Agents' key Bologna Children's Book Fair 2016 titles

With the Bologna Children’s Book Fair established as the hub for rights activity in the kids’ market, Charlotte Eyre takes a look at what some UK literary agencies will be offering over the course of the fair.

Ben Illis Agency will bring Bitter Sixteen by Stefan Mohamed to Bologna; it is a début that revolves around a superhero (published in the UK by Salt Publishing). BIA will also take début YA novel Gaslight by Eloise Williams, a mystery set in the Victorian music halls of Cardiff. Its UK publisher is Firefly Press. Rights will be available to Ferryman, a YA love story by Claire McFall that is published in the UK by Templar and in China by Beijing White Horse; and a Chinese-language animation is also in development. Chloe Daykin’s début Middle Grade novel Fish Boy (Faber will publish in the UK in 2017) is about a boy who is obsessed with swimming in the sea.

Sophie Hicks Agency will take I am Traitor, the new YA novel by Icelandic author Sif Sigmarsdóttir. Hodder has the UK rights. The agency also has Lucy Coats’ Beasts of Olympus series, published by Piccadilly Press in the UK and by Grosset & Dunlap in the US, with a film deal under negotiation and Italian rights sold to Piemme. More of Me, the début novel by Kathryn Evans, will be on offer, with UK, US and German rights already sold. Anna Liza and the Happy Practice, written by Eoin Colfer and illustrated by Matt Robertson, is about a girl who tries to cheer up her mother’s psychiatric patients. The book is published in the UK by Barrington Stoke and, to date, translation rights have sold in France (Gallimard), Finland (WSOY) and Brazil (Record).

Rogers, Coleridge & White has The Girl in Between, a Middle Grade title by Sarah Carroll about a girl who lives in an abandoned mill; it is currently out on submission. Other highlights from the RCW catalogue include Wing Jones by Katherine Webber (sold last year to Walker Books in the UK and to Delacorte in the US) and The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (UK, Australian, US and German rights have been sold, with pre-empt deals in Greece and Italy).

Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency’s highlights include Shattered by Becky Hunter, which is about a teenage girl accused of murder; The Polar Bear Explorers Club by Alex Bell, a Middle Grade novel about junior explorers (currently out on submission); and Orbit High by Dave Lowe, which unfolds at a boarding school located on the Moon. The agency also has What’s a Girl Gotta Do?, the final instalment in Holly Bourne’s The Spinster Club trilogy. In the UK the title is with Usborne.

Bright Group International has a new text by Nicola O’Byrne, the winner in the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize’s Best Picture Book category in 2014, with a working title of “How to Love Your Human”. It also has a manuscript by Fred Blunt about a wild goose chase. Also on offer at the fair from BGI are Why Do We Need Rules and What Happens When They Go Away Anyways? by author/illustrator Lee Wildish, and a new festive title by Ben Mantle.

Caroline Sheldon will take Ticks and Stripes by Mitch Johnson, a Middle Grade football story; Elephant in the Room by James Thorp and Angus Mackinnon, a picture book about a broken china elephant; Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence, a YA novel about a boy who faces difficult choices about which direction to take in life; and a ghost story by Joan G Robinson, titled When Marnie was There. UK and translation rights to Orangeboy are with Hodder; and rights to When Marnie was There are with HarperCollins in the UK and US, with translation rights sold in Bulgarian, Chinese (complex), Chinese (simplified), Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and Thai, and film and TV rights sold to Studio Ghibli.

Anne Clark Literary Agency has Anne Booth’s White Feather (with Catnip in the UK), a Middle Grade novel in which Eve goes back in time, travelling from the present day to the First World War. The Armageddon Twins by J A Henderson (currently under offer in the UK) is a comic thriller. Hidden by Miriam Halahmy (North American rights are with Holiday House) is about a teenage girl who pulls an asylum-seeker from the sea. Penny Joelson’s I Have No Secrets (on submission) is a murder mystery in which the disabled teenage narrator knows the killer, but has no way of telling anyone who the culprit is.

The Bent Agency brings The Closest I’ve Come by Fred Aceves, about a Latino teen living in a world of violence (HarperCollins has world English rights). The Hate U Give by Angela Thomas is about a 16-year-old girl who witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend (rights sold in the UK, US, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Poland). Askari by Kirsten Ciccarelli is a YA fantasy trilogy (rights sold in the US, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Poland). Dear My Blank and The Last Message Received by Emily Trunko are based on Tumblr accounts which post heart-wrenching hand-written letters that were never sent (rights have been sold in the US, Germany and Russia).

Mulcahy Associates brings Claire Hennessy’s YA novel about an anorexic teen, Nothing Tastes as Good, with UK and Commonwealth rights signed by Hot Key Books. Celine Kiernan’s Middle Grade fantasy trilogy Begone the Raggedy Witches features witches and magical tyranny (UK and US rights have sold to date), while E R Murray’s YA novel Caramel Hearts is about a girl who hopes a recipe book will unlock her mother’s past (Alma Books has world English rights). Running on the Roof of the World is a Middle Grade adventure by Jess Butterworth (world rights with Orion).

Janklow & Nesbit UK has Middle Grade adventure début I is Rorty by Sharon Obeng; it tells the story of Kofi and his fight to save a prehistoric human he finds on a roundabout. Stand-up comedian Nat Luurtsema’s début novel, Girl Out of Water, is about a young girl’s battle to reinvent herself after her dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer are shattered (rights have sold in the UK, US, Germany, France and Italy). Bullet Catcher by Joaquin Lowe is a Western adventure with a sci-fi twist (UK rights are with Hot Key Books), and Football Academy is a sports-focused non-fiction title by Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton (Walker Books has UK rights).

United Agents has Gilded Cage (previously titled Slavedays) a YA/crossover fantasy trilogy about slavery written by Victoria James. Macmillan is publishing the book in the UK and Del Rey will do so in the US; rights have also been sold in France, Germany, Spain and Turkey. Satelite by Nick Lake is a YA adventure about growing up both inside and outside of gravitational fields; it will be published in the US by Knopf/Random House. Swimming in the Moon is a Middle Grade friendship story by Jane Elson (its UK publisher is Hodder), and Fenn Halfin and the Fearzero, by début author Francesca Chelu-Amour, is the first in a Middle Grade adventure series (its UK publisher is Walker Books).

Annette Green Agency brings The Elephant Walk, the first novel by BBC Radio producer Jane Kerr, about a Victorian entrepreneur who buys an elephant. Chicken House has UK, Commonwealth and US rights, and Bayard Jeunesse has French rights. Bubblegum and Brimstone by Kirkland Ciccone is about a teenage witch whose best friend returns from the dead to tell her that the world is going to end in seven days’ time.