Frankfurt Book Fair 2011: Children's Literature Foreign Rights Guide

Frankfurt Book Fair 2011: Children’s Literature Foreign Rights Guide FOUNDRY LITERARY + MEDIA

International Co-Agents: The Riff Agency, Brazil Abner Stein, Britain Andrew Nurnberg Associates: Eastern Europe, Netherlands, Russia, China, Taiwan, Scandinavia La Nouvelle Agence, France Mohrbooks, Germany Read n’ Right, Greece Deborah Harris Agency, Israel Luigi Bernabo, Italy Tuttle-Mori, Japan Korea Copyright Center, Korea Graal Agency, Poland MB Agencia Literaria: Spain, Portugal, & Latin America Tuttle-Mori, Thailand Akcali Copyright, Turkey

Foreign Rights Director: Stéphanie Abou │ 212.929.0161 │ [email protected]

Foreign Rights Associate: Hannah Brown Gordon │ 212.601.9330 │ [email protected]

Foundry Literary + Media

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Children’s Literature

YOUNG ADULT ILLUMINATE Aimee Agresti Harcourt Children’s Delivered Pub: March 2012 Agent: Stéphanie Abou Foreign Sales: Germany: Goldmann (three-book deal); Italy: Nord (three-book deal); Lithuania: Media Incognito

“Who lives in a hotel? Only rock stars and celebrities and maybe those messed up starlets who, like, divorce their parents.” . . . and now, straight-A suburban high school student Haven Terra. She moves into Chicago’s swanky Lexington Hotel for a prestigious internship shadowing the powerful, alluring, and startlingly young owner, Aurelia Brown. Here, Haven has her first taste of decadence, as she meets city’s A-listers, works alongside Aurelia’s stunning minions known as the Outfit, and frequents the hotel’s exclusive nightclub. In her old life, Haven was ordinary. But at the Lexington, she’s being transformed—and being pursued by Lucian Grove, the guy of her dreams and Aurelia’s second in command. As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that the beautiful people on the Lexington’s staff are not quite what they seem—and that they have a horrifying plan in store for the hotel’s unsuspecting guests. Aurelia and company are in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them, or will she rise up and fight back in time to save her classmates on prom night at the hotel? Part The Picture of Dorian Gray, part Hush, Hush, ILLUMINATE is an exciting saga of a teen’s realization of her extraordinary destiny. Aimee Agresti has honed her skills as an entertainment journalist at the most prestigious publications from US Magazine where she was a staff writer until recently to The Washington Post. This is her first novel. Praise for ILLUMINATE: “Part The Picture of Dorian Gray, part The Devil Wears Prada, Agresti has created an original and engrossing story that will keep surprising readers right up to the thrilling climax.” – Josephine Angelini, author of Starcrossed


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CREWEL Gennifer Albin

Farrar, Straus Children’s Del: October 2011 Pub: October 2012 Agent: Mollie Glick Foreign Sales: Brazil: Agir (three-book deal); Britain: Faber & Faber Children’s (three-book deal); Germany: Egmont/INK (three-book deal); Russia: AST (three-book deal); Spain: Alfaguara Juvenil (three-book deal); Turkey: Dogan Egmont (three-book deal) Incapable. Awkward. Artless.That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail. Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested. But when Adelice slips and weaves a moment during her final test, her gift is identified. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape. Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back. Inspired by the Remedios Varo painting Embroidering The Earth’s Mantle, CREWEL reads like the beautiful beautiful mixture of A Wrinkle in Time, The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale. The author, Gennifer Albin, holds a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Missouri. During her student years she served as an editor for Pleaides and The Missouri Review, and since then she's founded the tremendously popular blog Theconnectedmom.com. She also blogs about writing at http://blog.genniferalbin.com.


