Middle Grade in demand as Bologna Book Fair opens

Middle Grade titles are in demand on the opening day of Bologna Children’s Book Fair (3rd-5th April), as agents bring with them a raft of titles which address the “grim state of the world”.

Jodie Hodges of United Agents said she would be selling foreign rights to Laura Dockrill’s Big Bones (UK and Commonwealth rights to Hot Key Books), “a whip-smart, perfectly judged, teen coming-of-age story”.

Madeleine Milburn of Madeleine Milburn Ltd is taking three key titles to the fair. The Treatment (UK and Commonwealth rights to HQ) is C L Taylor’s YA/crossover début about a young girl who spends her days and nights online using different personalities and becomes determined to save her brother from a brainwashing institution. She is also selling foreign rights for YA author Holly Bourne’s next book, It Only Happens in the Movies (UK and Commonwealth rights to Usborne), about teenagers who fall in love and realise that “real love isn’t what it’s like in the movies”. And The Boy with One Name by J R Wallis (UK and Commonwealth to Simon & Schuster) is a Middle Grade fantasy adventure about a 12-year-old girl who runs away from her foster parents and discovers that monsters are real and there’s a secret group of people fighting them.

The Bent Agency’s hot book for the fair is a début YA novel, Devils Unto Dust (world English rights to Greenwillow, an imprint of HarperCollins US) by Emma Berquist. Pitched as “a western with shades of ‘28 Days Later’”, it is the story of a girl who overcomes incredible obstacles and a deadly virus for the survival of her family, and maybe the world.

Sallyanne Sweeney of Mulcahy Associates is taking out Clean by Juno Dawson, “a razor-sharp YA novel about finding love in a hopeless place” (UK and Commonwealth rights to Quercus, French rights to Hachette Livre, German rights to Carlsen, Italian rights to Newton & Compton, Norwegian rights to Vigmostad & Bjorke, Spanish rights to Urano, and a dramatic option with Blueprint Television). She is also taking Celine Kiernan’s Middle Grade fantasy Wild Magic trilogy, which features witches, wizards, magical tyranny, and a strong young heroine who must reunite her family while coming to terms with her own power (UK, Ireland and Australia New Zealand rights to Walker Books, US rights to Candlewick Press). Her other hot book is The Proof of the Outside by Sarah Ann Juckes, a début YA novel about a girl who is kept captive in a small room and is determined to find proof there is a world outside, which is on submission.

Darley Anderson Literacy Agency is taking The Circus by Olivia Levez (UK and Commonwealth rights to Rock the Boat), “a powerful story of friendship, love and independence with a compelling heroine”, and Lost and Found: Love from Lexie by Cathy Cassidy (UK and Commonwealth rights to Puffin; options in Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Serbia and Spain), the first story a “timely and pitch-perfect new series about friendship and loyalty”. It also has Fly Me Home by Polly Ho-Yen and 928 Miles from Home by Kim Slater, as well as the second book in Dave Rudden’s fantasy trilogy, The Knights of the Borrowed Dark: The Forever Court.

Janklow & Nesbit is selling rights for S K Wright’s It Ends with You, which follows the conflicting evidence of a teenage boy accused of murdering his girlfriend, and Middle Grade début The Starman and Me by Sharon Cohen, the story of Kofi and his fight to save a prehistoric human (UK rights to Quercus, German rights to Carlsen Verlag). It is also taking Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton’s two new Football School books, plus a 2018 World Cup Quiz Book (UK rights to Walker, US rights to Candlewick, German rights to Werkstatt, Korean rights to Gilbut, Norwegian rights to Cappelen Damm), and Cameron McAllister’s first book for the YA market, Surviving Me, “a whip-smart, supernatural romance thriller”, which is on submission.

Caroline Sheldon of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency said its main sale thrust is in the US with three titles: Indigo Donut by Patrice Lawrence (UK rights to Hodder Children’s Books), a YA love story set in contemporary Hackney; Kick (UK rights to Usborne), a Middle Grade début from Waterstones bookseller Mitch Johnson in which a young Indonesian boy working in a sweat shop dreams of a fantasy life with his footballing idol; and Dyan Sheldon’s More Than One Way to be a Girl (UK rights to Walker), a “sharply funny novel that looks at what it really means to be
a girl”.

Ben Illis’ hot books 11 include Fish Boy by Chloe Daykin, Middle Grade literary commercial fantasy fiction illustrated by Richard Jones (world English rights to Faber, Italian rights sold) and Rosie Loves Jack by début author Mel Darbon (world English rights to Usborne), narrated by a girl with Down’s syndrome who has poetry in her head. Rights are also available for teen novel Ferryman by Scottish Teen Book Award-winner Claire McFall and its sequel, Trespassers (Floris Books). He will also be taking out Stanly’s Ghost (Salt Publishing), the third book in Stefan Mohamed’s well-reviewed “superhero YA” Bitter Sixteen trilogy, “rich, dark, Dickensian Middle Grade mystery” Gaslight, by Eloise Williams (Firefly), and “funny and fastpaced” Jack Dash and the Summer Blizzard by Sophie Plowden, illustrated by Jenny Brown.

What are publishers looking for at Bologna? 

Most agents said that publishers were looking for Middle Grade books, as well as diverse voices and books that comment on the state of the world.

Caroline Sheldon of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency said: “Middle grade and funny books are at the top of most UK publishers’ shopping lists. In picture books, publishers are either looking for titles that will be a monster hit in the UK market or that [will provide] guaranteed strong co-edition sales overseas. In YA, I would say buying is very conservative and to succeed in this climate a project needs to stand head and shoulders above the field.”

Jodie Hodges of United Agents said the market for eight to 12-year-olds “still rules the roost” and classic-type children’s stories with elements of magic and fantasy remain popular with UK publishers. She added: “I’ve been really surprised by the two-colour [typically black and one other colour] young fiction market in translation”, highlighting Harriet Muncaster’s Isadora Moon series (OUP Children’s) and Julian Gough and Jim Field’s Rabbit & Bear series (Hodder Children’s) as particular successes in this format.

Ben Illis of the Ben Illis Agency also noted that publishers are increasingly looking for Middle Grade titles with “a high bar set on magical fantasy and humour”. He also said they were looking for “diverse voices and stories that haven’t been told” and that he has seen a renewed interest in “high concept fantasy and sci-fi” as well as a “spike of interest in historical fiction across Middle Grade and YA”. Illis also said he had noticed “a lot of books across all age groups addressing empathy for refugees” in reaction to the current political climate.

Milburn said that politics had prompted “a move from fantasy and dystopia towards real stories, often issue-led”. She added: “We’re also seeing a shift towards crossover, books which sit on both YA and adult shelves and appeal to a wider readership.” Molly Ker Hawn at the Bent Agency said that “a lot of people were looking for happy books that would help take people’s minds off the grim state of the world right now”.

She also highlighted the agency’s success with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, saying “people are interested in books that explore the political climate and books about resistance; I think we will see more books with a real focus on the rights and lives of the marginalised”.

Illis said that, though more empathetic books were a positive outcome of recent political changes, rising costs of printing in Europe were affecting deals and advances. He added: “There is so much insecurity regarding tax and foreign rights, these are slightly worrying times. However, it’s also business as usual, we have to push through.”