Bologna Children’s Book Fair: agents’ hotlists

Agents list their top children’s titles ahead of the upcoming fair:

Blake Friedmann

Resisters: 52 Young Women Making Herstory Right Now
Lauren Sharkey
Profiles the stories and achievements of 50 young campaigners, aged between nine and 21, who are working to improve the lives of women like them.
Agent: Hattie Grunewald
Rights: World English language (Wren & Rook), Dutch (Volt)

Darley Anderson

The Garden of Lost Secrets
A M Howell
A Middle Grade début crammed with mystery and secrets against the backdrop of the First World War.
Agent: Clare Wallace
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (Usborne)

Going the Distance
Beth Reekles
Sequel to the book on which Netflix’s hit film “The Kissing Booth” is based.
Agent: Clare Wallace
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (PRH), US (Delacorte), and two others

Pure Imagination
Dominic Beesley
“Fantastically funny” Middle Grade début pitched as “Monsters, Inc” with imaginary friends.
Agent: Lydia Silver
Rights: On submission (UK)

Lottie Midnight: Dogs, Diamonds and Other Disasters
Perdita & Honor Cargill
“Nanny McPhee” meets “The Princess Diaries” in this Middle Grade fairytale caper.
Agent: Clare Wallace

Annie Armani is a Knockout
Britney Brouwer
“Rocky” meets “Glow” in an “empowering” YA début.
Agent: Lydia Silver

Eve White Literary Agency

The Paninis of Pompeii
Andy Stanton, Sholto Walker (illus)
A “rollicking ride” through the Roman times by the author of Mr Gum.
Agent: Eve White
Rights: UK (Egmont)

My Life Gone Viral
Rae Earl
Millie Porter returns in this “hilarious” story about vlogging, making it online, and one very intrusive cat.
Agent: Eve White
Rights: US (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens are Coming!
Tracey Corderoy, Steven Lenton (illus)
Three young fiction slapstick adventures from the doggy detectives, all set in the summer sun.
Agent: Eve White
Rights: UK (Nosy Crow)

Little Bear’s Spring
Elli Woollard, Briony May Smith (illus)
A picture book about friendship, with a gentle introduction to spring and what happens to the natural world when the seasons change.
Agent: Eve White
Rights: UK (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Iguana Boy Unmasks the Invisible Hero
James Bishop
Iguana Boy is determined to keep his identity under wraps. But when he overhears someone talking about Iguana Boy being the worst superhero ever, he is determined to prove his worth.
Agent: Eve White
Rights: UK (Hachette Children’s Books)

Kingsford Campbell

The Fantastic Atlas series
Edward Brooke-Hitching
A “beautifully” illustrated series of books for the young explorer, full of facts and maps, by “QI” writer Brooke-Hitching.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Rights: all available

The Boxer
Nikesh Shukla
A “gripping, life-affirming” YA novel about friendship, radicalisation and finding where you belong.
Agent: Julia Kingsford
Rights: UK (Hodder Children’s)

After The Fire
Will Hill
A “powerful” exploration of society inspired by the WACO siege, it won the 2018 YA Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Rights: UK (Usborne), and seven others

The Legend Of Sparkhill
Moeen Ali and Tanya Aldred
Middle Grade novel by one of England’s most popular cricketers.
Agent: Charlie Campbell
Rights: All rights available

Lutyens & Rubinstein

Blue Watch
John Harvey
An “action-packed” Middle Grade novel set in Blitz-era London from crime heavyweight John Harvey.
Agent: Sarah Lutyens
Rights: World (Troika Books)

The Deadly Seven Trilogy
Garth Jennings
The second and third instalments of the Deadly Seven series are “wildly fun” Middle Grade monster adventures by director Garth Jennings (“Sing”, “Son of Rambow”), packed full of his distinctive illustrations.
Agent: Felicity Rubinstein
Rights: World (Macmillan)

Wilder Girls
Rory Power
A girls’ boarding school on an island off Maine is quarantined when the students start to succumb to a horrific virus. Power’s YA début is a tale of survival and female friendship.
Agent: Daisy Parente
Rights: UK (Macmillan), US (Delacorte) and four others

The Gifted, the Talented and Me
William Sutcliffe
Sam loves football but he’s stuck in a family of “artistes” and when his family moves to London so that he and his siblings can attend a school for the gifted and talented, his struggles have only just begun.
Agent: Felicity Rubinstein
Rights: World, excluding Germany (Bloomsbury)

Madeleine Milburn

The Last Girl on Sycamore Hill
Kereen Getten
Début Middle Grade tale about Clara, who cannot remember anything from the previous summer. Something happened that she, and the island, wants to forget. But a new arrival on the island proves that some things can’t remain hidden forever...
Agent: Alice Sutherland-Hawes
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (under offer), US (major pre-empt, tbc)