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DREAMLESS Josephine Angelini

HarperTeen Delivered Pub: May 2012 Agent: Mollie Glick Foreign Sales for STARCROSSED: Brazil: Intrínseca; Britain: Macmillan UK (three-book deal); Catalonia: Grup 62 (three-book deal); Croatia: Naklada-Ljevak; France: Pocket Jeunesse (three-book deal); Germany: Dressler (three-book deal); Greece: Livanis (three-book deal); Hungary: Cicero Publisher; Israel: Matar (three-book deal); Italy: Giunti Editore (three-book deal); Romania: RAO (three-book deal); Russia: Exmo; Poland: Amber (three-book deal); Portugal: Planeta Portugal (three-book deal); Serbia: Laguna (three-book deal) Spain: Roca (three-book deal); Sweden: Bonnier Carlsen (three-book deal); Thailand: Amarin Printing (three-book deal); Taiwan: Sun Color (three-book deal);Turkey: Altin Kitaplar (three-book deal)

DREAMLESS opens just two weeks after the end of Starcrossed, and Helen is in two kinds of hell—a night time

hell where she slogs through the Underworld trying to find a way to defeat the Furies, and a daytime hell where she and Lucas are cousins. To Helen, the daytime hell is way worse. Lucas barely speaks to her, and has literally disappeared from her life, in the hopes that it can help her better deal with their predicament. While in the Underworld Helen meets Orion, a Rogue Scion, and Heir to two Houses. Orion has been sent by Daphne to help Helen on her quest. He is funny, a great listener, and a good friend. The more time they get to spend together, the closer they become, and the more feelings they develop towards one another. Helen and Orion set out to find Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, who holds the key to freeing the Scions from the curse of the Furies, but in doing so, they accidentally set the stage for a new Trojan War. Josephine Angelini is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts in theater, with a focus on the classics. A Massachusetts native, Josie now lives in LA with her screenwriter husband and three mangy shelter cats. *STARCROSSED was an international bestseller.

WHITE LINES Jennifer Banash Putnam (World English) Del: October 2011 Pub: Spring 2013 Agent: Lisa Grubka Seventeen-year old Cat is living most teenagers’ dream – she has her own parent-free apartment on the Lower East Side and spends her nights as club-kid royalty working the door at various hotspots. Her life is often more like a nightmare, though – social workers have made clear she can no longer live at home with her abusive mother, and rather than deal with the problem at hand, her father has simply paid for it to go away. She’s also been forced to change schools, leaving behind her closest friend. Alphabet City in the 1980s is no place for a high school student, especially one who’s tough on the outside, scared on the inside. She escapes by submerging herself into the downtown club scene, and ingesting whatever substances help her to forget. When someone comes along that makes her want to stop escaping her life and start living it, though, Cat will finally have to confront the painful skeletons in her closet. WHITE LINES is gritty and atmospheric, and reminiscent of Party Monster and Mommie Dearest with a bit of Gossip Girl. The novel is loosely based on the author’s life. Jennifer Banash has ghostwritten a bestselling Young Adult series for Alloy, and is the author of the Elite series of books. Banash holds a Ph.D. in English from Iowa, and teaches English at a private school in Los Angeles. Foundry Literary + Media

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ALSO KNOWN AS Robin Benway Bloomsbury Del: December 2011 Pub: January 2013 Agent: Lisa Grubka Foreign sales THE EXTRAORDINARY SECRETS OF APRIL, MAY AND JUNE: Catalonia: La Galera; France: Nathan Jeunesse; Germany: Bertelsmann; Holland: de Fontein; Israel: Miskal; Russia: Olma Press; Spain: La Galera; Turkey: Artemis Yayinlari Believe it or not, there are some drawbacks to being a 16-year old safecracker, daughter of spies, and member of a Robin Hood-esque organization that fights corruption. On the list: never getting to stay in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend, being the only spy ever to have a 10 p.m. curfew, and being sent on assignment to Russia. In the winter. For Maggie Silver, the major perk thus far has been the avoidance of high school, and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple Masterlocks on the lockers. (If it’s three digits or less, why even bother?) But when Maggie and her parents are sent to New York on a major assignment, though, all of that changes. She’ll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school’s security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the information she needs to crack the case, all while trying not to blow her cover. Robin Benway is the acclaimed author of Audrey, Wait! (Razorbill, 2008) and The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June (Razorbill, 2010). Audrey, Wait! was a 2009 ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a finalist for a Cybil Award, and a BCCB blue ribbon winner, amongst other honors. The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June was a 2010 ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and has been optioned to NBC Universal for a TV series. Benway’s books have been published in 16 languages, won awards abroad, and been bestsellers in several countries. Formerly a bookseller and book publicist, she lives in Los Angeles.

