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Bologna 2022: agents' hotlists
A M Heath
How to be More Hedgehog
A bullied girl comes to terms with her stammer.
Agent Julia Churchill
Rights UK (UCLan), Italy (Garzanti)
Kip of the Mountain
A girl finds a mysterious egg and keeps it safe and secret. The egg hatches into a little monster, who becomes her best friend, but is then stolen.
Agent Julia Churchill
Rights Australia (HarperCollins)
A Storm of Sisters
The wintery fourth book in the bestselling A Pinch of Magic series, following the adventures of the Widdershins sisters.
Agent Julia Churchill
Rights UK (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
The Boy with a Thousand Faces
A boy with an ever-changing face, one that reflects whatever people want to see, journeys to the mysterious Silver City to find out who he really is.
Agent Julia Churchill
Curtis Brown
Charamba: L’Hotel pour Chats (The Hotel for Cats)
A light and humorous tale for younger readers following a group of feline friends as they navigate the trials and tribulations of living in a cat hotel.
Agent Roxane Edouard
Rights France (Flammarion Jeunesse)
The Wintrish Girl
A “wild” middle-grade fantasy featuring at least three impossibly daring escapes, a dragon with a fear of unicorns and “some stylish execution wear”.
Agent Tara Wynne
Rights ANZ (University of Queensland Press)
Where Seagulls Dare
With “thrills, spills, and jokes on every page”, the Alex Rider creator returns with his first Diamond Brothers detective novel in 15 years.
Agent Jonathan Lloyd
Rights UK (Walker)
Le Jardin des Fees (The Fairy Garden)
“Mysterious and beautifully” illustrated YA graphic story set in the year 1890, following 15-year-old Lucie, who is sent away to live with distant cousins in a run-down castle in Normandy.
Agent Roxane Edouard
Rights France (Drakoo)
Empyreal
A début supernatural YA fantasy set in a Cornish manor, featuring magic, romance and hidden secrets.
Agent Steph Thwaites
Rights UK (Magpie), US (Inkyard), Spain (Editorial Hidra)
Darley Anderson
A French Girl in New York
“Fun and heartfelt” teen romance set between small-town France and New York City. “A modern-day Cinderella story about big dreams, classical music, identity and love”.
Agent Mary Darby
Rights French (Hachette Romans Jeunesse), Serbian (Vulkan), film and TV under option
The Haunting of Tyrese Walker
An 11-plus adventure début where dark and strange things start happening when 13-year-old Tyrese attracts the attention of a malevolent spirit while visiting his family in Jamaica.
Agent Clare Wallace
Rights World English (Andersen Press)
The Day No One Woke Up
The fifth middle-grade novel from the award-winning Bristolian. Eleven-year-old Ana and her ex-best friend Tio are the only people who wake up one morning, and they go on a mission to discover what happened.
Agent Clare Wallace
Rights World English (Simon & Schuster Children’s), options in Iran, Russia
David Higham Associates
The Notorious Scarlett and Browne
Set in a broken, future England “where gunfights and monsters collide”, this is the exciting second title in a fantasy teen series by the bestseller Stroud.
Agent Veronique Baxter
Rights French (Gallimard), German (cbj), Italian (Mondadori), options in five more
The Amazing Mr Blunden
The late Barber’s classic ghost story with a time travelling twist, now the subject of a new Sky Original film starring Mark Gatiss, Simon Callow and Tamsin Greig.
Agent Caroline Walsh
Rights Italian (Giunti)
Orla and the Wild Hunt
An enchanting tale rooted in folklore, and a heart-warming story of family, love and loss.
Agent Caroline Walsh
Rights German (DTViates)
DHH Literary
Glow Up, Lara Bloom
The first in a snort-laugh inducing teen diary series featuring 14-year-old Lara Bloom (the clumsiest teenager in the whole world) as she navigates school, friends, crushes and the daily war she must wage against her Afro hair.
Agent Hannah Sheppard
Most Likely To
YA début for Bonner as a website takes off at Sophie’s school encouraging students to vote on which girl is most likely to do increasingly outrageous things. But as the most popular votes start coming true, the questions turn to murder.
Agent Hannah Sheppard
Summer Under the Stars
A follow-up to Mallinder’s Summer of No Regrets is a road-trip full of drama —”but also friendship, warmth and heart”. A feel-good, up-lit teen read.
Agent Hannah Sheppard
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Firefly)
Eve White Literary Agency
Einstein the Penguin
A stray penguin knocks at a family’s door holding a suitcase labelled “Einstein”; a warm, funny new series, “perfect for fans of Paddington”.