The Switching Hour
Damaris Young
Début Middle Grade novel about Amaya, whose brother is stolen by dream eater Badoko. She has three days to rescue him before she forgets him forever and is afflicted with the Sorrow Sickness.
Agent: Alice Sutherland-Hawes
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (Scholastic), Russian (Eksmo)

When the Lights Go Out
Samuel Pollen
Second novel from the author of The Year I Didn’t Eat follows three teenagers on a clinical trial, set against a countdown to an eclipse.
Agent: Alice Sutherland-Hawes
Rights: Romania (under option)

The Places I’ve Cried In Public
Holly Bourne
The YA author’s latest outing explores heartbreak, what love is (and isn’t), and how to put yourself back together again.
Agent: Madeleine Milburn
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (Usborne), German (DTV)

The Haunting of Aveline Jones
Phil Hickes
Début Middle Grade contemporary ghost story follows Aveline Jones as she sets out to solve a mysterious disappearance.
Agent: Madeleine Milburn
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (Usborne), and two others.

MMB Creative

Meat Market
Juno Dawson
“Honest and raw”, a timely exposé of the dark underbelly of the fashion industry in an era of #TimesUp and #MeToo.
Agent: Sallyanne Sweeney
Rights: UK (Quercus Children’s), and three others; dramatic rights (Unstoppable Film & TV)

The Little Grey Girl
Celine Kiernan
Second book in the Wild Magic fantasy adventure trilogy, about witches and forbidden magic, from the award-winning author.
Agent: Sallyanne Sweeney
Rights: World English (Walker Books), US (Candlewick Press), and Romania.

Swimming Against the Storm
Jess Butterworth
“Heartwarming” Middle Grade adventure set in the swamps of Louisiana.
Agent: Sallyanne Sweeney
Rights: World rights (Orion Children’s Books)

The Wiccan
Scott Payne
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” meets “A Discovery of Witches”. Set in the Scottish Highlands and narrated by two sisters, this is the YA fantasy début from screenwriter Payne.
Agent: Sallyanne Sweeney
Rights: On submission

ADO
Ruth Frances Long
A “sharp, pacy” contemporary retelling of “Much Ado about Nothing” for a YA readership.
Agent: Sallyanne Sweeney
Rights: On submission

PFD

Witches of Ash and Ruin
E Latimer
The Wicked Deep meets an all-girl, LGBT version of The Raven Boys. When a trio of ancient Irish gods begins to hunt down witches, Dayna and her friends must band together with an enemy coven to stop them.
Agent: Silvia Molteni
Rights: US and Canada (Disney Hyperion), Spain (Editorial Planeta)

We Are Not Okay
Natália Gomes
From the author of Dear Charlie and Blackbird, this is billed as “‘13 Reasons Why’ meets John Green”. A powerful novel about what happens when girls are silenced.
Agent: Silvia Molteni
Rights: UK & Comm (HQ)

The Peculiar Peggs of Riddling Woods
Samuel J Halpin
A “peculiar and vivid” tale for fans of Neil Gaiman and Roald Dahl, this is the story of a sleepy town where stories fill the air of children who keep turning grey and disappearing without a trace...
Agent: Silvia Molteni
Rights: UK (Usborne), the Netherlands (Billy Bones), and two others

The Day I Was Erased
Lisa Thompson
From the author of The Goldfish Boy comes “a new, extraordinary and wonderfully gripping Middle Grade novel full of heart and adventures”.
Agent: Adam Gauntlett
Rights: UK (Scholastic), US (Scholastic), and four others

Bob’s Blue Period
Marion Deuchars
This “charming and funny” picture book—a follow-up to Bob the Artist—is about feeling sad, expressing your emotions and what you can do in order to feel better.
Agent: Elizabeth Sheinkman
Rights: UK (Laurence King), Taiwan (San Min Books Co) and six others

The Sophie Hicks Agency

The Fowl Twins
Eoin Colfer
The “thrilling” novel features Artemis Fowl’s younger brothers who, after being left alone for just one night, end up having to save a troll from a nefarious nobleman and an interrogating nun.
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Rights: UK (HarperCollins), US (Disney), and three others

You Can’t Hide
Sarah Mussi
A YA thriller with an unreliable narrator, secret identities and lost memories.
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Rights: UK (Hodder)

The Athena Protocol
Shamim Sarif
An “action-packed” adventure about a trio of young female operatives working for a rogue organisation who solve problems that governments won’t touch.
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Rights: US (HarperCollins), Germany (Penguin Verlag), and two others

The Sharp Edge of a Snowflake
Sif Sigmarsdottir
A “captivating”, feminist, Nordic YA thriller. When a man is found murdered at the edge of the road in snowy Iceland the lives of two girls collide.
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Rights: UK (Hodder)