Balzer & Bray Del: December 2011 Pub: Fall 2013 Agent: Mollie Glick

HOUDINI’S DAUGHTER Teri Brown

Anna Van Housen is thirteen the first time she breaks her mother out of jail. By sixteen she’s street smart and savvy, assisting her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, and easily navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums and mentalists in 1920’s New York City. Handcuffs and sleight of hand illusions have never been much of a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her true gifts secret from her opportunistic mother, who will stop at nothing to gain her ambition of becoming the most famous medium who ever lived. But when a strange, serious young man moves into the flat downstairs, introducing her to a secret society that studies people with gifts like hers, he threatens to reveal the secrets Anna has fought so hard to keep, forcing her to face the truth about her past. Could the stories her mother has told her really be true? Could she really be the illegitimate daughter of the greatest magician of all?

HOUDINI’S DAUGHTER is the first book in a fantastic new series by accomplished freelance writer Teri

Brown. Each book in the series will introduce a new historical figure, whose legend is shrouded in magic, along with the young woman whose fate is irrevocably tied to his. The through line in each of the books will be The Ghost Club, the real life secret society that was founded in 1862 by the likes of Charles Dickens, Sir Conan Doyle, and W. B. Yeats to advance mankind’s knowledge of the paranormal.


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Teri’s work has been published in Women’s Health and Fitness, iParenting Media/Disney Internet group and Writer’s Digest. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children and was inspired to write the first book in this series when she saw a talented teenager performing street magic in her home town.

Harcourt Children’s Delivered Pub: November 2011 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Turkey: Final Yayinlari

WHEREVER YOU GO Heather Davis

Rob Dunworthy’s ghost has a secret: the night he died in a car crash, it wasn’t an accident—it was suicide. Six months later, he’s still looking for closure, hanging around his former girlfriend and friends and desperate to find a way to convey the truth to them before he can move on into the light. Holiday “Holly” Mullen has her own worries: since the tragic death of her boyfriend Rob six months ago, she’s been withdrawing from friends and spending all her time at home, taking care of her kid sister and Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandfather. When it turns out that Grandpa Aldo alone can communicate with Rob and becomes his spirit guide, and when it develops that Holly finds herself falling for Rob’s former best friend Jason, who’s been depressed since Rob’s death, these variously wounded souls collide and conflict before finding the resolution they need to move ahead. Heather Davis is the author of The Clearing and Never Cry Werewolf. Heather lives in Seattle. Praise for WHEREVER YOU GO: “Eerie and sweet, haunting and real — a ghost story of love in its many forms: the kind that binds, and the kind that frees.”—Laini Taylor, National Book Award finalist for Lips Touch: Three Times

Egmont USA Delivered Pub: February 2012 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Brazil: Leya; Germany: Rowohlt

THE BUTTERFLY CLUES Kate Ellison

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad’s consulting job means she’s grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she’s learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place—possessions that allow her to feel some semblance of home. But in the year since her brother Oren’s death, Lo’s hoarding has blossomed into a fullblown, potentially dangerous obsession. She’s already been caught for stealing, and can’t risk another arrest. Then she discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly figurine during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as “Sapphire”—a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can’t get the murder out of her mind. As she attempts to piece together the mysterious “butterfly clues,” with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined—a world, she’ll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother’s tragic death. Kate Ellison grew up in the Baltimore area. Other than writing, she also paints and designs jewelry. Kate lives in Brooklyn, New York. THE BUTTERFLY CLUES is her first novel. Foundry Literary + Media

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* A Paper Lantern Lit property. *