Agent Eve White
Rights UK (HarperCollins Children’s), Germany, Russia, Netherlands, Greece, Georgia
Rock Paper Killers
When a group of Dublin teenagers arrive at a rural cliff-top college to cram for their final exams, little do they know that one of them will never make it home…
Agent Eve White
Rights UK (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
My Heart and Other Breakables
Ellen Brown, 16 and a half, has recently lost her mum. In this hilarious and deeply moving diary, she records her most intimate feelings as she sets off on an international quest to find her father…
Agent Eve White
Rights UK (HarperCollins Children’s)
The One Stop Shop: Blast Off!
Shopkeepers Wilbur and Fred help every customer find their perfect adventure in this fresh, funny new chapter book series celebrating the power of imagination.
Agent Eve White
Rights UK (Little Tiger)
The Worst Day Ever!
Comic SF which has alien Mylan Bletzleburger travelling the universe, collecting stories of people having a terrible time, in the hope of finding the worst day ever.
Agent Eve White
Rights UK(Hachette Children’s)
The Good Literary Agency
Quiet Storm
Tender, character-led middle-grade set in a Mancunian school. The title explores themes of confidence, friendship and anxiety.
Agent Gyamfia Osei
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Usborne)
The Christmas Crash Course
Set in a quirky town, this queer YA romance explores themes of first love, sexuality and toxic masculinity.
Agent Gyamfia Osei
Hardman & Swainson
The Double Trouble Society
“Spell-binding” middle-grade mystery from Hope Fletcher, mixing together two best friends, a witch’s curse and a haunted house.
Agent Hannah Ferguson
Rights World English (Puffin)
Ellie Pillai is Brown
A spectacularly funny coming-of-age début YA novel about exploring identity, friendship and family, “all about learning to dance to your own beat”.
Agent Thérèse Coen
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Faber)
Ki Agency
When the Dragon Falls
“Iron Widow meets Red Rising” in this “silkpunk” YA/crossover fantasy by a rising star of Wattpad.
Agent Anne C Perry
LBA
The Boy, the Clock and the North Star
Gill, the son of a film star, is about to find out about the Midnight Market, “the most secret, strange and dangerous place in the world”.
Agent Louise Lamont
How I Became a Dog Called Midnight
George has always wanted to know what it would be like to be a dog, and one enchanted fountain later, he gets his wish—”with chaotic and hilarious results”.
Agent Luigi Bonomi
Rights UK (Simon & Schuster)
Jessie Leys and the Leash of Hawks
As the new maid in the Swanson household, Jessie knows she should mind her own business, but when you have a nose for trouble and an itch to know things, it’s impossible not to get tangled up in a deadly ring of spies and princes.
Agent Louise Lamont
Three Girls
Minnie, Lena and Alice are not friends—but when they are thrown together for a school photo, they may just prove the best friends they’ve never had.
Agent Louise Lamont
Rights UK (UCLan), German (Carlsen)
Girl in Real Life
Eva has been the subject of her parents’ wildly successful YouTube channel ever since she was born, but when a humiliating “period party” post goes viral, Eva decides enough is enough.
Agent Luigi Bonomi
Rights UK (Usborne)
Madeleine Milburn
The Dollcasters
The first in a new middle-grade fantasy series in which Northern Lights meets A Monster Calls, from début author Lees. “A celebration of friendship, daring and kindness, set in a richly imagined, surprising world.”
Agent Chloe Seager
Rights World (Puffin)
The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks
Second in Kirby’s Lottie Brooks series, in which a lead role in the spring musical gives Lottie a chance to dazzle her mega-crush Daniel… with her talent as a singing crab.
Agent Chloe Seager
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Puffin), Czech (Fragment), Dutch (Gottmer), Estonian (Eesti Raamat), French (Gallimard), German (Atrium), Italian (Salani), Polish (Znak), EU Portuguese (Presenca), Russian (MIF), Slovak (Albatros), Spanish (Duomo)
Heart’s Fire
A dual point of view romantic fantasy from début author Malouf, in which Princess Amira is caught between head and heart, and must choose either peace in her kingdom or her “once-in-a-lifetime magic soul connection”.
Agent Chloe Seager
Tag, You’re Dead
The newest from bestselling YA author Foxfield is an “entertaining, high-octane and read-in-a-single-sitting thriller” about a live-streamed, city-wide game of tag.
Agent Chloe Seager
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Scholastic), options in Czechia, Italy and Russia
The King is Dead
Dean’s “unputdownable” Black LGBTQ+ YA thriller is set against the backdrop of a reimagined royal family.
