Author-illustrator James Burks has two book deals, each for two books. The first picture book,Pigs and a Blanket, stars pig siblings Henrietta and Henry, who have difficulty sharing the blanket they both love. Stephanie Lurie at Disney-Hyperion acquired world rights at auction. And Jessica Young will write, with Burks to illustrate, a new series with Scholastic's Branches early chapter book line, called Haggis and Tank Unleashed. In the first book, Tank (a clumsy Great Dane) and her best friend Haggis (a dapper Scottie dog), are bored and decide to go on an imaginative pirate adventure. Two books sold to Katie Carella at Scholastic took world rights. Kelly Sonnack at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency brokered both deals.
Virginia Duncan at Greenwillow has bought two more novels from Falling into Place author Amy Zhang, in a six-figure deal. Both books will be contemporary YA stories in the same vein as Zhang's debut. The two books are tentatively titled This Is Where the World Ends andMemento Mori, and both address themes of love and death. They are scheduled for fall 2015 and 2016; Emily S. Keyes at Foreword Literary did the deal for world English rights.
Michelle Nagler at Random House has acquired world rights to The Quirks author Erin Soderberg's new chapter book series, Puppy Pirates. The series follows a crew of canine swashbucklers and their boy companion as they sail the seven seas. The first volume,Stowaway!, is due out in fall 2015; Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management negotiated the deal.
Connie Hsu at Roaring Brook has bought Bright Lights, Dark Nights, an illustrated YA novel by Stephen Emond, author of Happyface. Illustrated with black-and-white drawings, the books is a story about first love and what happens when the boy, who is white, and the girl, who is black, find themselves in the middle of a racial profiling case. Publication is set for spring 2015; Kirby Kim at Janklow & Nesbit brokered the deal for North American rights.
Andrea Spooner and Deirdre Jones at Little, Brown have acquired world rights to Lauren A. Mills's middle-grade debut, Minna's Patchwork Coat, about an impoverished Appalachian family in the early 20th century that can't afford a warm coat for eight-year-old Minna, until her neighbors create one using pieces of cloth that each represent a special story. It's an expansion of Mills's picture book, The Rag Coat, which Little, Brown published in 1991, and features black-and-white illustrations by the author. Publication is scheduled for fall 2015; the author represented herself in the deal.
Wendy Lamb at Random House's Wendy Lamb Books bought North American rights to a companion book to the 2013 documentary film, Girl Rising, to be written by Tanya Lee Stone. The book will build on the stories of the film's nine girls from different developing countries who confront and overcome tremendous challenges to achieve their dreams of education. Publication is slated for fall 2016. The six-figure deal was co-agented by Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio for the author, and Scott Waxman of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency for Girl Rising.
Noa Wheeler at Henry Holt took world English rights for three books by debut author Claire Fayers. The first book, The Voyage to the Magical North, tells the story of 12-year-old Brine Seaborne. who joins a pirate ship on a perilous adventure through ghost-infested storms and oceans filled with man-eating penguins, all to find the magical top of the world. Publication is set for spring 2016.
Andrea Davis Pinkney of Scholastic has acquired at auction Américas Award-winning author Laura Resau's The Impossible Caravan, in which an indigenous boy and a Romani (Gypsy) girl form a friendship in rural Mexico that spans the rest of their lives. It will publish in 2015; Erin Murphy of Erin Murphy Literary Agency brokered the deal, which includes a second middle-grade novel, for world rights.
Liza Kaplan at Philomel bought at auction a YA novel by NBA finalist Carrie Arcos. In Neruda in Love, an unlucky-in-love 16-year-old boy with a penchant for poetry but an inability to write his own falls harder than he ever thought possible for the elusive Callie, and wonders if his luck may finally be changing. Publication is scheduled for 2016; Kerry Sparks of Levine Greenberg Rostan negotiated the two-book deal for world English rights.
Ken Geist has acquired world rights to a picture book by Lauren Thompson (l.), Goodnight, Bunny, a bedtime story illustrated by Sabina Gibson. It's scheduled for spring 2016 publication; the author represented herself, and Kirsten Hall at Catbird Productions represented the illustrator. Geist also bought world rights to Gibson's first picture book as both author and illustrator. The still-untitled story will feature a fantastical world inhabited by mythical creatures, and is slated for spring 2017. Kirsten Hall at Catbird Productions did the deal.
Anne Schwartz at Random House's Schwartz & Wade Books bought world rights to Giselle Potter's This Is My Dollhouse, about a girl who prefers her homemade dollhouse to her friend's store-bought one. It's set for fall 2016 publication; the author represented herself.
Christy Ottaviano at Henry Holt's Christy Ottaviano Books has acquired Pablo in the Snow, a picture book about a little sheep who discovers snow for the first time, by Teri Sloat, illustrated by Rosalinde Bonnet. It's scheduled for fall 2016; Abigail Samoun at Red Fox Literary negotiated the deal for world English rights for both the author and the illustrator.