MOTHERSHIP Isla Neal and Martin Leicht

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Delivered Pub: Fall 2011 Agent: Stephen Barbara (co-agented with Joanna Volpe/Nancy Coffey Literary) You’re invited to a baby shower honoring Elvie Nara!* DATE: November 30, 2074 TIME: Afternoon-ish (Will last an entire Earth orbit, give or take) PLACE: The Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers (Be sure to arrive at the shuttleport early—there will only be one launch) *Please note that Miss Nara is not registered anywhere, as this was an unplanned pregnancy (with Cole Archer, who bolted out of town half a millisecond after hearing the news, not that Elvie’s bitter about it or anything). So what with leaving her best bud back on Earth and having to spend her junior year aboard a corny old space cruiser with 45 other hormonal teen girls (one of whom just happens to be her arch-nemesis), she really didn’t have time to pick out the cutest onesies at Babies R Us. Excuse her for living. Hope you can make it! P.S. Keep an eye out for invading alien ships. Isla Neal grew up in Southern California. A former children’s book editor, she earned her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Teens at the New School in New York City, where she currently lives and works. Martin Leicht lives in New York City. A master’s graduate from the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU, Martin decided at the age of three that he wanted to be a writer.

THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU & ME Jess Rothenberg

Dial Books for Young Readers Delivered Pub: February 2012 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Brazil: Rocco; Britain: Puffin/Razorbill (two-book deal); Catalonia: La Galera; France: La Martiniere; Germany: Hanser; Holland: Mynx; Italy: Einaudi Stile Libero; Korea: Viche Korea/Gimm Young; Poland: Amber; Spain: Ediciones B; Taiwan: Crown Taiwan Brie’s life ends at sixteen: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally. But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after. With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces? Jess Rothenberg is a 27 year-old writer and graduate from Vassar College. THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU & ME is her first novel.


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Praise for THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU & ME: "The funniest, sweetest, most heartfelt, sigh-worthy and oh-so-romantic story I've ever read. You'll love it!” – Cynthia Leitich Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Tantalize and Eternal

Simon Pulse Delivered Pub: October 2011 Agent: Stephen Barbara

PAST PERFECT Leila Sales

PAST PERFECT tells the story of 16 year-old Chelsea Glaser, who takes a summer job as a Revolutionary War

re-enactor only to fall in love with a boy in her hometown of Virginia who happens to be a Civil War re-enactor— only to realize they can’t be together, because they “come from different times.” (Except, actually, they come from the same time, i.e. now.) As Chelsea attempts to get over her ex-boyfriend, who broke her heart, and at the same time begin a new relationship that may be seen by her (Revolutionary) friends as treacherous, she explores the validity of her memories and the stories we tell ourselves about the past. Leila Sales grew up outside Boston. She attended the University of Chicago, where she won the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for fiction writing. Since graduating in 2006 she has lived in Brooklyn and worked at Penguin Young Readers Group. She is the author of MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS. Praise for PAST PERFECT: “Ex-boyfriend angst, new-boyfriend jitters and best-friend snits are a heck of a lot funnier when they take place at a historical-reenactment village….Chelsea's narration is peppered with sharp and witty observation….Hilarious costumed hijinks in the spirit of Meg Cabot.” – Kirkus

WHEN YOU WERE MINE Rebecca Serle Simon Pulse Delivered Pub: May 2012 Agent: Mollie Glick Foreign Sales: Britain: Simon & Schuster UK Children’s (two-book deal); Germany: Baumhaus; France: Hachette Jeunesse; Portugal: Planeta Portugal A contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet with a twist, WHEN YOU WERE MINE dares to ask the question: What if the greatest love story ever told was the wrong one? Told from the perspective of Rosaline, the girl Romeo loves first and then promptly gilts for Juliet. Rosaline is your average high school girl – popular but not the center of attention, well-liked by all and everyone assumes it’s only a matter of time before she winds up in a relationship with Rob (aka Romeo). Rob and Rosaline have been best friends since they were kids and have only grown closer over the years. A romantic tension has sizzled in their friendship of late and it bubbles over one day when Rob asks Rosaline out on a date. Rosaline accepts enthusiastically and all seems to go well and certainly headed in the direction of them being a couple. As she always knew they’d be. The next day at school a mysterious girl arrives. Juliet. And suddenly Rosaline is left both heartbroken and in lurch as she looses her best friend and her new boyfriend all in one fell swoop. When the snarky, smartass Len Stephens comes to her rescue after Rob unceremoniously leaves her in the lurch, Rosaline is left wondering if maybe she’d been wrong about Rob all along – maybe he wasn’t her perfect fit. Maybe finding love is more about choice than Rosaline originally thought. The film rights were sold in a bidding war to Fox 2000 with the screen writers of 500 Days of Summer attached, as well as the director of “Grey Gardens”. Rebecca is a Huffington Post contributor. She holds an MFA from The New School and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize This is her first novel