Agent Chloe Seager
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Simon & Schuster)
Marjacq Scripts
The Funny Life of Football
Silly stories, partly true facts and hilarious pictures, just in time for the World Cup.
Agent Diana Beaumont
Rights World (Bloomsbury), Spanish (Anaya)
The Gurgle Monster
Picture book in which a house makes strange noises at night—but what sounds like a monster is not scary at all.
Agent Sandra Sawicka
Mina and the Slayers
A Halloween-themed follow-up to Waterstones Children Book of the Year-longlisted McCaw.
Agent Sandra Sawicka
Rights World English (UCLan)
The Asparagus Bunch
A “hilarious” story for ages 10-plus about being different: “where attitude not platitude is welcome”.
Agent Catherine Pellegrino
Rights World (Welbeck Flame)
PFD
Fatima and the Invisible Necklace
Middle-grade fantasy in which 11-year-old Fatima discovers that her late parents belonged to a secret time-travelling society. She tries out for time travel academy the Infinitum, but all is not well…
Agent Lucy Irvine
Lottie Parton is a Bad Friend
YA début from “study-tuber” influencer Granger, in which overachieving straight-A student Lottie’s life starts to unravel when another girl goes missing. “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Am I Normal Yet?”
Agent Lucy Irvine
The Dangerous Life of Ophelia Bottom
Born into the Bottom family of travelling actors, Ophelia longs to be like other girls. But when the troupe stops in the too-perfect seaside town of Stopford, the mysteries start piling up: who is threatening the Bottoms? And who is dumping plastic junk in the ocean?
Agent Silvia Molteni
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Pushkin)
The Rollercoaster Boy
Thompson’s latest middle-grade is “The Grand Budapest Hotel” meets “Paddington 2” as in the middle of the night Todd and Laurie’s bipolar dad bundles them into the car to the Paradise Hotel, which he says is a luxurious mansion. It turns out to be a run-down dump which holds a mystery that must be solved.
Agent Adam Gauntlett
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Scholastic)
The Secrets Act
“Nail-biting” YA mystery set in Bletchley Park, where messenger girl Pearl and code-breaker Ellen become friends and fall for the wrong boys. But then tragedy strikes and there is a spy in their midst: can they unmask the traitor before it is too late?
Agent Lucy Irvine
Rights World English (Chicken House)
RCW
Where the Light Goes
The 2019 YA Book Prize winner’s fourth novel explores grief and the dark side of fame. Emmy, who adores her pop star older sister Lizzie, is devastated when Lizzie takes her own life.
Agent Claire Wilson
Rights UK (Walker)
Twin Crowns
First in a YA duology from the bestselling authors, a high-stakes fantasy rom-com about twin princesses separated at birth who are now vying for the crown.
Agent Claire Wilson
Rights UK (Farshore), US (HarperCollins), Germany (Heyne), Italy (Mondadori), France (Bayard) and seven others
The Stone Callers
The two-time Costa shortlistee’s newest has Evie recruited into a secret magical organisation. With evil returning to the land, Evie finds she is the only one who can stop it.
Agent Claire Wilson
Rights UK (Walker)
The Shaw Agency
The World Between the Rain
Middle-grade début fantasy inspired by Celtic mythology, celebrating the positivity of darkness.
Agent Kate Shaw
Anisha Accidental Detective: Holiday Adventure
The fifth in this award-winning middle-grade series has Anisha’s family on a very unlikely holiday when they discover an amusement park’s mascot—Delilah the Duck—has been destroyed.
Agent Kate Shaw
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Usborne)
Honesty & Lies
The Welsh Children’s Laureate’s “gripping” historical middle-grade novel about two 12-year- old servant girls—one from London, one from Wales—who are in the court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Agent Kate Shaw
Rights UK & Commonwealth (Firefly)
Twice Upon a Time
The award-winning science writer’s non-fiction title for those aged seven and over explores the fascinating world of convergent evolution.
Agent Kate Shaw
The Soho Agency
Clarice Bean: Untitled Book Eight
Child’s classic character returns in a new adventure for 2022.
Agent Philippa Milnes-Smith
Rights World (HarperCollins Children’s)
Hedgewitch
The first in a five-book middle-grade fantasy series set in the “shadowy magic of faerie” by début author McKenna. “Perfect for fans of Nevermoor, The Worst Witch and The Wizards of Once”.
Agent Philippa Milnes-Smith
Rights UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada (Welbeck), Brazil, Czechia, Slovakia
Wonderful You/Your Yes and Your No
Two picture books which communicate and celebrate the power and unique qualities of every individual, by the successful creator of Words and Your Heart.
Agent Philippa Milnes-Smith
Rights North America and ANZ (Feiwel and Friends)
Utterly Dark
New fantasy trilogy from the Mortal Engines creator, centring on the Dark family, who have been Watchers of the remote island of Wildsea for centuries. Then the current Watcher mysteriously drowns and young Utterly Dark takes over, and soon she starts to discover her connection with the forces which dwell in the deep ocean.
Agent Philippa Milnes-Smith
Rights World (David Fickling), translation sold to France, Holland, Poland
Swarm Enemy
Astronaut Peake and bestselling author Cole’s second in the Swarm series, rooted in cutting-edge space-age science and technology.
Agent Philippa Milnes-Smith
Rights World (Hodder Children’s), translation sold to Germany
United Agents
The Imagination Chamber
A companion title to Pullman’s “Lyra universe”, with a collection of scenes from the His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust series.
Agent Caradoc King
Rights UK (Scholastic), most translation rights under option
The Silver Chain
“Highly important” first YA novel from Sheibani about mental health struggles and the solace we find in music and rhythm, friendship, family and honesty.
Agent Emily Talbot
Rights UK (Hot Key)
Dreaming by Starlight
An “inspirational, heart-warming” novel, the first in a series for girls aged 10-plus, about “the power of friendship and making your dreams come true”.
Agent Jane Willis
Rights UK (Walker)
Ambrose Follows His Nose
A recently discovered story—about the titular rabbit with an extraordinary sense of smell—by King-Smith, completed by his great-granddaughter Rogers and published to coincide with the centenary of the author’s birth.
Agent Caradoc Kimg
Rights UK (PRH Children’s)
Walkies!
The first picture book by the Private Eye cartoonist, full of “running, sniffing, barking, splashing, tangling and, er... weeing”, which every dog lover will recognise.
Agent Jane Willis (for Bog Eyed Books)
Rights UK (Bog Eyed), French (Editions Caurette)
Watson, Little
The Boy Who Rescued a Rainbow
Author/illustrator Campbell’s second picture book is a story about the meaning of being strong, brave and fearless which aims to help children engage and talk about feelings of love and loss.
Agent Rachel Richardson (on behalf of Little Door)
Rights World (Little Door)
The Whisperling
First in a middle-grade “gothic girl power” series, set in Victorian Bristol and featuring 12-year-old Peggy, who as a “whisperling” can speak to the dead, and must use her powers to save her friend, who has been accused of murder.
Agent Megan Carroll
Rights World English (Puffin)
Adam Wins the Internet
First of two “laugh-out-loud” middle-grade novels from the TV presenter and YouTuber about an introverted 12-year-old (Adam) who lives with his single mum and little brother. Adam wants to be popular, but learns that being loved online is really not the most important thing.
Agent James Willis
Rights World English (Bloomsbury)
Incredipedia
A guide book of skills, tricks and hacks that will help you be “cooler, funnier, smarter, happier and more incredible” from the comedian, magician and variety performer.
Agent James Willis
The Angel of Grimsby
A magical coming-of-age middle-grade novel “with hints of Skellig”. Thirteen-year-old Georgie, from Grimsby, is pulled into a supernatural realm—but is it where she truly belongs?
Agent Megan Carroll
The Wylie Agency
Bitter
From National Book Award finalist Emezi comes a companion novel to the critically acclaimed Pet, exploring both the importance and cost of social revolution—and how youth lead the way.
Agent Jacqueline Ko
Rights US (Random House), UK (Faber), Poland (Proszynski)
The Adventures in Time
A non-fiction children’s series from the historian and podcaster: the first five titles are on the Second World War, the wives of Henry VIII, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and the Vikings.
Agent James Pullen
Rights UK (Particular), Germany (Penguin Junior), Hungary (Open Book), Romania (Polirom), China (Beijing Imaginist), Korea (Will Books)
Rene & Glumfoot
An original picture book project from the co-creator of Oscar-nominated Netflix animation “Robin Robin”.
Agent Luke Ingram
The Encyclopaedia of Gardening for Children
An illustrated encyclopaedia of plant history and nomenclature, drawing in the intersections of the plant world with history, race, mythology, colonial appropriation and independence.
Agent Jeffrey Posternak
Rights US (FSG), UK (Picador)
Mama’s Sleeping Scarf
The first original children’s book from the Women’s Prize for Fiction winner, envisioned as a bedtime story to be read to children younger than five years old.
Agent Sarah Chalfant
Rights UK (HarperCollins Children’s), US (Knopf), Canada (Puffin), Nigeria (Narrative Landscape), Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Norway (Gyldendal)
