Debut picture book builds international buzz
Scribble, has sold rights to two forthcoming children’s books: world rights (ex ANZ) to Antonia Pesenti’s board book Rhyme Cordial were sold to Phaidon ahead of its Australian release date in May, and Daniel Gray-Barnett’s picture book Grandma Z has been sold into three territories, with French rights sold to Seuil Jeunesse, Spanish rights to Ediciones Siruela and North American rights to Kids Can Press. Scribble said it is ‘thrilled that [Gray-Barnett’s] book is creating such a buzz internationally, months before it hits bookstore shelves in Australia [in March]’. All deals were negotiated by Veronique Kirchhoff of the VeroK Agency.
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to debut author Kay Kerr’s (pictured) YA novel, Please Don’t Hug Me, via Danielle Binks at Jacinta di Mase Management. Kerr’s novel is about ‘a neuro-diverse and socially awkward [high-school] student, who is dealing with tragedy by writing letters, ditching her sham friends, and discovering true companionship in the most unlikely of places—a mature-age women’s clothing shop’. Publication is expected in late 2018 or early 2019.
Walker Books Australia has acquired middle-grade fiction title Elizabella Meets Her Match by Australian television presenter and comedian Zoe Norton Lodge and her sister Georgia, a graphic designer and illustrator. Norton Lodge described Elizabella as ‘smart and ambitious, brave and cheeky, and a pretty fabulous writer’, who ‘doesn’t always make the right choices.’
A number of Australian junior-fiction titles with a scientific bent have secured recent rights deals. Black Inc. has sold North American rights to How to Win a Nobel Prize (Barry Marshall & Lorna Hendry) to Kane Miller, ahead of the book’s Australian release in April. Marshall, who won a Nobel Prize for his medical research, has collaborated with children’s author Hendry on this ‘time-travel adventure aimed at budding young scientists’. The book has also sold into Hungary to Könyvmolyképző Kiadó. Fremantle Press has sold Korean rights to James Foley’s STEM-centric junior graphic novels Brobot and Dungzilla to Booknbean Publishing. The books follow Sally, ‘the foremost inventor under the age of twelve’, and the accidents and mishaps that seem to follow all of her inventions.
Film and television
Penguin Random House Australia has sold the film option to middle-grade novel The Shark Caller (Dianne Wolfer) to Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions. Wolfer’s novel centres on a 14-year-old girl, Izzy, and blends magic inspired by Papua New Guinean legends and traditions with contemporary issues such as environmental conservation in the Pacific.
Other recent rights sales of Australian books include:
Picture books
- Allen & Unwin has sold Korean and French rights to I Just Ate My Friend (Heidi McKinnon), a twisted tale about a seemingly remorseful monster’s search for a new friend after it ate its previous companion.
- Penguin Random House Australia has licensed North American rights to Go Go and the Silver Shoes (Jane Godwin & Anna Walker) to Candlewick.
- Scholastic has sold simplified Chinese-language rights to two titles: Boy (Phil Cummings & Shane Devries), about a deaf boy who resolves problems by seeing the world a bit differently; and Bruce Whatley’s wordless, 120-page picture book Ruben, about a young street child who scavenges in the ruins of abandoned buildings.
Younger readers
- Allen & Unwin has sold Turkish-language rights to the middle-grade narrative nonfiction book Into the White: Scott’s Antarctic Odyssey (Joanna Grochowicz).
- Text has sold Portuguese rights to The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls (Adam Cece) to Castor de Papel, and Dutch rights to the book and its sequel, The Incredibly Scary Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls, to Lannoo.
Young adult
- Black Inc. has sold US and French rights to Girlish: An Empowering Journal for the Twenty-first Century Girl (Alana Wulff) to Kensington Books and Hachette Roman, respectively. The publisher describes it as a ‘fun-filled self-led discovery course in feminism for teenage girls’.
- Penguin Random House Australia has sold Canadian rights to Will Kostakis’ The Sidekicks—about three teens grieving their mutual friend—to Harlequin Teen.
See the latest Australian rights sales and acquisitions news here.
Category: Think Junior rights sales
