Short Takes

A Newbery Honor writer, Audrey Couloumbis, has signed a two-book deal with Shana Corey at Random/Golden Books Young Readers Group. The first book, The Misadventures of Maude March, is about a pair of feisty orphaned sisters who head west after fleeing their guardians; it was signed, along with a sequel, with Jill Grinberg at Anderson Grinberg for what she called a "significant" sum for North American rights.... British historian Frederick Taylor, whose revisionist story of the Dresden bombing in WWII drew praise here and at home, has signed again with Harper's Dan Conaway for an extensive history of the Berlin Wall as fact and symbol. He got North American rights from Emma Parry at Fletcher & Parry on behalf of U.K. agent Jane Turnbull, who has sold the book to Bloomsbury's Bill Swainson for the rest of the English-speaking world.... Broadway's Charlie Conrad bought a book that combines racy travel memoir and food called Foraging for Dinner by a young New York chef, David Shalleck (writing with Erol Munuz), who tells of his internships at various European restaurants and his spell as private chef on an Italian billionaire's yacht on the Riviera. Conrad bought world rights from agent Susan Rabiner.... What is claimed to be the first major study of French leader Charles de Gaulle by an American was signed by Terry Karten for Harper; it's by Princeton alum Steven Englund, who teaches at the University of Paris, and was signed for North American rights with agent Georges Borchardt .... Movie producer John H. Williams, who originally brought Shrek! to the screen, has now signed another work by the late William Steig as a possible movie. It's The Zabajaba Jungle, in which a boy seeks his captive parents in a mysterious jungle. Williams signed with the Steig estate in a deal brokered by Fredda Rose of Monteiro-Rose-Dravis and Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties.