that feature advanced technology.
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The End and Other Beginnings: Stories from the Future is slated for publication in fall 2019; Roth’s untitled YA novel is anticipated in 2021.
Nosy Crow has bought two books from a Bath Spa University MA graduate in a pre-empt providing “cross company excitement and a clear publishing vision” within 48 hours of submission.
Kirsty Applebaum’s first novel, The Middler, won the 2016 United Agents Prize for Most Promising Writing for Young People, and will be published next year “accompanied by an ambitious marketing and PR campaign”.
The children’s indie publisher’s head of fiction, Kirsty Stansfield, bought world rights from Nancy Miles at the Miles Stott Agency.
The Middler is a “gripping story” aimed at nine to 12-year-olds featuring forbidden friendship, loyalty and betrayal set in a near-future world.
Stansfield described the quality of writing by Winchester-based Applebaum as “superb”. She said: “I was immediately drawn into Maggie’s world and wanted to know all about her, and the quiet menace underpinning everything.”
Kate Wilson, m.d at Nosy Crow said: “It had me at the first page – such a great voice. It’s unusual to find such perfectly-pitched middle-grade fiction, and I think it has real international potential.”
via Nosy Crow snaps up Bath Spa graduate’s debut | The Bookseller.
as reported in The Bookseller:
Nosy Crow is to publish two new series of books by Usborne editor Louie Stowell.
Business development manager and commissioning editor Tom Bonnick acquired world rights in four books in two new series from Polly Nolan at the Greenhouse Literary Agency.
The first series, The Dragon in the Library, will be published in January 2018, and features a library run by wizards, a girl called Kit, a dragon, and an evil property developer. Aimed at … readers aged seven to nine, the series will have black and white illustrations throughout.
The second series, Otherworld, for ages nine to 12, follows two friends who must travel to the mysterious Otherworld after the baby brother of one of them has been kidnapped by an evil Faerie Queen.
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Stowell, who has previously written dozens of books in-house, and runs story-writing and comics-making workshops at literary festivals and schools, told The Bookseller: “I’m delighted that The Dragon in the Library has found a home with Nosy Crow. I’ve been a fan of their books for ages, especially their funny fiction. Tom is a wonderful editor, and I feel very lucky.”
via Nosy Crow snaps up Usborne’s Stowell in four book deal | The Bookseller.
Joseph Coelho, award-winning performance poet and advocate for the importance of libraries is to have his first picture book Luna Loves Library Day published by Andersen Press in October. The illustrator is Fiona Lumbers and it will also be her first picture book.
World rights were secured by Libby Hamilton, Andersen Press’ picture book Editorial Director with Felicity Trew at Caroline Sheldon Agency representing the author, and Jodie Hodges at United Agents representing the illustrator.
Luna Loves Library Day is described as “a love letter to the magic of libraries and the worlds they hold from the view point of Luna, whose favourite day of the week is the day she spends with her dad reading stories and choosing books in the library.”
Joseph Coelho was the winner of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) Poetry Award in 2015.
HarperCollins Children’s Books has announced the publication The World Worst Children 2, a new collection from David Walliams. With illustrations by Tony Ross, it will publish in hardback on 25th May 2017.
David’s release of his first volume, The World’s Worst Children, held the industry No.1 slot for three weeks, and the children’s-chart No.1 slot for ten weeks. Success continued throughout 2016 with the book staying 29 weeks in the Children’s Top Ten and exceeding sales of over 500,000 in the UK alone.
David Walliams says, “I wrote the first collection of short stories with the reluctant reader in mind. I wanted to create a book that would be very friendly for children whatever their reading ability, full of surreal humour and colourful illustrations from the great Tony Ross. This new book has all new characters and stories and I am thrilled to be unleashing these horrible children on the world.”
Andersen Press Sign Suffragette YA Novel
Sally Nicholls has joined the Andersen Press list with a suffragette-based YA novel Things a Bright Girl Can Do, set for release in hardback in September 2017. This is the first in a two-book deal signed by Charlie Sheppard, Publishing Director at Andersen Press, negotiated with Jodie Hodges at United Agents. Andersen Press hold world rights.
According to the publisheer, Things a Bright Girl Can Do follows three courageous young women as they join the fight for the vote, through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End.
Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women’s freedom.
May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who’s grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.
Released just before the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which finally allowed women to vote, Things a Bright Girl Can Do comes as our own political landscape is in turmoil, and the protests of those under-represented and marginalised are headline news.
Charlie Sheppard, Publishing Director at Andersen, describes the history behind the book, and signing Sally to the fiction list:
“I have been looking for a book with suffragettes at its heart since 2013, when the Jockey Club did not give Emily Wilding Davison a minute’s of silence to mark the centenary of the fateful day at Epsom Derby when she threw herself under the King’s Horse.
I wanted to publish a book about suffragettes that would reach young people. We commissioned Sally Nicholls, whose writing I have admired for a very long time, to write one for us and the result is stunning and its publication will be a celebration of and testament to the young women of the past who sacrificed so much for us. What they did must never be forgotten or taken for granted.”
Author, Sally Nicholls added, “It’s been a privilege to work on this book, to learn about early feminists and to compare their experiences to the battles still being fought by women today. With all that’s happened in the last year, it feels like such an important story for young readers to hear. Their fight must never be forgotten.”
Things a Bright Girl Can Do will be released September 2017, hardback £12.99
http://www.andersenpress.co.uk/