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Praise for WHEN YOU WERE MINE: "By turns heart-stoppingly romantic and heart-poundingly exciting, When You Were Mine is a book you'll want to make yours." – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus co-authors of The Nanny Diaries

THE FORSAKEN Lisa Stasse

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Del: October 2011 Pub: August 2012 Agent: Mollie Glick Foreign Sales: Britain: Orchard/Hachette

Alenna Shawcross is a sixteen-year-old orphan growing up in the United-Northern Alliance-a police state formed from the ashes of Canada, The United States, and Mexico after a global economic meltdown. When Alenna unexpectedly fails a government personality test meant to identify teens who harbor subversive anti-government tendencies – individuals who supposedly are destined to be criminals – she is dispatched to a remote penal colony for political dissidents. Although she’s been warned that the occupants of the island are criminally insane, she soon encounters a faction of rational survivors battling for survival, and discovers that there’s much more to the island (and her past) than she’s been led to believe. Reminiscent of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, THE FORSAKEN, the first book in a trilogy, is also reminiscent of early books by Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson and J.G Ballard. The author, Lisa Stasse, graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Government and English literature, and is currently a digital librarian at UCLA. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and their oneyear-old daughter.

LONERS Quaranteen Book One Lex Thomas Egmont USA Delivered Pub: Summer 2012 Agent: Mollie Glick The Thorpe brothers are on their own. Ever since their mom died, and their dad started drinking, David’s been forced to play parent to his epileptic younger brother, Will. He knows he’s got to teach Will how to take care of himself sooner rather than later. But when an explosion rocks their high school one morning, David realizes he needs to teach Will real survival skills, if the two of them are going to make it out alive. With the explosion, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. The virus only infects teenagers in their peak puberty years, causing them to lose their hair and making them lethal to adults and children. Within minutes, every faculty member is dead. The military quarantines the building, opening fire on any escape attempt and installing bi-weekly food drops. After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, all of the social cliques have developed into gangs—The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Skaters, The Burnouts, The Pretty Ones and Varsity—and without a gang, it’s almost impossible to survive. Things are looking up, until one day David finds the first hair growing back on his head — a sure sign that he’s leaving adolescence, and that he’s about to become vulnerable to the virus. Now it’s up to his motley crew to help him find a way out of the school before the virus kills him.


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Lex Thomas is actually the collective pseudonym for two screenwriting partners, Lex Hrabe and Thomas Vhoories. Lex graduated from the University of Virginia and Thomas graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. This is their first novel

MIDDLE GRADE DOUBLE VISION Lincoln Baker and the Last Protectors: Book 1 F.T. Bradley Harper Children’s Del: October 2011 Pub: Winter 2013 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Brazil: Objetiva Lincoln (“Linc”) Baker is 12 year-old ne'er-do-well who just so happens to be a dead ringer for a junior government agent who's gone missing in the midst of an international hunt for one of the world's most precious artifacts. In the vein of Alex Rider or Artemis Fowl, DOUBLE VISION is the first book in this new middle-grade action/adventure series, which will be followed up by TRIPLE THREAT (book two) and QUAD RULES (book four). F.T. Bradley got her start writing short stories, some of which were published in places like Discount Noir, Stories for Children and Shred of Evidence. She’s originally from the Netherlands, and still likes to travel, like Linc, whenever she gets a chance. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two daughters, where she loves to spend her evenings reading, digging through history books, or watching the History Channel for more story ideas. You can find her on the web at www.fleurbradley.com and http://yasleuth.blogspot.com/ .

POPULAR CLONE M.E. Castle Egmont USA Delivered Pub: January 2012 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Germany: Bertelsmann Fisher Bas hates middle school, a veritable toilet bowl ruled by a group of bullies known as the Vikings. Holed up in his home lab, Fisher uses his scientist mother’s special Human Growth Hormone to clone himself within 36 hours. His plan is to send Fisher-2 to school in his place, to suffer the abuse of Fisher’s peers while Fisher stays at home with his pet, Flying Pig. But Fisher-2 is peskier, and less predictable, than Fisher anticipated. Fisher-2 survives the torture and actually becomes wildly popular, changing Fisher’s view of what his life could be. But when Fisher-2 gets clonenapped by the evil Dr. X, Fisher’s life gets even more confused, and he must set out on an epic adventure to rescue his genetic counterpart.


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M.E. Castle is a writer and actor. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2008 with a degree in Theatre and has written a number of short stories and throughout his college years, he was one of the leading writers of the noir detective radio drama The Dead Hear Footsteps, to which he also lent his vocal talents. Popular Clone is his first novel. * A Paper Lantern Lit property.

LIESL & PO Lauren Oliver

Harper Children’s Delivered Pub: October 2011 Agent: Stephen Barbara Foreign Sales: Britain: Hodder Stoughton; Catalonia: Editorial Cruilla; France: Hachette Jeunesse; Germany: Carlsen; Holland: House of Books; Italy: Piemme; Spain: Ediciones SM; Sweden: Bonnier Carlsen In the tradition of Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux and Neil Gaiman comes a magical, heart-warming debut middle-grade novel from the astonishing young talent Lauren Oliver, author of the acclaimed and bestselling teen novel Before I Fall (Harper). A couple of wooden boxes. Some ashes. Some magic dust. A ghost, its pet, and a boy who forgot to wear a hat in the cold. From these seemingly odd, random actors, Oliver weaves the enchanting story of how, with the aid of a girl named Liesl, these elements come together over the course of one week to restore love and luster to a world gone gray and heartless. Praise for LIESL & PO: “Invigorating and hopeful, this novel testifies to the power of friendship and generosity to conquer greed and depression.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A wonderfully imaginative, startlingly moving and at times wickedly funny fantasy…. By alternating quietly lyrical, philosophical passages with laugh-out-loud broad comedy/farce, the author takes her readers on a fantastic voyage from loss to healing and joy. With nods to Dahl, Dickens, the Grimms and even Burnett, the author has made something truly original. Acedera's frequent black-and-white illustrations are a perfect complement. An irresistible read: This book sings.” – Kirkus (starred review)

Razorbill Delivered Pub: Fall 2012 Agent: Stephen Barbara

ZIP Ellie Rollins

Lyssa is a spunky eleven-year-old girl who dreams of being a singer. But then her mother, a free-spirited performance artist, dies of ovarian cancer, bequeathing her home to the community and leaving Lyssa with Michael, her nerdy computer-programmer stepfather. Now, recently relocated to a suburb of Seattle, WA, Lyssa feels her dreams are drying up—she misses her hometown of Austin, her best friend, and the spontaneous and free-wheeling lifestyle she enjoyed with her mother. So when Lyssa hears that her old home—her mother’s legacy to the community— is going to be torn down, she decides she must join the Traveling Talent Show in staging a protest and fulfilling her mother’s dying wish. So she hops on her childhood scooter and runs away, traveling through the Western United States, meeting crazy characters and encountering magical mishaps as she tries desperately to make it to Austin before it’s too late.


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Ellie Rollins spent her childhood zipping across the Midwest. Since then, she's chased many of her own adventures in places like Seattle, Paris, and New York. She got her BA from the University of Washington in 2008 and now works at a university press in New York City. Zip is her first novel. * A Paper Lantern Lit property.


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