Macmillan Kids' Nabs Schroeder Fantasy Effort
Christy Ottaviano, for her eponymous children's imprint at Henry Holt, bought world English rights to Lisa Schroeder's first foray into YA fantasy, Impossibly Small. Schroeder, author of the forthcoming The Day Before (Simon Pulse), works off of a Rapunzel-like setup in Impossibly Small: young Violet has spent the first 10 years of her life locked in a tower with her mother until she gets an offer to live in the castle with her captor, an evil queen. The offer forces Violet to make an impossible choice. Sara Crowe at the Harvey Klinger agency closed the deal.

Woodruff Moves into Fiction
After publishing two nonfiction bestsellers with Random House—In an Instant, written with her husband Bob, and the essay collection Perfectly Imperfect—Lee Woodruff is moving to Hyperion for her first novel. Ellen Archer at Voice took North American (and nonexclusive open market audio) rights, from Richard Pine at Inkwell Management. The currently untitled work is told from the perspective of four members of the Corrigan family after the clan suffers a shocking tragedy. Hyperion is comparing the work to novels by writers like Anna Quindlan and Jacquelyn Mitchard. The book is slated for summer 2012, and Voice senior editor Christine Pride will edit.

Putnam Kids Ponies Up for YA Debut
In a high six-figure world rights deal, Arianne Lewin, executive editor at G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, bought three books by Jessica Spotswood, including the debut novel Born Wicked (formerly called Thrice Blessed). Agent Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich brokered the deal for Spotswood. Born Wicked, set in what the publisher calls "a world of tea parties, engagements, and elegant dresses," follows the Cahill sisters, a trio of teen witches who must hide their powers in order to save themselves from being shipped off to prison or a mental ward. Spotswood, who is from a small Pennsylvania town, lives in Washington, D.C.

Crown Delves into Murder, Circa 1800
John Glusman, executive editor at Crown, acquired world rights to Paul Collins's Duel with the Devil. Collins is a regular NPR contributor, and his forthcoming book, Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid War is being published by Crown in June. In Duel, Collins delves into the first recorded murder trial in the new country, in which New York City carpenter Levi Weeks was accused of killing a woman he had been wooing. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton came on as Weeks's defense lawyers and, according to Glusman, the case marks the nation's "oldest murder mystery." Agent Michelle Tessler, of Tessler Literary Agency, brokered the deal, and the book is scheduled for June 2013.