Beauty Sleep
Kathryn Evans
A “darkly twisted” YA thriller plunging a pre-tech girl into a futuristic world. Laura is a real-life Sleeping Beauty; a dying girl who was frozen until she could be cured.
Agent: Sophie Hicks
Rights: UK (Usborne)

United Agents

The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume 2
Philip Pullman
Set 20 years after the events of La Belle Sauvage—we meet Lyra again as a young woman, forced to navigate a dangerous new world.
Agent: Caradoc King
Rights: UK and US (Penguin Random House/David Fickling Books), translation rights sold in 37 languages

Frostheart
Jamie Littler
The first title in Littler’s début Middle Grade fantasy series, “bursting with brilliant characters, heart-stopping adventure and lots of laughs”, Frostheart was the subject of a seven-way auction in the UK and several other multi-publisher auctions around the world.
Agent: Jodie Hodges
Rights: UK (PRH Children’s), US (Viking/PRH), Germany (Oetinger) and four others

Molly Thompson and the Ghouls of Howlfair
Nick Tomlinson
“Weird, awkward, serious, unstoppable and very, very funny”: just a few words to describe Molly Thompson, an accident-prone but rather brilliant young historian who notices that the creepy legends in her town have started to come true.
Agent: Jane Willis
Rights: UK (Walker)

Hamish and the Monster Patrol
Danny Wallace
A fifth full-length, “hilarious” adventure in the Hamish and the Worldstoppers series.
Agent: Robert Kirby & Ariella Feiner
Rights: UK (S&S), translation rights sold or under option in 13 languages

Big Bones
Laura Dockrill
Shortlisted for YA Book Prize 2019, Big Bones is an “honest, laugh-out-loud novel brimming with body positivity”, following 16-year-old BB as she navigates her world while maintaining her plucky zest for life.
Agent: Jodie Hodges
Rights: UK (Hot Key Books), US (Delacorte/Random House), Russia (Exmo)

Watson, Little

The Cat Man of Aleppo
Hiba Noor Khan
This picture book is about a little grey cat who is hungry and afraid. But when a man comes to help him, the little grey cat learns a kind of magic.
Agent: Laetitia Rutherford
Rights: Offers pending

Don’t Touch, That’s Not Your Tail
Meredith Vigh
Is it OK to say no when you don’t want someone touching you? Piglet and his teacher help explain consent to the other animals at his nursery school in this “light and fun” picture book on respecting others.
Agent: Megan Carroll
Rights: On submission

Slay on Tour
Kim Curran
The world’s biggest boyband is on tour in Japan, and on the trail of a hellraising demon. This “super-fun, clean-teen” series—think “Buffy...” meets One Direction—has just been optioned by a major film studio.
Agent: James Wills
Rights: UK & Commonwealth (Usborne)

One of These is Not Like the Other
Barney Saltzberg
“Everyone is a little bit different, and that’s wonderful!” Celebrate the odd one out in this picture book about friendship and diversity.
Agent: Rachel Richardson
Rights: US (Holiday House/Neal Porter Books), UK and Commonweath. Select translation rights available

WME

The Prom
Saundra Mitchell, Matthew Sklar, Chad Beguelin & Bob Martin
The novel adaptation of the Broadway musical comedy about two secret high school sweethearts who cause a community-wide uproar in their small Indiana town when courageous 17-year-old Emma Nolan decides to publicly invite her girlfriend, the high school “It” girl Alyssa, to dance at the senior prom.
Agent: Erin Malone at WME and Cait Hoyt at CAA
Rights: US (Viking)

Bunns Rabbit
Alan Barillaro
Bunns Rabbit tells the story of a rabbit finding her way and the mysterious spirit fox who helps lead her there. Part illustrated novel, part graphic novel, Bunns Rabbit is a “timeless story that will touch the hearts of Middle Grade readers”.
Agent: Janine Kamouh
Rights: US (auction ongoing)

No Big Deal
Bethany Rutter
A “warm, funny inspiring” debut YA novel about body-confident Emily Daly, who faces a constant battle to stay strong, be her true self and not change for anyone, while navigating other people’s expectations.
Agent: Siobhan O’Neill
Rights: UK (Macmillan)

Influence
Sara Shepard & Lilia Buckingham
This new YA novel, from the author of the bestselling Pretty Little Liars series Sara Shepard and Instagram star Lilia Buckingham, is a murder mystery about the fiercely competitive and dangerous world of manipulation and deceit that lies beneath the seemingly glamorous life of today’s hottest teen influencers.
Agent: Andy McNicol
Rights: US (Delacorte Press)

My Brother’s Name Is Jessica
John Boyne
In this novel, brothers Sam and Jason are always there for each other. Until one day, Jason reveals a secret that could change everything. A “timely and moving” story about a brother coming to terms with his sister’s transition into who she was always meant to be.
Agent: Simon Trewin
Rights: UK (Penguin)